life’s not a paragraph

spring break is here and i am SO EXCITED!

these last two weeks have required a bit of extra energy. the last weeks before break (aka midterm time) usually consist of a few things:
– lost of late nights. too much coffee. not enough sleep.
– tests. projects. papers. q&a’s. lots and lots of homework.
– little to no social life
– very poor eating habits

this semester has been tough since the beginning, so it only makes sense that midterms attempt to kick my butt and force me to drop out. i managed to beat them though, coffee in one hand and a barely charged computer in the other! it feels so good to be done, even if its just for ten days. my brain needs a big ol’ honkin’ week of minimal to no creative thought.

its perfect, then, that i am going to athens, georgia to spend my week off doing manual labor. a spring break just the way i like it– helping people. all of mine and andrew’s hard work this year is finally starting to sound worth it. the more details i get, the more excited i am! and now i am one day away and i cannot wait to catch my 6:20 am (yes thats AM) flight to hotlanta. i am so ready for another dose of southern hospitality and old fashioned grits. i have no idea what i am getting myself into. this could be incredible, this could be awful (i’m mostly sure it’s going to be incredible), but who knows?! i am in need of an adventure like this. i’ll be sure to tell you all about it when i get back. 🙂

so like i said in my last post (see below) i went to a conference this past weekend about real food and getting healthy fresh foods into our community.

it was pretty awesome! there were hundreds of kids there from high schools and colleges all around the northeast. it was really great for me, personally, to see so many people my age who are passionate about healthy food. sometimes i feel like i am the only one who really cares about the food industry so it was really great to be a part of a group i could immediately connect with. i met some really interesting people there. there was a girl from new york university who started her own csa (community supported agriculture– which is typically a group of people that invest in a local farm and receive the crops that the farm grows so supporting a farm/local business and keeping money within the local economy). i also met a group of college and high school kids from philadelphia who work to make their communities more healthy. and i am sure there were tons of other great amazing people there who i didn’t get to talk with.

saturday was comprised of a series of workshops. the three of us who were representing suffolk attended three workshops about corner stores, equal exchange, and oxfam america.

i had never really thought of corner stores as a place to make change but two high schools girls from the bowdion st health center gave a presentation about how important corner stores are to urban communities and how important it is to get them to offer fresh fruits and vegetables. they collected research from around their communities and have already helped change a few stores in their area. they work with students in east boston and mattapan as well to brainstorm and create a healthier boston.

equal exchange is a company that you may have seen on grocery store shelves. they produce coffee, tea, chocolate and bananas which are all fair trade and most times, organic. they’re a co-op or a cooperative (check out what co-ops are here) based out of west bridgewater ma! they’ve been around since the 80s and the two women who talked to us about their company had some pretty incredible things to tell us (did you know that there is only one species of banana strong enough to be exported? and its only grown in four countries in the world!). it was really interesting to hear about how their company works and how they work with farmers and communities around the world. i was really impressed by the discussion we had as a group. i am definitely going to start buying more of their products because not only are they a great company, they’re also local!

the last workshop i went to was for oxfam america, which is a non-profit organization which works to help hungry, impoverished and exploited people around the world. the workshop mainly consisted of a discussion about the causes and possible solutions of world hunger. it was a cool exercise because world hunger is such a massive issue that it is hard to wrap your mind around it sometimes. i would’ve liked to know more about what oxfam does because i don’t know much about their programs but all it all it was a really interesting session.

so as you can tell, the conference was packed with fascinating information and lots of interesting discussions. i am really happy that i got to take part in it. hopefully i will be able to next year as well!

this weekend i am going to be participating in this year’s northeast real food challenge summit. it’s being held at northeastern university this year and i am SO EXCITED! food is kind of a hot button issue for me. food and food politics are two things that i happen to be very passionate about.

rfc is the perfect place for a girl like me! its a conference of different universities from all over the northeast (universities from as far away as maryland are coming i have heard!) we are going to hear from local students who are making a difference in their communities and then participate in a bunch of workshops that focus on many different issues in the food world.

this might sound like a waste of precious free time to some of you and that’s fine. but i know that the my choices create a ripple effect, and they affect many more people that i could possibly imagine. real food challenge is an effort to motivate students to change the way that their universities handle food. for example, by making a switch to serve more locally grown products. there have been major changes at universities all over the country already!

sodexo, the company that runs suffolk’s kitchens, has recently decided to make meatless mondays a national event at all of their locations. the change over will start next school year. i know that a lot of people are going to be unhappy, but this small change, sacrificing meat for one day, will be so effective. it will be so beneficial to our environment and our health!

bah, ok enough from me! i am sure, though, that this experience is going to be amazing! i’ll be sure to blog about it next week! 🙂

ps. check out real food challenge at realfoodchallenge.org

on friday i went to worcester to visit my high school friends. my friend val goes to worcester polytechnic institute and every year we have a weekend when all our friends come down for the weekend. we’ve actually been friends since freshman year and we were all on the same volleyball team. now we all go to different universities, so only get to see each other a few times a year.

tkvba is an acronym for our names (if you didn’t figure that out already). t is for tina. she goes to university of maine. k is for me. and obviously, i got to suffolk university. v is for val. and you already know she goes to wpi. b is for bonni who goes to st micheal’s.  and a is for alyssa who goes to university of new england. like i said, each one of us goes to a different university. we practically represent new england.

anyways, i always really love seeing them because no matter how much time passes we are still so close. it’s almost like we’re back on the freshman volleyball team again…. sans spandex. haha i was always really worried that i wouldn’t be able to remain friends with people from high school, but it’s kind of crazy how close of a bond we all have. it’s really unfortunate that we can’t see each other all the time, but the separation makes the time we do get to spend together all the more awesome! i was sooo excited to get to worcester on friday, i could barely contain it. unfortunately i could only stay one night because of the ridiculous amount of homework i have this weekend, but i had a really great time while i was there. i am hoping that this summer we can have more!

i don’t think i have talked about this aspect of my life enough on this blog.

I LOVE TO COOK. i really really love to cook. new recipes are exciting. i got a new cookbook for christmas (veganomicon by isa chandra moskowitz and terry hope romeo– it’s great!) and i went through the entire thing and put sticky notes on all the recipes i’d like to try! that sounds a little obsessive but all the recipes i have tried so far have been amazing!

lately i have been a little lazy on the cooking front. i really need to pick up my game. my roommate and i have been thinking about creating a cooking blog. we both love good food, and we both love making good food. so i guess it would make sense that we should document it right?

unfortunately neither of us have the time to spend on a blog. maybe i’ll make it a summer project. it would be fun to experiment with different vegetables and grains. there are so many different types! the possibilities are endless! i’ll keep you posted if we end up making one!

we are doing a semester-long (and may i say, fairly intense) project in my advanced computer applications class. i think it may be a little hard to explain, but i am going to try.

our first step was to choose a time period. it obviously had to be an era that we were really interested in– we are going to be spending four months on it after all. i chose the american industrial revolution, more specifically the textile mills in new england during the first half of the nineteenth century. we visited the textile mill museum in lowell, ma when i was in sixth grade and it really made an impression on me. plus i read that dear america book (do you remember those books? they were awesome!) about the irish mill girl around the same time so it has always been an era that i particularly connect to.

step two is to create a narrative. we are essentially going to assume the identity of this person we create. this past weekend i wrote a research paper about my time period so that we become experts. i am sure that the longer this project goes on, the more i am going to learn, but for now, i have a really good idea of the events and influential people  of the era. we have to get really detailed. (my professor joked that we even needed to have a social security number haha) i have decided to become a young girl from a farming family in new hampshire who becomes involved with sarah bagley and the union-run movement for a ten hour work day (they used to work fourteen hours a day!) i still need to flesh out all the details… that’s my homework for the weekend.

once i have my persona and my story, i have to come up with artifacts. yes, actual physical artifacts. we have to have ten or so. with these articles, we are essentially going to create a museum exhibit about our person and our story. then the last step is to create a booklet about our exhibit and the story. it’s going to have photos of the artifacts, descriptions, and the story.

essentially, this semester we are acting as a historical figure, a museum curator, and a graphic designer. like i said, intense. i am really exited because it’s going to be really amazing at the end. but the road to get there is going to be rocky. this is going to be hard, but i really think i am going to learn a lot, which is the point. hopefully, i am going to come up with something incredible for my portfolio too!

i think i may have mentioned this before, but i am not quite sure so i’ll explain it again. part of my work study this year is working with molly (our front desk coordinator and resident photographer!) and courtney, another student, on the nesad green team. clever name right? here at suffolk, and now the new england school of art and design, we are trying to become a sustainable university.

this is a subject near and dear to my heart. i personally try to live as sustainable a life as possible. i eat low on the food chain (lots of veggies and grains. no meat), i recycle (well my building doesn’t have recycling so i save it up and then give it to my parents to bring home to recycle haha), i walk practically everywhere (i’m logging 2 to 4 miles a day), and i research what i buy before i buy it (i find out the company’s values, research the chemicals in the product, etc). i am hardly perfect. money is a limiting factor, but i think i do pretty well for myself. i think that my carbon footprint is pretty light. whenever i can change something in my life to make it better, i try to do so.

so now at school, i am trying to change a lot of things. unfortunately, nesad isn’t very sustainable. it’s a bit more difficult at an art school than a regular university. it’s not impossible, but it takes a lot more work to change peoples habits. the biggest issue is paper. last year we used enough paper to cover 89% of the base of the great pyramid at giza. that’s 529,152 sq feet! do you have any idea of how much that is? take a look at a picture of the great pyramid and you get it. obviously, we’d love to reduce that amount, but the problem is we have to use paper. for projects, for sketches, for tests. paper is essential to our majors. we can certainly reduce the amount of paper we use (there’s always a stack of wasted paper by the printers), but we can never eliminate it all together.

in order to help with our paper issues, we are going to hold a better printing practices workshop for students so that they can learn how to print better and more efficiently. i think this is something that will help us over all because it won’t only save paper but ink as well, meaning more $$$ in nesad’s pockets to do cool other things (like get us food! hehe).

we are also working on a ton of other initiatives like getting nesad reusable water bottles, making signage to stop people from pouring paint and other toxic stuff down the drain, holding recycling audits to tell students what they need to do better, and sending out a monthly email bulletin to inform faculty and students about what we are doing and what is going on in the sustainable world around them. i am really excited that i get to be apart of this. i’m hoping that this is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship between nesad and the environment.

here’s our link: nesad green team

so i’m pretty sure that i have written about this year’s asb (alternative spring break) before, but just as a refresher i am one of the leaders of the trip to georgia this year! yay! we are going to athens, georgia to work on a housing complex. suffolk’s process (compared to the few other college programs that i know) is pretty in depth. there’s an application and an interview and then the leaders have to select people to go on each trip.

last year i was just a participant. there were four trips and i was chosen to go to meridian, mississippi. the trip was a life changing experience for me, so i decided to apply to be a trip leader. i am really glad that i decided to apply (i was on the fence for awhile) because i have already gotten a lot out of it. yes, it’s been quite a bit of work. organizing and preparing yourself to lead a bunch of students just like yourself is difficult, but we have already had two full meetings and i think it’s going to be an amazing trip.

this year there are eight trips going all over the country (yup, we doubled the number of trips in one year!), and i have heard from everyone that they are super excited as well. my roommate is also a trip leader and i got to sit in on her group meeting the other day. since my trip is working with habitat for humanity and hers is going to virginia to work on environmental issues, the focus of our group meetings is different. i was really glad i had the extra time to stand in and watch the dynamics of her group. it was so interesting because the way our groups interacted was so distinct. i can’t really give you bullet points about the differences, but i think it was just the feeling of the group that made me notice. it’s fascinating to watch who takes more of a vocal role in group activities and what personalities become more pronounced in group settings. we’ve just started to do activities and icebreakers that are going to test some students’ limits since they are all going to deal with sensitive issues. we emphasize the need for respect and acceptance before every meeting, but i am a little afraid that someone will get offended. it’s better, though, to get the issues out of the way now before we get to georgia!

today is my first snow day in college. i don’t know where you live but new england has gotten pummeled with snow this year. it takes a lot for suffolk to cancel, but i guess yesterday and today’s combination of snow and freezing rain was enough. i am just excited that i got to sleep in and i have all day for some much needed homework catch up.

this day off really couldn’t have come at a better time. i’ve been having a bit of difficulty with time management this semester so i am a bit behind. haha it’s not all my fault. i’ve gotten a lot more work this semester than i thought i would. i have a few really big projects for my graphic design classes. since we are just at the beginning, there’s so much thinking to do.

you are saying to yourself, “really, kaela? you’re complaining about thinking?” and my response to you is “yes, i am”. thinking up ideas is a lot harder than it sounds. brainstorming is a time consuming process. especially when you have to come up with multiple ideas and sketches. i find it harder than thinking up a paper topic or anything else i’ve ever done. let me give you an example so i don’t sound ridiculous.

my first project in my graphic design II class this semester is about a non-profit. we had to find, select and research a non-profit. once we had made a selection, we had to make up a fund raising event for the organization. now we have to design the invitations, decide who is getting invited and the format. not to mention, this all has to be sustainable, which means that all of our invitations have to have a second life after their primary use as an invite. i’ve never planned an event before, nor have i ever worked with a non-profit. i don’t know how all these invitation things work. i’m usually at the receiving end. see what i mean now? lots and lots of thinking!

one woman is doing a yoga non-profit, so she is going to hold a yoga-thon and the invites with be bandanas that they can wear at the event. another girl is doing a great american bake sale so she is sending out cupcake papers with the invite to use when they bake for the event. i chose the non-profit the FEED projects (check them out at feedprojects.com) which sells bags (you might’ve seen them at Whole Foods, the Gap or Lord and Taylor) to raise money to provide nourishing lunches for school children across the globe. i haven’t quite figured out my invitation yet. originally i was going to create an additional small drawstring bag that would be the “invitation bag” with all the event info, but my professor thought it would be a good idea to create a pin to attach to their FEED bags. i have to do a little more thinking about it. good thing i have this snow day! 🙂

i’m back! and it’s a new semester filled with exciting graphic design things! it’s been a little crazy these first two weeks with all the snow. delays, cancellations, messy commutes. this winter is proving to be much worse than the last. thankfully, all this is a motivation to stay indoors and get some work done… whether that work actually gets done is another story.

i am taking five classes again this semester. three studio classes and two classes at the main campus. at the new england school of art and design i am taking computer typography, graphic design II and advanced computer applications. i am also taking history of contemporary art and latin american history and culture up on the hill. so far, at least, it have been a really nice balance between traditional school work and art work. last semester i was at nesad practically 24/7 so it’s kind of nice to get outside, walk to the hill and use a different part of my brain for awhile.

the past couple semesters i’ve had a art history class at the same time that i am in studio art classes. this is going to sound a bit cheesy but it’s inspiring to see all this amazing work while i am trying to create my own masterpieces. all this work from the past (in this semester’s case) fifty years and the transitions between movements are incredible. it makes me wonder what is going to happen in my lifetime. what are art students in fifty years going to be looking at in their contemporary art textbooks? (wouldn’t it be exciting if i were in it?!) with all this new information i am learning, i can now pull from my knowledge of francis bacon and andy warhol to inspire my own work. i can see what is successful in their pieces, whether it is color, composition or subject matter and take elements to create a totally new, (hopefully) innovative design.

i’ve always liked history, and i have always been one of those people who believes that you can learn from the past. history is always relevant even if it doesn’t seem like it at the time. obviously, the connection between my contemporary art class and my studio classes has already been established, so the inspiration comes naturally. in reality, you can be inspired by anything, but for once it is nice to see that connection and to know that the next light bulb moment will most likely come from another class.