Last Week as an Intern

        I find myself lost in a mix of speakers and dinners, left to write a final paper of the overall experience as the Convocation Intern. But how can I talk about an experience that has been so diverse and life changing. I've met so many people and learned so many lessons. I have been looking back at the calendar on my schools website and these blog posts as well as the journal I've been ordered to keep by the internship program. Broad and Crazy are the only two worlds that I can muster to describe this experience. Every week was filled with preparing for a special guest to come, not to mention, my other school work stacking on top of each other, hence the word CRAZY. I found myself running around and making sure students, whom I've decided are not reliable what so ever, show up to the convocation dinners. In terms of BROAD. Ive learned to contact future speakers and weasel my way around paying them a lot, I've been a security officer and the "mean lady at the convos." I, am the mean lady? Because I can't let you leave and ignore the fact that honor code says if you come, you must stay to receive credit. Forunetly, college students are not very smart which is almost ironic and they are not sneaky either. Back to broad, my experiences have lead me to learn a lot of very different things as mentioned previously. Thankfully and sadly, my work here is done and I will not be able to torment the student body until spring roles around again. Meeting people will be put on hold and I will be able to take a breath for only a moment because just as fast as this semester pasted by, the break will too and before I know it ill be back into the whirlwind of my senior year of college.

Student Speeches

          My very last convocation for the semester was the Big Questions convocation set up by the communication studies department. There were 5 students chosen to present the top 4 speeches about “What is Fair.” The first speech was a group of 2 guys who talked about basically the definition of fairness. This was a good speech to start the convocation with but it was not what I thought should be the winner. They were entertaining, had matched clothing, and spoke clearly, intrigued the audience but how did they relate to the rest of the world? This was my question.
         The other speeches were about fairness but in a different way then the first speech. They talked about other countries and fairness and basically focused on what is fair to us but not to them. I think out of all the speeches, the best speech was about the A-bomb dropped in japan during WW2. The speaker gave a clear representation of what we thought was fair as to why the bomb was dropped and what they thought about the fairness of the act, mostly why it wasn’t. I had to leave before it ended so I could drop off the scanner for Dr. Pierson but it was definitely a convocation that I think they should continue.
        Each student who spoke really put their heart and soul into their version of "What is Fair" and got the audience into thinking about what really is fair? After taking in the idea of fairness I wonder myself, do we really have fairness? This is a serious question that is considered during every action we take everyday. Overall asking yourself what is fair and acting fair are very different things because after listening to these speeches, its clear that not everyone have one linear view of fairness.

Katrina Powell

     Katrina Powell is a Professor at Virginia Tech who has become extremely interested in eminent domain. She has written two books about the displacement of people in central Virginia during the depression while the Shenandoah National Park was being founded. She performed qualitative research from a history point of view. In her research, she looked up letters from people who were displaced. They were written to a variety of different people ranging from the man who was the head of the national park project, Mr. Lassiter to President Roosevelt.

     In regards to her research, which was very interesting, I would like to move past it and talk about her passion on the subject. Her research was initially about the Shenandoah Valley and the Shenandoah National Park, but she found herself becoming interested in Sri Lanka's displacement as well. Her passion on the subject has brought her all over the world and changed several people's lives. During her research she interviewed people who were displaced or their parents and grandparents were displaced. Their stories were so interesting and they were stories that she could tell they've been wanting to tell for a very long time.  One man talked about how he couldn't afford to purchase another wire for his garden and it was left in the national park and he was begging Mr. Lassiter to return it to him since they wouldn't need it. He kept repeating that he was cooperative. The idea of being cooperative was very important at the time and was repeated in many of the stories told. I think that this what drew me in initially. Another story told was about how a young woman loved her house. She talked about how it was not a big house or a magnificent house but it was her house and she was proud of her home. She also talked about how she had a little girl and she wasn't sure how she was going to raise her without their little home. She asked for materials to build a new house, soap, and food. Theses stories further drew me in. 

     The people sold their land and were paid only a dollar per acre, had it harder then I can imagine. 

Hotel Rwanda Convocation

         Paul Rusesabagina proved to be exactly what I thought. He was so interesting and told the story of how the movie was made as well as what happened in Rwanda. He talked about how after everything he endured, channels like HBO and Showtime offered him deals to make a movie.  They wanted to make a movie about the genocide and planned on showing the world what had happened in Rwanda. Paul wanted to world to know but he didn't want it to be shown in the way they wanted it shown. He decided that he was going to make a movie that was about more then just the genocide. He wanted to tell a story about how a community can come together and how some people will stand up and fight, even if others are cowering away. He eventually met a man who wanted to make the movie just like he did. Together they raised money, wrote the script and promoted the movie. In 2004, Hotel Rwanda was released and it spread like wild fire. Today, nearly every student in high school and college in America has seen Hotel Rwanda and knows what happened there. Unfortunately, many people in Rwanda do no agree with the way he portrayed the genocide. Therefore, when he comes to speak about the horrible acts committed, they try to yell him off the stage and call him a "liar," among other names.  Their reasons are unknown to me but they are obviously passionate enough to travel very far and protest his speech. I understand that after such a hard situation, there are mixed views of what should be shown and what shouldn't which makes the story even more interesting. I found the way that he spoke as if he was from both views very interesting also. He had an almost "matter of fact" view about him whether it was for one side of the other. In a way, I can state that he was fair to both sides of the fight.
     The night with him was very interesting and I highly suggest watching Hotel Rwanda.

Paul Rusesabagina

   Paul Rusesabagina is coming to our campus on Wednesday. This convocation has been much anticipated because he is such a strong and impressive man. He saved over 1000 people and possibly more then 1500 people. In Rwanda, he was just a simple family man who worked as a hotel manager at a ritzy Portuguese hotel. As war raged around him between the Hutut's and the Tutsi's he was forced to beg, plead and bribe rebels to keep his family and many many others alive.

   I have not met him yet and I cannot give a first person account but I am sure he will be a very inspiring and interesting man.

Denny Miller

    Denny Miller came to campus for the Tarzan Centennial conference this past weekend. He has been working as an actor for many decades and has worked in television shows, movies and commercials. His most popular work was as Tarzan, The Ape Man in 1959. Although I am not familiar with any of his work because he was popular way before I was born, I did enjoy having dinner with him. He told us stories about how he got into acting. He was originally planning on being a basketball coach and then before he knew it he was swept up into the acting world and working on shows like Gilligan's Island and Charlie's Angels.

    He is not only an actor but also has a career in fitness training. He has written many books about ways to stay fit but without being in pain. He has used his career as Tarzan to promote his fitness career.

    Unfortunately, I can't explain how I feel about him because he wasn't an inspiring speaker or teaching us a lesson. He was very interesting but because he hasn't influenced my life at all, I don't feel any connection to the man.

Research Week

        This week all I've been assigned to do is research. We didn't have any special guests this week so we prepared for the guests coming in the next few weeks. This has been the worst week thus far in the internship because I don't like doing the research to figure out who the guest are. I like having them arrive and letting them tell me their story. Ive learned from experience thus far that this is the most interesting way for me and the students who attend the convocations and dinner convocations.
        The first person we have coming is Denny Miller. Denny Miller has been in several television shows and movies for several decades. He has not been in anything lately that my generation would recognize but he was very popular during the 60's and 70's. His most popular jobs have been portraying a lost surfer in Gilligan's Island, an old friend to Carol in The Brandy Bunch, and his character in Charlie's Angels. Many people also know him from his portrayal of Tarzan. Tarzan is the reason he is coming to present to us this upcoming week. One of our professors is a Tarzan nut and has helped to organize the entire convocation. We are expecting several people from the community and not very many students to attend this event.
        We also have Paul Rusesabagina coming. He is the hotel manager portrayed in the movie "Hotel Rwanda." He saved over 1,000 Rwandan people during the Tutsi and Hutu civil war. Both groups of people had resistance groups and shortly after the beginning of the genocide, all countries pulled their support out of the country. His story is a serious tear jerker because he lost family members and friends through out the attacks. Because of the topic of this convocation, we expect to have an overwhelming amount of people from both the community and the school. Hopefully, we will get lucky and have a turnout like we did for Coach Herman Boone.