Elizabeth: A Year Later

Greetings from Elizabeth!

Elizabeth here with an update from the year gone by!

Since I returned from Malaysia one year ago:

I resolved to be less fearful of change. GSE and the Rotary presentations I did afterward brought on a new confidence for me that, professionally, was noticed and commented on by my colleagues at work, and personally, led me to believe that the time was ripe for a major change in my life.

I was offered a job at another national park. After seven years at Oregon Caves National Monument, it seemed that the right job had come along. Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California offered me their newly created GIS Specialist position. 

Lassen Volcanic National Park
Source: National Park Service

I moved from southern Oregon to northern California. This was a big deal. Suddenly, I desperately needed a pair of sunglasses. Sunny California! But also, there were some new things to get used to, such as the nearest gas station is 48 miles away.

I had to flee a wildfire! It seemed like I'd barely gotten settled in when in August lightning started a wildfire that consumed the surrounding forests. From my porch, I watched the fire come nearer every day, until I had to evacuate. Thankfully, my home did not burn down even though the fire burned as nearby as a 1/2 km!

Wildfire approaching my residence in August 2012

Since the wildfire, things have taken a calmer turn. For one, I could move all my stuff back into my house! Then, this fall I took a trip to France, Germany, and the Netherlands to visit and travel with my sister while she studied abroad. During the holidays, I returned to Oregon to catch up with my friends. The turn of the year will find me in California to embark on building up the GIS program at Lassen Volcanic National Park and learning how to ski in the snowy mountains.

Cheers, and best wishes for a happy new year!

Pretending I know how to ski

A Brief Hello!

Hi everyone, Ashley here. I just wanted to say hello and that I can't believe it has been a full year since my GSE teammates, our team leader, and I returned to Oregon from our GSE experience in Malaysia! I'd like to make a "where are they now"-type post soon to share updates about the team, including job promotions or changes, moves, Rotary-related involvement and other exciting news, but for now, I just wanted to share an article that I recently wrote for the District 5110 newsletter. I was supposed to write about the Rotaract club I've been involved in, but couldn't help reminiscing about some fun GSE memories at the same time! The pictures below were not submitted with the article, but I added them here because, well, pictures!! Good-bye for now.

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“What’s with Rotary and cadavers?” I half-joked to myself as my fellow Rotaract team member Taylor Krieg introduced the club to “Bernie,” her assigned cadaver in the University of Oregon’s anatomy lab.

Bernie was my second up-close encounter with a cadaver since last year, when I was led through a medical lab in Malaysia as a member of Rotary’s Group Study Exchange team. One of the other team members, a general practitioner, had been elated for the opportunity to visit a teaching medical school for one of her vocational visits. Though the rest of us had careers in fields that are traditionally cadaver-free, we appreciated being able to share in our teammate’s passion for her profession while catching a glimpse into a field so different from our own that perhaps the only way we would have been able to access it otherwise would be by donating our bodies to science. 

GSE Team Member Dr. Kristi Coleman at a site visit to a cadaver lab in Klang, Malaysia

Similarly, back in the UO lab a year later, the Willamette Valley Rotaract club members felt that same kind of excitement, not necessarily from watching Krieg inflate a human lung like a balloon - although that was really cool! - but from getting to visit her turf and learning a bit of what makes her so passionate about her studies in human physiology and anatomy.

I had never heard of Rotaract before doing the GSE in Malaysia, when, in addition to the many wonderful Rotarians from the host district, our team met several students and young professionals who were actively involved in leadership opportunities and community service projects of their own in affiliation with Rotary. Some Rotaract clubs there even had joint projects with their counterparts in Germany, Thailand, and other places. 

When I returned to Eugene I decided to see if there was Rotaract in my own community. After some Internet sleuthing, I discovered that the UO has its own Rotaract club and joined a meeting. I was excited to see that it was such an active club, whose energetic members were in the midst of several community service, professional development, and fellowship activities already. However, as the only non-UO student at the meeting, I wondered where the other “young professionals” were. Working a full-time job among other commitments, I wasn’t ready to become a Rotarian quite yet, but I still wanted to find opportunities to network with others like me who were relatively new to the working world and eager to make professional connections.

Coincidentally, it was right at this time that Eugene resident Sarah Thorpe was starting to form a community-wide Rotaract club. Thorpe, an alumna of the Rotary Youth Exchange program, was familiar with the concept of Rotaract and approached Rotarians Paul Spain and Steve Wilkinson from the Twin Rivers Rotary Club to advise her on getting a new Rotaract club up and running. Twin Rivers sponsored the fledgeling club, and Spain and Wilkinson have been instrumental in advising the club on everything from the values and history of Rotary to Rotaract by-laws and roles to fundraising strategies, all while empowering the club to make its own decisions and encouraging leadership.

Even before becoming officially chartered this past July, members of the Willamette Valley Rotaract club have been seeking opportunities to put “service above self” in the local community. Over the year, members built a rain garden at Alton Baker Park and beautified the surrounding park space, volunteered at a book sale fundraiser for the Eugene Public Library, directed traffic at the Eugene City Streets event, sold tickets for the Rotary Duck Race, and arranged a site visit for a visiting GSE team to St. Vincent de Paul’s facilities.

 Members of the Willamette Valley Rotaract and GSE team members from Malaysia (some of whom are active Rotaracters themselves) visit the St. Vincent de Paul warehouse where old candles are melted down to be recycled, which served as inspiration for the Rotaract club's end-of-year service project.

In addition to volunteering in the community, club members are eager to network and share career aspirations and experiences. Krieg (and Bernie, to some extent!) was among several presenters for the club’s professional development series, which invites professionals from the community and members from the club itself to talk about their careers or chosen career paths.


One especially notable speaker to present at one of the club meetings was Nancy Hughes, founder of Stove Team International. Nancy, a local Rotarian, explained how a simple rocket stove can help address a major public health issue in many households throughout the developing world where the traditional method of cooking over an open fire inside is used. The highly-efficient “Ecocinas,” which help reduce smoke inhalation and burns while using a fraction of the fuel required for an open fire, are produced and distributed in countries including Guatemala and Honduras through Stove Team International. Amazingly, all it takes is $50 for a family to purchase a safer stove, or $50 to donate a stove to a family who may not otherwise afford it.

It was this revelation that motivated our club’s most recent “Light a Candle, Light a Stove” project to raise funds for Stove Team International. With support from Twin Rivers, the club purchased several blocks of recycled wax from St. Vincent de Paul plus other candle-making supplies. Thorpe and others collected an array of empty glass jars to reuse, and members had a blast melting, pouring, and decorating the festive assortment of candles, to sell at the Eugene Holiday Market. On the first day alone, the club collected enough funds through candle sales and donations to purchase eight stoves! The project was a success and Thorpe hopes it will become an annual club event. 

Members of the Rotaract club fundraising for Stove Team International. At the right, a life-size model of an "Ecocina," or highly-efficient stove, is displayed.

As we head into the new year, our club would like to give a huge thank you to its members, Rotarian advisors, its sponsoring club - Twin Rivers Rotary Club, as well as other Rotarians and members of the community who have supported its projects and initiatives. Our goal is to grow in our membership, both in numbers and in diversity of careers and experiences, so that we can celebrate and share new passions, for both career and service.

Willamette Valley Rotaract is a community-based club in the Eugene/Springfield area of District 5110, sponsored by Twin Rivers Rotary. It meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 6 pm at the Davis restaurant in Eugene. Its Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/willamettevalleyrotaract.

I think the GSE team is getting a bit "Second Homesick" for Malaysia. I hope you enjoy the video, which shows some fun moments during our exchange.

Lessons Learned and Advice for Future GSE Teams

It's good to be home! As Team Sungai unpacks their bags and acclimates to the wonders and woes of returning to Oregon (Yay Mexican food! Fie on chapped lips!), another group of young professionals in District 5110 are already beginning to plan for their Group Study Exchange to Italy this spring. I was only too glad to meet this lively group and share some of the tricks that helped our team make it through relatively unscathed. May we present...

2011 Malaysia Lessons Learned and Advice for Future GSE Teams:



Packing:

• Pack your favorite clothes because you will wear them a lot. 
• If your host family line-dries washed clothes, try to get your laundry washed within the first couple of days you arrive so you don't risk having to pack damp clothes when it's time to leave.

Things to keep in your day pack:

• Bring a small stack of business cards with you everywhere. If you need to follow-up with someone about something, make a note of it on the business card they give you to jog your memory later. A small business card holder can be helpful for collecting cards each day. Including your blog link or Facebook page would be a good idea. 
• Jot down names of people and places or other notes that you may want to write about in a blog post
• Bring a small photo album with pictures of your house/neighborhood/work/family/activities to keep in your bag to aid you when talking about your life at home.
• A small map of the U.S. is helpful for showing where Oregon is in relation to other states.
• Essentials: water bottle, tissues or wetwipes
• Small gifts 

Gifts (giving and receiving) 

• If you think you will have four host families, bring enough gifts for five in case you have an unexpected additional homestay.
• Examples of gifts we brought were colorful maps of Oregon/our hometowns, Oregon puzzles, Oregon calendars, honey sticks, vacuum-sealed salmon (although this was met with puzzled looks), Ansel Adams coffee table book. Smaller gifts for people we met on a whim included pins, pens and freebies from work (especially for vocational visits).
• In your daily travel bag, bring a stash of small gifts to present to people who host/receive you at cultural, vocational, or other kinds of visits. Keep notecards or Oregon postcards handy so you can write brief thank you notes for larger gestures or favors.
• Any room in your suitcase resulting from giving away your gifts will eventually be filled by gifts you receive in return.

Team time:

• The time you have with your team to plan or meet may be limited! When we were pressed for time, we had to discuss team tasks at inopportune times, such as during a walking tour or during a social event. Long bus or train rides were sometimes helpful.
• Determine how each of your team members make decisions with groups. Does someone stand out as a good facilitator? A good note-taker? Someone to keep time? If possible, everyone should keep their mobile phones handy in case your team needs to make a decision when not physically together (e.g. what outfit to wear today, who's bringing the bannerettes, etc.)

Rotary presentations:

• An interesting, creative, and polished presentation that lasts no more than 30 minutes exactly will be appreciated.
• Serious business attire required for Rotary meetings, but nothing Malaysia specific. Skirts to the knees are fine. Black is fine.
• Who will be in charge of finding out about ensuring that a laptop or other equipment will be provided at the meeting?
• Who will bring club bannerettes? Who will bring/distribute team brochures/pamphlets, etc?

Malaysia-specific considerations:

• It will be just as helpful to pick up some Tamil, Cantonese and Mandarin as it will be to learn Bahasa Malay. The same for studying up on the geography and people groups of India and China, so that when you meet Malaysians who say "my family came from such-and-such place," you have some knowledge about that. Also some context for Indian, Chinese, and Malaysian names would be useful- how family names are passed down, etc.
• Slip on shoes are nice to have because you take your shoes off every time you enter a residence, as well as some stores and museums and most temples. On and off all day long.
• Wear cotton!