All Good Things..

I can't believe it is over. Wow, the year flew by. My summit experience has been great. It had its ups and downs, but overall it was great. I really benefited from the classes that help me really learn more about myself and others. For example the colors assessment was great and it made sense when compared to the summit community. One of the greatest things I have learned is that you have to learn to be adaptable. Circumstances and even people change but I need to keep my head in the game and keep truckin'. With the Kitchen, I feel like I have truly made an impact on the Springfield community. The people I met who were often sad and depressed were able to cheer up when being involved in a simple conversation. Being in summit really pushed me to be more active in my community, and I know that without being in summit this year I would probably not have had the great experiences and might not have enjoyed Drury as much as I have. The only thing I might have changed in the summit experience was the Stress Free course. It didn't seemed to be so beneficial, but I do say that it was interesting to see the different types of wellness programs Drury has to offer. My only advice to future summit groups is to always keep a good communication with each other and your advisors.

What a Year

What a year its been in Summit Park. It's been a year of firsts for me, its been the first time I've experienced apartment life, the first time I've worked in a clinic, and the first time I've really spent time working in a field outside my usual interests. If I were to describe my time in Summit park in just one sentence, I would say that it's been an exciting and compelling process from start to finish, where every visit to the Kitchen Clinic provided a new experience, and every Summit Park event provided a new memory - from the yoga classes to the backyard Summit barbecues.

There's many parts of my time at Summit that will stick with me well into the future. For instance, taking time to volunteer to help out the community has become an important part of my schooling, helping me to be more community minded, especially important for my field of study: architecture. The useful tips on everything from budgeting to resumes will stick with me well into professional life, where I hope to be in both a successful career and home life. The greatest impact Summit had on me wasn't so much the volunteering, as the relationships I've gained at the clinic, as well as in our own apartment.

Together, I believe our group has made a lasting impression on our community. Not only did we get to be a friendly face to the many faces of Springfield as they came in for treatment, but we also showed the clinic staff that a new generation was interested in taking action to help out the local community. If it wasn't for living in Summit Park I wouldn't have learned these valuable lessons, leaving me with a purely internal educational focus.

If I could change one thing from this past year, I would seek to spend more time developing a strong resume. I felt almost as if we didn't nearly as much time in development as we could have. Mostly though, I've had a great time in Summit Park, and really wouldn't change much at all. My advice to new incoming Summit Parker's is this, plan ahead to fit volunteer hours into your semester, don't stick to minimums.

May

My summit experience has been busy but very exciting to meet so many new people. My volunteer hours with the Kitchen Clinic will look very good on my resume especially when applying for a position as a Physical Therapist. The experience with working with others in the same house will also be beneficial in the future because I will be staying with people in the future. The greatest thing I learned from summit was living in a house for the first time on my own without parents or family to be on to me about things such as laundry, dishes, cleaning house and time management. It taught me very quickly how to cook for myself, do my own laundry (I know sad, but true. lol), and time management. The biggest impact we have made with the kitchen clinic I would say is the DVDs and Books that we purchased for their lobby which will leave a lasting impact on the place. If I had not been able to do Summit, I most likely would have been living off campus again and most likely would not have met as many people. I also most likely would have been late to several more classes than normal. Another thing is that I would not have had the volunteer hours without doing summit because without the motivation I would most likely have not made the time for it being a student athlete. The only thing I would change about the Summit experience would be the time the class meets once a month. I would prefer it to meet earlier in the day but I know that is hard to do considering many other classes meet during the early parts of the day. I would at least change the day to a Thursday, that way people can still make plans for friday night, or go home or athletes don't have to worry about missing class due to track meets and games on fridays. I would tell future summit groups to make sure they stay in good communication with each member as well as the agency they were associated with.

Variety at the Kitchen

This semester has been extremely busy, both for me as a student, and for the Kitchen and the always occupied waiting rooms. This Spring I've personally had the opportunity to expand my role at the Clinic from just being an "escort" to taking on more administrative type tasks. Honestly, I prefer it that way as I've never been much of a people person (especially sick people). I like to be behind the scenes doing the often tedious tasks like importing packing slips into the computer. So, for me this semester has been an opportunity to learn more about how a clinic works as a synergistic whole. 

In recent times the Kitchen acquired new office furniture for the spring Missouri State students who intern at the facility, giving me the opportunity to bring my "crafting" skills from architecture into a clinic. I say this knowing that I was able to assemble two desks and an office chair before the clinic staff finished one. This was probably my most enjoyable experience at the clinic. Even while being a minor, if not silly, task, I  found that it was just a hair closer to architecture than the usual unpronounceable medical jargon I've come to know there.

The biggest obstacle I've faced in regards to my volunteering at the clinic has just been getting there. I've been so busy with Architecture that I've not been able to make it every week to volunteer. Luckily my largest project finished up at the beginning of the month, giving me a few extra hours a week to volunteer. I've officially began visiting the clinic twice a week to make up for the lost time. I'm just glad the MSU volunteers are in the clinic this semester to make the operation of the clinic easier on the staff.

With the time we have remaining we will have to decide what the best use of our money will be. With pharmaceuticals costing so much, and many other products being provided already it will be a difficult decision to decide what to do for the Kitchen. Whatever we decide, we've definitely made an effort to have at least one of us there every week to provide a little bit of help. 

April

Well so far this month I have not been able to make it in to the kitchen due to track and being that its nearing the end I've had many test and papers pile up on me. As it is still early in the month though, I plan on going in tomorrow (wed.) and Thursday of this week to make up some lost time. So far I assume my duties have not changed. The one project we plan on finishing before the year ends is using our allotted funds to buy the kitchen what we agreed would be a more lasting touch with such a small budget. We agreed that buying them educational movies, magazines would be great, because they are planning on buying a flat screen TV soon so it will work out well. Movies,magazines, and books can be used over and over again unlike if we used the money to buy maybe one thing of medicine. All we need to do is get the list of which ones they would like and then organize a time to go out and purchase them.

Paul

March

This month flew by so fast! I only managed to make it into the kitchen 3 times due to school and track obligations. However this year so far my duties have changed dramatically. I now work the phones and use the computer to enter perscriptions into the database. It is not quite as rewarding as directly working with people, but at least I do still feel of some use. Every time I go in I manage to enter stacks of those perscriptions which I know is a big hassel to the kitchen members so I know they appreciate that. I also managed to get my fellow track team member involved in volunteering there starting this past month and he has done a great job from what I hear. He is a spanish major looking to further his submersion in the language so he has been a lot of help there working as an interpreter, often times by himself so I'm not sure how they managed without him! Overall I think its been a good month.

Paul

March work

I have finally gotten my schedule fixed so I can be back in the clinic! It is a rewarding feeling but it resulted from dropping a class, so the feelings are bittersweet. During my hiatus, I have still been informed about general happenings at the clinic but more than anything its the people I miss that I worked with for the last seven months. I'm excited to see them all soon but first SPRING BREAK!
Ben

Pushing Along

Its been an extremely busy month for me, from the past couple weeks running from 8 AM to 3AM designing in my studio, to squeezing in time in the mornings for volunteering at the Kitchen. Despite the busyness, it's been fun. I'm hoping that I'll continue to find time in this busy semester to keep up a weekly visit to the clinic.

My most recent trip to the Kitchen had me performing "secretarial duties". Being a more behind-the-scenes type person (Gold in color for those that get this), I'm not especially great at making phone calls to patients; however, for my first time I think I did pretty well - especially with the occasional person who hadn't quite mastered the English language (or at least that was my impression). At least it was an opportunity to practice my person to person skills, which is always a good thing.

As spring break looms ahead, I'm hoping to squeeze in a few more hours at the clinic. It's been a fun year so far living and volunteering - even if admittedly I'm not especially interested in the medical field - in Summit Park, and I think as my Architectural design project wraps up before spring break, I'll be able to devote more time to my volunteering.

FebruANY

This month has been great. I was able to be quite useful as I began to pick up on what I can and cannot do. I have now been rooming patients regularly and am beginning to like the real patient interaction. I am also beginning to see more of the personal side of the staff at the clinic. Prior to this month, I had just been one of the volunteers, but now I am beginning to maybe see the staff opening up. We always discuss weekend plans and they show me shortcuts on the work I am doing. It is great getting the support of the staff as I volunteer at the clinic.

Time is Flying

Jon's shot of the Grand Teton's

Time has flown. It's uncanny how it's been five weeks since the beginning of spring semester, and doesn't seem to be showing any signs of slowing down. Hopefully, with the remaining time we have volunteering at the Kitchen Clinic, we will continue to make a difference in the lives of the staff, and the the visitors. While we still haven't officially decided how we will spend our allotted budget, we hope we can provide something to the clinic that will have a lasting effect. I personally don't think it'll be what we spend money on that'll make the largest impact, but how we treat the visitors and the staff. If we can leave knowing that we made a sick patient smile, or showed the value of hard work, maybe it'll rub off on those visitors and instill a need to serve in within them. Giving is always so much greater than receiving.

With a busier schedule than last semester, I haven't had the opportunity to go the Kitchen Clinic personally yet; however, the other members of my group have. My plan is to begin serving beginning next week during some morning free time I have. It'll be nice to get back into the swing of things and let the staff know that I'm still around. Last semester I spent my time as an escort for the patients. In that position, I escorted patients from the waiting room, to the clinic rooms; where I would take their blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. Towards the end of last semester, I had a chance to try my hand at more administrative work, where I checked the voicemails, checked medicare statuses, and general administrative work. From what I've heard, this semester, I'll be doing a variety of both Clinic and office work, which should be a nice switch up. 

Devil's Tower rises 1,267 feet off
the valley floor.

During Summit class, one activity stood out to me, camping. Camping is my all time favorite activity, I can't get enough of being immersed in the outdoors. Last summer, my family took a 5,000 mile camping trip across the upper Midwest, visiting the Badlands, Black Hills, Devils Tower, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons. Over the course of the trip I took 3,000 pictures, and none of them could do justice to the reality that is actually standing in front of the Grand Teton. Camping has always been fun to me, and is definitely going to be my favorite part of the semester. 

Last semester I think I improved my leadership abilities a lot, through both the working at the Kitchen Clinic, and through my Architecture Major. It's a bit intimidating to lead somebody who is often time much older than you to a patient room, and possibly a bit embarrassing to the patient to have a kid taking their vitals. It's those facts that I think forced me to be a stronger leader when directing people into their clinic rooms by showing the respect and care as I did my job. My Architecture major has placed me in a position of leadership, especially when I'm talking to an underclassmen about their design, or working on drawings as apart of a team in my own studio. I'm not really sure how I'll adapt my abilities for my own Summit Park group yet, but I think it'll become clear very soon as we progress further into the semester.

So far, this semester has been great. I've enjoyed working on my Architecture projects, had fun in our Summit class meetings, and I'm looking forward to starting my volunteer work next week at the clinic. Before I know it, the semester will be over and I'll be looking at a new year at Drury, and maybe with any luck we'll keep making a difference at the clinic.

Put my straw in your milkshake.

OK, I'll admit that the catchy title of this post has nothing to do with our work at the Kitchen Clinic. Its from the movie There Will be Blood and I found myself watching it the other morning (at about 5am) and that line caught me off guard and has been on my mind ever since.
         This semester at the clinic, I would like for us as a group to be able to clock more hours than all other groups and be the top 4 hour accumulators for the spring semester. A little time on top never hurts and the clinic is a deserving place for us to give our time to.
          The greatest experience  I had at the clinic recently was my adventure to the basement, where I might have gotten slightly lost and been down there for about 20 minutes walking in circles trying to find the stairs. Its a scary basement in case you were wondering.
           As I always seem to say, time is the greatest challenge for me to be at the clinic. Class from 9-5 daily is a bit of a hamper on getting to go to the clinic and work, but dropping a class seems to have helped.
           As for the Summit class, I'm rather excited for the 24 hour "Amish" experience/ technology fast. It sounds like a code phrase for get out to Arkansas and go camping or back to the Heifer ranch. I wouldn't mind either so its all good.
            This last semester with Summit has made me a stronger person as a time budgeter. I also have started to also try to and sleep daily. As a leader, I have honed my delegation skills so I can now have others do all the work while I supervise (MODOT style). Just kidding.
Ben

Stepping Up

This semester has already has had a interesting but better start. It was a little rough in the beginning with the weather storm preventing us from going to the clinic. However, as the weather cleared, I was able to make to the clinic. Not a whole lot had changed over the winter break. So it was great to get back into the flow of things. I started doing my normal routine of entering received medications. As I was working, one of the doctors asked if I had heard a heart with a mechanical valve. Having never heard one, I was curious to hear it. It was really awesome to hear the swoosh sound heard by the valve. After that experience, the nurses asked me if I had roomed a patients. They were surprised to see that I hadn't roomed a patient. It was what I have been waiting for. Under the supervision of another volunteer, I got to room my first patient. I am excited to see what this semester will have in store.

January-February

So far this semester as individuals and as a group we have mainly been focused on readjusting to our new schedules. In particular, I've taken time to warm up to my new class schedule as well as my new and interfering track schedule. I am now in season for track so I know its going to be slightly more difficult to find time to make it to summit class but I've been working around it in one way or another. So its definitely been a slow warm up to the totally different schedule. I've made it to the Kitchen Clinic only once so far just this week but in my one time I did manage to accomplish a lot with figuring out how to use our budget which is great being that I'm in charge of that in our group. Although we took a long time off this semester as a group from the volunteering, we still have a lot of time to make a difference and I'm very confident we will.

The one thing I would say I look forward to the most this semester with the summit class will be the upcoming camping trip. I don't know if I'll be able to make it because of track but if I can that will be very exciting. I love camping, my family and I go camping a lot all throughout the year. Camping is always a good way to get to know people better.

Based on my experiences with the Summit leadership community I would say the most influential thing that this experience has given me is better people skills through working with the summit community activities and our volunteer work at the Kitchen. It has opened my eyes to working with a large variety of people from many backgrounds which will be awesome for me in my future career as a Physical Therapist. I plan to use what I've learned in my future career and on the track as an athlete to help better my team.

Paul

Semester in Review by Jon George

Well I am finally moving up. I started volunteering by taking down messages left on the voice machine. I have now been able to enter prescription arrivals in the computer. Though it is still not patient interaction, I am hoping that it will slowly happen. I think one of the reasons that it will change next semester is my schedule change. I was volunteering along with other MSU nurses and pre-med volunteer students. So work may have been very limited. I will also be working more hours since all of us have all the paper work done. Next semester looks very hopeful.

For the most part the duties at the Kitchen have been pretty steady this month. Nothing major has changed since I began this semester. I roomed patients and filled out paper work for various perscriptions and that has been the just of my day every time I go in.

My best experiences so far with the Kitchen have been the encounters with the all the people from many different walks of life. I've enjoyed working with these people and hopefully being a positive influence on them. It gives you a sense of purpose you know. The toughest experience I've had so far has been scheduling a regular time to get in to the clinic to help. I've had a lot of homework, projects and test this month since its the end of the semester, and a track meet to top it off with lots of practice so its been hard working around those things to make it in steady this month. 

I feel like our project with the Kitchen will for the most part stay the same next semester. The only things that should change is us fixing the problems of last semester. We'll have better communication between each other and the Kitchen hopefully. We will also hopefully be doing a lot of good with out alloted funds next semester. Otherwise though I think we'll continue to do what were doing, going in and providing them with as much help as we can outside of our busy schedules. Us being there to help goes a long ways with a small stressed out staff.

I've gained better people skills from this experience so far with our project, being that I must work directly with people every time I go in. That will go a long ways for me too, because I plan to become a physical therapist so I'll need to be good with people. I've used it to learn how to interact with people so that they feel comfortable. I also gained some experience living with the three other people in my group. Its helped me to learn how to work around conflict with others outside of just my family. Although my brother is one of those people I still have two others that I've never been with so its been good to develop experience living and working with others. That will help me in the future.

I really enjoyed the experience and introductions to the various stress relieving type strategies. Some were strange to me and I probably won't get involved in them in the future but aside from that still fun and I went in with an open mind and took from it what I could. I think most would agree that the message was their favorite out of all of the experiences. As far as the program on the computer goes, well I'll be honest, I didn't have much time to commit to those exercises. I tried a few times but it was very hit and miss. It more stressed me out than doing what it's supposed to do, just because it just added on to the already mountain of things I had to do every day. In the future I would probably suggest not including that or at least just making it optional so there is still that important exposure that the program was going for. Overall though the whole experience was fun and interesting and I would likely do it again. 

Over break I'm looking forward to just relaxing and enjoying time with family and friends. If you mean after break, then I'm looking forward to starting out a strong semester both academically and in the volunteer field. I hope that as a group we can start out strong having fixed our previous issues. I'm also looking forward to a very exciting season in Track. 

Paul

December update

            This past month there havent been any special events at the clinic besides normal operation. I have gotten to spend more time doing pharmacy tech work and I really like it. It's tedious but needs to be done and I am getting good at it.
             With the semester ending is a week, I can look back and say that the best experience from the clinic is being able to observe how the clinic operates as a whole between the nurses, doctors,and the front office. The most trying experience was getting ready to work at the clinic (lets face it, no one likes HIPPA)
              In the spring we will be able to hit the ground running and start back staffing at the clinic as soon as possible. We all have our classes scheduled already and that is in order.
              As a result of being in Summit, I feel that I am becoming a better communicator. With all the presentations we do, I have started to become more comfortable with it.
             Stress Free Now was a pain in the butt all semester. It was a good program, but I just don't have the time to devote to it so I get the full effect. I do however, like the tai-chi and yoga classes.
             The thing I am looking forward to winter break most for is getting to sleep. I normally am up till 3AM and I have a class at 8AM so its been tough.
Ben

An interesting day at the Clinic

Today started out just like any other day of volunteering at the clinic. I did a few charts, escorted several patients, and did my fair share of playing games on my iPod in between. Then of course I escorted a patient who, shortly after I had left the room to allow the Doctor to go in, began showing signs of a heart attack. So, what was a regular day turned into sirens, stretchers, and oxygen tanks.

Other than that instance though, everything has gone smoothly at the Kitchen Clinic. We really haven't had any official events, only busy days of escorting patients and taking the load off the staff. Even without any events or parties at the Clinic to attend, I've had a good time, the staff is friendly, the job is simple, and I think our group as a whole has been a lot of help. Being in Architecture has definitely made it a bit harder, namely because of the late nights, (or should I say mornings?) and having to get up early for volunteering in the morning (9 am is early :-P). Over all, this semester has gone very well at the clinic, with only one "scary" moment today with the heart attack.

In the coming semester, I think we'll be able to beat our record this semester of 72 hours of service, if only because we'll be starting sooner. I learned a lot this semester about the medical field, far more than I would have had I not volunteered at the kitchen, including not using a red pen on patient charts. I could also say that I've grown more accustomed to working with a wide variety of people through my volunteering experiences.

As far as our Summit Park classes go, I've enjoyed the various "stress free" activities we've been able to take part in, namely the massages (tough homework to be sure :-P). The only activity I haven't especially enjoyed are the recordings we've had to listen to daily; which I've typically downloaded as podcasts. I have found Dr. Morledge's tips and writings interesting, however, as well as useful for making decisions related to health. As far as suggesting improvements, I think the online activities could use some improvement to make them more useful to the users - maybe something other than recordings. Overall I have enjoyed the pilot Stress Free Now program.

Now that nearly all but two of my Finals are out of the way, I'm looking forward to a long winter break. Being a bit of a "homebody" I don't see myself doing anything too exciting, just enjoying the time off - and maybe watching the snow fall outside.

Moving on Up...

I have had quite an interesting time working as a volunteer at the Clinic, especially this last week. The computers were down both the days I volunteered. This inconvenience really revealed how much we rely on computers. A doctor was unable to show due to an injury, which sometimes happens. Instead of contacting the patients to tell them that there appointment was rescheduled, the nurses were unable to get the phone numbers or know which patients were scheduled. So patients came in, only to realize that their appointment was rescheduled. They were not the only ones facing trouble with the clinic. At first, I felt that I was not very important, just only listening to voicemails left by patients. To change this, I started looking for work as opposed to asking for work. This was when I started moving up and feeling like I was having a greater impact at the Clinic.

Jon's thoughts

Today was my third official day in the clinic. My job was to escort patients into the various patient rooms in the clinic wing. In total I escorted around 10 people. It's always interesting to meet different people in the clinic - most of which are going through a rough patch, or are just plain sick. Oddly, it seems as if I escort more people than anyone else in our group, as Friday is the most popular day to go to schedule an appointment!

The Clinic relies heavily on our Summit Group, and others to make it through the week. In order for them to continue to provide healthcare for free, or at a very reduced cost, they need all the volunteers they can get. So, if one of us isn't able to come, it definitely gives the rest of the staff a busier workday. I'm sure that having younger (or at least different) faces as escorts can be somewhat nice for patients as well.

So far, this year has gone very well. My group gets along very well with each other making living arrangements easy, and thanks to my mom's famous cookie recipe (we learned to cook), we're eating all of our essential food groups (sugar, brown sugar, butter, and chocolate). Many of us have classes with other Summit Park members, helping us to be a closer community - and of course the socials help too.

The health and wellness program has been an interesting experience for me. I've never been a yoga going tai chi loving person, so to try something new has been a change. I'm not a particularly stressed out person, so StressFree now has been more of an extra boost to my week. It's been interesting learning the various relaxation techniques in the online "sound tracks".

Overall, it's been a successful month for Summit and Kitchen for our group. Being towards the end of the semester, it's definitely busier, but not in a bad way. As an Architecture student, its the very last projects that are the most exciting, so the extra work is worth it.

Busy positive November

Well I've finally got some hours under my belt at the Kitchen Clinic. For the most part everything is the same everyday for me. I go in and ask what needs to be done and I'm either entering medications into the system as received by the Clinic or I'm seeing patients. I usually see between four and ten patients in the two hour period that I'm there. Its been very interesting meeting so many different people from so many different lifestyles. Its really been a reality check for me. When you think you have it hard, theres always someone else out there that has it that much harder. I enjoy getting to hear all their stories weather positive of negative, that they bring to me while I'm seeing them. Some of them will talk your ear off and others just want to get down to business but either way its always an interesting experience. I feel like doing this gives me a chance to impact the lives of these people on a personal level. Many if not most sadly tell me negative/sad things going on in their lives and I try to do my best to encourage them to hang in there. I want to be as positive as I can for them and show them that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I hope to bring a more positive experience at the kitchen for them and help them to feel more comfortable in a doctors office by opening up positive conversations with them. I  have encountered little to no struggles so far with the Clinic over the semester. The only struggle with the clinic I've had so far was during the beginning when I was still learning how things worked. At the start I didn't quite have down how to write things out on the forms and what questions to ask the patients and how to ask the questions properly but as the semester moved on I have learned how to do things more and more smoothly. At this point I'm getting to wear I know where things are and what to fill out and how to fill it out as well as what to ask the patients. Now I'm able to move past that a step further like I mentioned above and open up friendly conversations with the patients now that I'm comfortable with the business part of it. My experience with my roommates has been a very positive one. We all are very good about sharing everything and everyone has been very respectful of each others things. We haven't had to deal with any issues of any real significance. I look forward to next semester with them. The Stress Free and Wellness experience has been overall a very interesting one. Its been busy to make it to all of the events as a student athlete but I've managed to pull it off. Its been fun using  these experience to interact with the rest of the summit community being that we see them at these events. It makes it more fun with more people. Its also been interesting learning about all these different stress techniques. I didn't know what Tai Chi and Yoga consisted of before this. Overall its been a great experience though.