Greetings from Detroit, Michigan! I was in Detroit this past weekend for a Silver Wings conference and luckily I got a chance to see the city. We were walking around the city one night and stumbled across the set of a movie that was being filmed.
If I remember correctly, they were filming a remake of Red Dawn. The picture is one of me on the set next to one of the tanks that was getting ready to be filmed driving down the street. I thought that was pretty cool to see! One thing I can say about Detroit is that the city has taken a hit since the automobile industry has been struggling; hopefully, the economy will pick back up soon. Silver Wings is a pretty unique organization in the fact that it is run completely by college students and there are some big changes that are coming in order to distinguish ourselves more. In 1998, we changed the culture of our organization and that has allowed us to become sort of lost in who we are. Now, we are trying to find our identity and in order to accomplish that some new things are going to be happening. I’m excited to be part of the staff that is going to implement these changes.
Homecoming was a fun week! I went to the parade with two of my girlfriends and got my picture taken with the Cheerio Bee and the Daytona Beach Cubs mascot. After the parade, I went to the men’s soccer game and it was the most exciting soccer game I’ve ever watched. They ended the game tied one to one and had to go into double overtime. Still no one scored, so they had to do a shootout and in the end Embry-Riddle won.
The College of Business Industry Advisory Board always comes to town during Homecoming Week and what this means is about twenty professionals in the aviation industry come and talk to us students along with some of their other duties. Some of the people include the co-founder of Ryanair, the risk manager at Jet Blue, people who work for Boeing, Lockheed Martin, the FAA, and so many other companies. I was one of the lucky students who were invited to attend a dinner with all of them and I learned so much about being a leader. A tip one man gave a few of us students was make sure you always give your full attention to your boss when he is in your office—don’t answer the phone, be typing on your computer, or surfing the web. They are the only thing that matters for the few moments they are in your office. I was impressed by how much these people wanted to talk to us students and how willing they were to share their knowledge with us. I’m looking forward to when they come back next year!
The Career Expo was pretty neat and some of my friends had interviews for summer internships with Boeing and Continental Airlines. I learned some new things about the U.S. Space and Rocket Center and am hoping to apply to work there for the summer as a camp counselor. Also, through Career Services I found out about some internship possibilities at Southwest Airlines and I applied for those. Hopefully, I will have a new and exciting adventure awaiting me this summer!
Last Wednesday we didn’t have any classes because it was Veteran’s Day, so some friends and I decided to go to the Volusia County Fair. I had a good time riding the Ferris Wheel, eating some fair food, and looking at all of the farm animals. Soon it will be Thanksgiving break and I’m looking forward to not having classes for three days! Speaking of classes, they are going pretty well and we are starting to get ready for finals. Hard to believe that it’s almost that time—I better get studying!
Until next time,
Kaleigh
