Team Formation

I feel like I'm finally starting to get a good handle on what the people on my team are like, so I wanted to give a brief introduction to the nine people I'm going to be spending the significant majority of my time with for the next year. I'm going to try to get photos/video up soon so everyone can attach faces to names. The ten of us that make up Blue 3 (or Blü3, as I've taken to writing it) are:

Melissa is our fearless team leader, also known as 'mom' or 'boss'. Melissa has her masters degree in social work and hails from New Jersey. She's pretty low key but still has the energy to lead our team, and definitely has the New England sarcastic sense of humor. She's a bit older than the rest of us, but can still operate on our level.

Aine (pronounced Anya) is also from New York, although just north of the city (Westchester is definitely not upstate, despite everyone's opinion otherwise). She's funny and laid back. Her degree is in architecture, although she's not sure she wants to do that kind of work. Aine's role on our team is service learning initiator.

Emily is one of our two youngins, straight out of high school, but fits well with the older members of our team. She's quick witted and has a funny, sarcastic sense of humor, which is boosted by her somewhat monotone way of speaking (which she occasionally gets jokingly teased about). She's trying to figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life while in Americorps, which is no small undertaking. She's our physical training coordinator.

Scott is really chill and relaxed, the kind of guy you can easily sit down and watch football with. He has a degree in communications and wants to work as a sports writer. I'm sharing a room with him and a guy from another team for the rest of the year. Scott is our project outreach liason.

Fayanna is pretty intense about being here. She's already been trying to schedule several independent service projects and seems to feel like she needs to prove her worth here. Still, she's generally pretty friendly and has a really diverse taste in music (I've never met anyone my generation that claimed the 40s as their favorite musical decade before). She was home schooled all through high school, and I think she's had to do a lot of adjusting since she got here. Fayanna has half of the roles of corps representative and photojournalist.

Steve is energetic and really funny (and was voted by our team to be most likely to wear nothing under his jumpsuit). He also likes comics, including Transmetropolitan and Watchmen (two of my favorites), and all kinds of beer. We've got plans to go brewery hopping in Sacramento next weekend before we leave for our first project. Steve is our media representative.

Cassie has her degree in psychology and is from Kentucky. She's really quiet and generally prefers to sit back and watch everyone, which makes the slight twang of her accent a little unexpected. She's pretty smart, and will happily talk with anyone that engages her directly. She's the first peer helper on our team.

Mike is from the glorious state of Texas, although you probably wouldn't be able to tell it from talking to him. He's into a lot of the more obscure things on the Internet (He quoted back random Homestarrunner lines when I once yelled "Hey, Steve!"). I think he's still figuring out how he really fits into our team, but I imagine he'll find his niche soon. He's our vehicle, safety, and tools coordinator.

Megan almost fits the Southern Cali girl stereotype at first glance, but is really friendly and enthusiastic about helping people. She's definitely one of the most outgoing people on our team, which is really cool. She's also straight out of high school and, like Emily, is working on figuring out exactly what she wants to do with herself after Americorps. Megan is our other corps ambassador/photojournalist

And I'm the last member of our team. I don't really know what I can say about myself, aside from the fact that I'm serving as our team's second peer helper. It'll be my job (along with Cassie) to keep the peace and make sure everyone's getting along well.

Our first project is going to be in Los Angeles, mentoring at risk high school kids. We're going to be living in South Central in a house attached to a Methodist church, so it'll definitely be a shift from my normal living arrangements. I'm excited for the opportunity to experience a new lifestyle, even if there's a bit of danger associated with being in that area. I've had some experience through FIRST robotics mentoring inner city kids before, but I think this program will require a whole new level of effort.

Last Friday we, along with three other teams from blue and gold unit, spent the day removing giant reeds from near a waterway in a suburb outside of Sacramento. All morning I got to work with loppers cutting down these reeds, which were like bamboo but a little smaller and not as tough. Some of them were easily 20 feet long, which was really fun when we were all cutting and they were falling around (and occasionally on) us. Once the reeds were cut the project sponsor came around with a herbicide that would hopefully be absorbed into the roots to ensure that they didn't grow back. It was good hard work, which felt really rewarding. We managed to get the whole project done and hour faster than the sponsor thought we would, which made me feel really good about our work together.