Sunday, January 29, 2012

An update from Denver from Emmalee Albers!


My name is Emmalee Albers and I am a 4th year at Wartburg, majoring in Business Administration and minor in Psychology. I hope to enter the Human Resources field in the future because I have always been a people person. Talking has always been a strong point for me, and my parents and both of my older brothers would agree with me on that also. Not only am I a people person, I like to think I am also a problem solver. I have always been the person that if friends had a problem, I wanted to help you. That’s where the my career aspirations have come from. I want to help people by making sure their work environment is not only a safe one, but a pleasant one!

During my time here at Wartburg West I am interning at the Denver Public Library system in the Human Resource department in their main branch downtown. A big misconception I have been running into lately when I inform people of my placement is that I want to be a librarian. That is not the case at all, which I briefly discussed before. What people do not realize is the librarians, custodians, clerks, shelvers, security guards and so on, are not only working at the library but are employees of a very large system (over 500 employees I might add). They keep me busy with many projects including planning their annual Employee Recognition event in March, scanning applications of potential employees and helping with many other small projects that keep me busy! Having this internship continues to reiterate that this career path is the right one for me!

We have had some amazing experiences here already in these few short weeks. Bonita and Nelson do a really great job at finding truly eye opening experiences. Just this past week we helped the United Way conduct a city wide census on the homeless population in Denver. We were assigned to an all male shelter and I met some very amazing people. I have to be honest I was quite nervous about having to interview the people, but I am so glad I chose to ignore those nerves and participate. It has been probably one of my favorite memories so far here. It opened my eyes to a whole other world and to people I would have never met. The men were very kind, and learning about their lives and how they got to where they are is remarkable. All judgements were pushed to the side, and it was just two people having a conversation about life about how/why they got in their current situations.

The shelter was run by the Salvation Army and they do some much for so many people that I was not aware of. I always see the Salvation Army volunteers around Christmas time standing outside of department stores ringing their bells for donations, but I never really knew anything past that. Going into this shelter and seeing how many people they are helping and continue to help was very motivating. I instantly started thinking of ways I could contribute to this organization.

These type of learning and personal growth moments I find myself having more and more of since moving to Denver. The experiences here are unforgettable and to say that for only being in the  program for going on 4 weeks now says something about this great program Wartburg offers its students. I cannot wait to see what other experiences and amazing people I will have the privilege of meeting while out here.

Hope all is well back in good old Iowa!! 

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