Hello Friends, Family, Wartburg Staff and faculty, professors, and all others!
Greetings from Denver! My name is Amanda and I am a fourth year business major with a marketing concentration and leadership minor. While at Wartburg West, I am interning with the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Denver at their Program Support Center.
It has been a week since we arrived in Denver, and I have to say, I may never leave. We have been completely immersed in the city since Day 1. Last Thursday, we all met at the church up the street to learn about everyone’s placements and broke into groups (education majors, social workers, and interns) before heading downtown on the bus. For some people, it was the first time using public transportation and for the majority of people, the first time using it in Denver. We headed down to the bus station to get a quick lesson in the RTD system and to buy January transportation passes for those of us who need them. We also managed to hit up the visitor’s center on the 16th street pedestrian mall before heading to lunch at the Bock’s house followed by a introduction to city living. That night, we were on our own to hang out. My roommate and I met up with a friend from Wartburg and headed to an Avalanche (hockey) game downtown and had a BLAST.
On Friday, we all participated in an explore Denver activity that took us all over the city. We rode the bus, the light rail, and explored on foot 8 different parts of the city. The goal was to orient ourselves to the RTD and look at which parts of the city were poorer, more affluent, had shops, where would we want to live, where should we not go, etc. On our tour of the city, we visited the Museo de las Americas, the capitol building, Larimer Square, the African American Research library, the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall, Tattered Cover bookstore, Washington Park, Far East Shopping Center and Cherry creek Mall. It made for a super long day, but we had fun! That night, we had the opportunity to travel across town to the Comfort Café which is a non-profit community meal site that feeds whoever comes and runs by donation. We enjoyed a nice meal of lasagna, bread and salad and heard about other groups adventures and their findings in the city.
Over the weekend, we were all free to enjoy the holiday, and we all did just that. Some people went down town to watch the fireworks, some went out with friends in Denver, and some went to a very popular restaurant/bar, but all had a blast.
Monday marked the first day of class for everyone. Those students taking just the LS course met first, and then the interns met to go over syllabi. The semester will be a lot of work for everyone, but also one in which we can all learn, grow, and explore.
Tuesday marked the first day of internships/practicum’s/ student teaching for most people. Everyone seems to have found their placements okay, and had an okay day. My internship started today, and I have to say, I am SUPER excited. I was a little skeptical at first, but getting there and meeting the people and hearing about the projects I will be working on gets me super pumped up. Plus, I got to go to a couple of the Boys and Girls Clubs and play with kids. And who doesn’t love playing with kids?
The apartments are pretty quiet tonight. It seems to be a pretty chill night as I hear the hum of my humidifier, and the sound of the cars passing outside my window. Denver is this incredible city that has so much to offer and there is always something to do. As my supervisor drove me around today to different clubs, I kept seeing parts of town that I wanted to go back to. I kept thinking of MORE things to add to the list of things that I wanted to do. Speaking of things to do, I better get off the computer and get busy with homework and fun and whatever other trouble I can manage to get myself in to J
That’s all for now! We are headed to Leadville, CO, this weekend, the highest incorporated city in the US, so maybe there will be an update about that next week.
-Amanda Woodin
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