Journal Jems: A-Team

Erik Gray's journals
#journalgems

January 16, 2017
A-TEAM:  Alright. Talking about A-Team will take up the next hundred pages. So be prepared. Bahaha! I LOVE THE A-TEAM SO MUCH! I had SUCH a blast working on the A-Team. In the fall, around the time when applications were going out for the A-Team, I wasn’t really even sure I knew what it was--- because I was a transfer student I had never gone to SOAR in person- I just did Online SOAR---- click, click, click, click. Get through orientation. Boom. That was it. I just knew that the A-Team was cool! And pretty prestigious. So I went to an info session, found out more about it. And I was excited! I applied, and was supposed to sign up for a group interview time slot. I had to prepare a 2-minute presentation on my favorite spot on campus. Soooo I almost chickened out… the group interviews started on a Tuesday morning, and I went and signed up at 4:50 on the Tuesday afternoon. Talk about a close one! And my group interview was in the first group… that next morning, Wednesday, at 8 a.m. I got hired for the job in January, took a 2-credit training class for it, and we worked 13 SOAR (Student Orientation and Registration) days throughout the summer. We had two retreats, one was just an overnighter and the other was a 3-day extravaganza. First retreat was great- I was still getting to know everyone more. We had to all introduce ourselves in some creative way- I chose to sing and introduce myself that way. It’s funny, I’ve never actually been afraid to perform in front of people. 

Here are the lyrics I came up with:

Years ago today,
Never thought I’d say
I’m at Utah State
And it’s all OK

Went to SUU
A few years? Just two.
Speech Pathology’s
what I want to do.

I love it more up here
And it is pretty clear
I make new friends each day;
There’s no one that I hate.

Look at my neck scars, please;
I got some good sto-ries.
But the real story, sir:
[..] Cancer sur-vi-vor.

CHORUS:
My name’s Erik Gray
And I’ve got to say
My life is pretty great
Adventurous all day

Music, outdoors, run
What I do for fun
I love to try new things
And always eat ice cream.

I play pi-a-no
I board in the snow
And I’m always up
for a game night, yo.

Now my fa-mi-ly?
4 siblings plus me,
in-laws, nephews, niece,
14 people, see.

YOLO is my phrase
Just try new things each day
Like just last Saturday,
I snowboarded Old Main.

You know I am- fo sho-
the happ’est guy you know.
I hope you’ve liked my song-
Just like you love ping-pong.

CHORUS:
My name’s Erik Gray
And I’ve got to say
My life is pretty great
Adventurous all day

Music, outdoors, run
What I do for fun
I love to try new things
And always eat ice cream.

I think it was a hit! I got cheers and stuff, so that was fun. One thing I struggled with was I feel like I didn’t fit in on the A-Team. I enjoyed it, but not at first. I would go to class, talk with others, learn stuff- we’d always talk about policies or how to be a better leader or something like that, and we’d usually play some sort of game. I did enjoy class. My bosses are great people. I made it a goal to sit by someone different in class every day. And that was fun! It helped me to get to know everyone. One thing I thought was super cool was that our first quiz? LEARNING EVERYONE’S NAMES. How great is that? Totally my kind of class test. J

So my bosses- Let’s talk about them. Chandler Whitlock and Kylee Hopkin were the Student Coordinators. Their job was to make sure class ran smoothly, grade the quizzes and papers, and basically do the grunt work. They did such an amazing job. They are both kind and awesome and great people. Jacob Van den Akker and Mitchell Colver were one step higher, they were the Student Program Coordinator and International Orientation Coordinators, respectively. They ran class, taught most of the time, and were in charge of the A-Team. They did SUCH A GREAT JOB. Jacob is funny and full of limericks and did really well at keeping us in line! Mitchell is full of wisdom and always had a story or a new idea or a philosophy of some sort on life. Leslie Buxton was in charge of the Parent part, she mostly just worked in the office. And Lisa Hancock is the overall, OVERALL of the Student Orientation and Transition office. The A-Team Queen. Lisa is one of my favorite people. J

We had waffle nights all the time. Every Sunday in the spring and then into the summer. Every Sunday at 9 p.m. It was a fun chance to go to something social, to meet others, to stay involved with everyone. I know people didn’t mean to make it so, but the A-Team did feel just a little bit cliquey sometimes. It felt like the popular crowd, and I’ve never really felt like I was one of those “popular” people. So it was an adjustment. But I tried. I went to events, I went to waffles, I went to almost everything. And it did help pay off in the end. J But it was an adjustment. I remember at Second Retreat in May—the three-day one, Kylee had us come in and talk with her for a minute and just see how we were doing. I confided in her that I was having a little trouble connecting. She said that was normal… she said that people have felt that way before. She advised me to just keep doing what I was doing, keep reaching out, keep being myself… and especially when SOAR started it would change. So I held on to that!

So SOAR started. I was super nervous for my first day. But I had come up with ideas to hopefully make my part cool and fun and exciting. We were supposed to present policies, procedures, etc (like Leave of Absence, University Requirements for graduation, Dry Campus, Student Services, etc) and so I numbered everything, and had a number ball. I would toss the ball to a student and say a finger, like Left Middle Finger, and whatever number was closest to that finger was the thing we talked about (and when I came up with this idea and told it to Chandler, he was SUPER impressed and said he really liked the idea!). So that helped with the group stuff.

With my small groups, we met in the ballroom and I would hold up my #15 sign… the students were randomly divided and so the students that had a 15 on their nametag were in my group. We’d get together and I’d lead them to my spot. Our bosses advised us to choose a spot that had meaning to us. So as we’d walk over to my spot, which was right in the grass next to Old Main and the Alumni house, I’d warm my group up, ask questions, where they’re from, etc etc. And we get to our spot. We’d play this warm up game to get to know the people in our group (I had anywhere from 5 to 10 people in my group). I had a little soccer ball and I’d toss it to someone, they’d toss it to someone else and say their name, etc etc until it went around randomly to everyone and then the last person would toss it back to me. We’d do that a few more times, and then I’d add in a little basketball and we’d do the same thing but in a different order. After doing that a few times, I’d throw the soccer ball back in and we would see if we could do both at the same time. It was fun, some groups did well and some DID NOT. Ha ha it really helped us warm up to each other, though. I’d also have each person in the group explain who they were. Then I went ahead with the presentation stuff with the ball that I talked about a minute ago. I made sure that about every 10/15 minutes we had a break of some sort- because I didn’t want the students to get bored. SOOO the story I told about why I chose that spot for our group. My first time really on campus was when I had a job interview with the Alumni house. I had a general idea from looking at the map where the house was, but on the day of I parked at the bottom of Old Main Hill, walked up, around the other way of Old Main, found someone and asked for directions, and eventually was able to find the Alumni house. I was a minute late and really sweaty, still got the job! But I just tied it in that I didn’t want my students to get lost on their first time on campus…. I wanted them to be familiar enough to kind of know where they were going. And that was one of my biggest purposes in being on the A-Team was to help them know where to go! :D I learned a lot from being on the A-Team, and doing those group presentations really taught me as well. Be engaged, make it fun for your students, and try to keep them entertained. Make sure to not have boring content, or if it is boring… make it fun!

Honestly, my absolute favorite part about SOAR days was doing garbarge duty. During lunch we all sat in the International Lounge on about 10/15 tables. I finished my lunch a little bit before, and I would go around and ask parents and students, “Can I take your plate to the garbage?” As they sat and talked. And I just would go down the tables and do that. The students and parents were all like “Oh my gosh you’re so awesome!” And THEY LOVED IT. And I loved it. It was actually kind of fun. Especially to see how much these guys loved it. So I really did look forward to garbage duty every day. Kind of dumb, but whatever. Ha ha. I guess that’s the kind of person I am!