June | 2016 | F.M. Kirby Experiential Learning Stipend Recipient Blogs

Week 4: The National Institutes of Health; the organization

Show of hands: how many of you knew about the NIH before you started reading this blog? Oh good, I’d hoped you would. The NIH is comprised of 27 institutes and centers (ICs), the largest of which is the National Cancer Institute (NCI). There are campuses in Maryland, North Carolina, Montana, Michigan, and Massachusetts. Annually,…

Week 6: Culture

Hello again! This week i’d like to elaborate more on Vigilant’s company culture. I noted in previous posts that Vigilant is a lifestyle company which provides a lot of flexibility. Us employees are allowed to make our own hours with he only conditions being that we be available for e-mail/phone calls from 1-5, work 40…

Week 7: Progress

This past week at the office, one of the victim’s advocates was out on vacation. Because of this, I was able to get more experience working as an advocate. On Tuesday, five people came to file a domestic violence protective order! Most showed up around the same time. While the two advocates met with clients,…

Week 4: Short and Sweet

Addison Whitney was founded in 1991, a small branding firm with only three employees. Now AW is a global branding firm, led by inVentiv Health, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. The firm has other offices in the United States located at Seattle, Washington and New York City. Internationally, Addison Whitney has offices in London, Munich,…

Week 4: Some AW History

This week I got to sit down with Addison Whitney’s Communications Manager, Matt, to talk about how AW got its start. The company is actually coming up on its 25th anniversary at the end of this week, so Matt was truly in the spirit of talking about the beginning times. It all started in 1991…

Week 6: Culture

In terms of company culture, I want to first discuss the NWRA’s values. They place respect, trust, and communication high on their values list. These three values are at the heart of their mission statement: The National Waste and Recycling Association works to be the leading organization providing advocacy, research, education and safety expertise to…

Week 3: The National Institutes of Health; the people

A quarter of the way done. How is that possible? So much left to do, so little time. It’s unbelievable how much I have already learned in my short time here, and I am so excited to see where the next six weeks take me. Wake Forest really represents at the NIH. I am a…

Week 5: Bees are key to life!

This week has been very productive in my opinion. I have continued on my bee work, which includes contacting restaurant owners throughout the state to sign-on to a letter to the EPA recommending the ban on neonics. I have been writing Letters to the Editor to send to Georgia newspapers, and op-eds about how neonics…

Week 4: Save the Bees! And Environment America

This week I did a lot of phone-banking trying to contact chefs and organic restaurants in the state of Georgia so that they can sign-on to a petition to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) on banning neonics, a deadly insecticide that kills bees. These efforts are apart of our “save the bees” campaign that I…

Week 5: Update

Hello again, everyone! This week I would like to give you all an update as to how my work is coming along. Unfortunately due to the nature of the work I can’t detail exactly the progress I have made, but I can say I was able to complete my first hack this past week. Now,…