New Student Interview

In college you quickly catch on to how useful trading is. Trading grooming shifts in order to attend avalanche class... trading butter popcorn for cheese popcorn... and trading potting soil for a completed new student questionaire.

So, onto how valuable potting soil is when trying to get a new student to fill out a survey for you. Ben bought a little tree a few nights ago but the tree required a larger pot. On Monday night, while conning him into coming to the Student Government meeting, he argued that he needed to go get potting soil. So, I told him that he could use some of mine since there's no way I'm going to use 20 pounds of potting soil this semester. Then last night, once I delivered the potting soil to him, I got him to fill out the survery. Now, onto the main topic of this blog...

Ben is a 19 year old Outdoor Recreation Leadership Student from Wyoming. He chose to attend Colorado Mountain College because of the ORL program, location, and opportunities. The class that he is most excited for is Ice Block. When asked what his favorite thing about college is, his reply was “Everything… I love CMC”. Before enrolling at CMC, he was teaching Outdoor Education and summer camp, going to Engineering school, and attending National Outdoor Leadership School. In high school he participated in pole vaulting, football, sprints, speech, and drama.
His favorite movie is Snatch and if he could go on a shopping spree at any store, he would go to Neptune Mountaineering. On rainy days he enjoys playing with Lego’s. His family consists of his mom, dad, and younger sister. The first job he ever had was breaking forms at a concrete plant. “Dynamite comes in small packages” is his favorite quote.

Monday evening's Student Government meeting also provided some excitement. To start with, we more than doubled the number of Student Government members! Brett almost wondered if he walked in on a class because there were so many of us, lol. We filled 7 positions, but there are still 10 open. We are still looking for a Treasurer (you get a cord at graduation!), 1 AA/AS rep, 2 Entrepreneurship reps, 2 Forestry reps, 1 Historic Preservation rep, 1 Natural Resource Management rep, and two off-campus reps. The time committment consists of coming to meetings at 4:30 on Monday nights. The meetings last 10 or 15 minutes. At the last meeting we voted to have gym night twice a week, swimming night twice a week, and ice skating night once a week. We also discussed re-doing the kitchen. Bringing in a performer is another option that we are looking into.

As far as classes go:
*In Ropeways lecture we have learned about the components of Ropeway Systems and next week we will be learning about Operational Considerations. February 2nd we don't have class because of the NSAA Western Regional Mid-Winter Conference at Keystone. SAO students are able to attend the conference for $20.
*This past week in Events Management, we organized ourselves into committees. Publicity, Finance, Operations, and Competition are our 4 committees. Each committee has a Chairperson. We also have a Director and Vice-Director for the entire event. By next Monday, each committee is supposed to have made a committee timeline and "needs" list. In class next week we will be learning about publicity. There is no class on February 2nd. As part of the class requirements, each student must but in 20 hours helping at an event. The majority of us signed up to help with the Colorado HS XC Championship Meet and/or the 6th Annual Leadville Loppet.
*Next week in Public Speaking we are giving 2 minute introduction speeches on either ourselves or a topic that interests us.
*Yesterday in Grooming lecture we learned about Grooming Vehicles and Preventative Maintenance. Next week we will learn about Grooming Implements. In order to be up to speed on what we are discussing in class next week, Curt told us to read the first 3 chapters of our textbook. The first 3 chapters make up 2/3 of the pages in the book, so at first the task looked a bit daunting, but reading about snow science (aka the first 1/2 of our assigned reading) was actually incredibly interesting.
*During Ski Patrol lecture we learned about Toboggans and Patrol Procedures. This included determining the size of your patrol, where you station them, the difference between a Cascade and Akja toboggan, and speed control of a toboggan. Next week we will be learning about Mountain Weather, Snowpack, and Protection of Ski Areas.
*The other class that I am in is Food and Beverage Management which I am taking online. This is our first week of class and our assignments are due every Friday. I'll let you know more about the class once I'm farther into it.

Activities in the area include: the X-Games in Aspen start on the 22nd and Copper Series Snowboard Cross is the 23rd-25th.

"The sky's not the limit cause there's footprints on the moon"