Robert Roe Blog # 3

Happy Halloween, fellow interns!


I am excited to announce that at Robert Roe we are making moves - starting to carry new designers and bring in even more looks! It has been such an exciting process so far. I have gotten the opportunity to express my creative side via helping with the website layout and in store design. I really look up to my boss for how confident and excited she stays despite the roller coaster of emotions and trials that come with opening a new store. Being the only employee and intern, I feel like I have a lot of responsibility in the best possible way. I want Robert Roe to succeed so badly, and I am thrilled to see the progress we are making.

Right now we at Robert Roe are figuring out what kind of smaller, non-clothing items we can bring it to sell around the holiday season such as candles. The minute I heard Naseem wanted to carry any type of candle I was thrilled - I am a total candle girl! Love them. I have my own favorite brands of candles that I instantly suggested to Naseem, and we are continuing to search because we want the very best for Robert Roe! It is difficult to find the perfect balance between a reasonable price, beautiful designer, unique quality, and clean packaging that would make the candle brand a perfect addition to Robert Roe. While it may seem like a simple and quick process to find a new selling piece for the store, it really isn't! We aim to carry only the best at Robert Roe; we want to bring a whole new side of fashion to McMinnville! We made a commitment to carry unique designers and pieces and we will continue to do so!

I am really excited about the new experiences and opportunities that are happening at Robert Roe this upcoming month! On November 12th Robert Roe will be a spot for the Women of Willamette event. This is an organization that recognizes and brings together local female professionals and independent business owners to discuss and celebrate accomplishments as women in business! I am thrilled to announce that my boss, Naseem Momtazi will be recognized for Robert Roe. She is truly an inspiration and someone to look up to as a young female making her way in the fashion world!  On November 14th Robert Roe will hosting an event for the Young Professionals club - which is a Linfield organization! As an intern I will get the chance to help plan and orchestrate these events at Robert Roe.

As always, I am trying to pump up our facebook bag and Instagram! We have just started using FourSquare at Robert Roe in hopes that customers will check in and spread the word! I can't wait to see what new opportunities this will bring about.

Thank you for reading!

My name's Hannah Duge and I'm a shopoholic...

Hello Interns!
        My name is Hannah Duge and I am a sophomore at Linfield College. I am a marketing major or possibly an International business major (haven't declared anything yet). But I am definitely a French minor.  As the title of this blog said...I am a shopoholic so it was very easy for me to jump on the opportunity to intern at Cupcake Couture clothing boutique on 3rd St. in McMinnville.  I have always had a love for fashion and clothes so I thought getting the opportunity to learn more about working in retail and marketing in a setting that I am very used to would be fantastic! It is also going to force me to learn more about self restraint and self discipline so I don't spend all my money on clothes.
         My boss, Sam, is super nice and taught me how to make sales and work the cash register this week. She also showed me around the store and where each product is supposed to be.  I learned how to open and close the store. We practiced making sales and refunds by doing fake transactions and I learned what to do in different types of situations.  I have never worked in retail before but Sam is really understanding and patient with me luckily.  I am having so much fun talking to the customers about clothes and accessories! 
    I work Tuesday afternoons and some Saturdays but my first learning experience was last Thursday for Cupcake's annual student night, when Linfield students get 20% their purchase.  This was the first time I watched Sam work the cash register when we made a sale.  But Tuesday was the first day I made my own sales and worked the cash register by myself! I feel like once I get into a good flow or rhythm making transactions will be a lot faster and smoother, but for now I go slow and make sure I don't make any mistakes.  
     So, so far so good with working in Cupcake and I can't wait for Tuesday to practice more!

À bientôt!

~Hannah Duge

Robert Roe Blog # 2

Happy Fall, fellow interns!

Fall marks my absolute favorite season not only for McMinnville but for fashion! Robert Roe is stocked with gorgeous, cozy fall sweaters and fabulous colored denim - some of my favorite pieces for the season! Yesterday I got the opportunity to help create Robert Roe's very first look book which is essentially an online catalog of pulled fall looks. I asked one of my sorority sisters to join me as a model for these looks. I absolutely adored getting the chance to wear some of my favorite Robert Roe looks for the look book. It was definitely a new experience for me; trying to figure out the best way to 'model' the outfits for customers! My boss Naseem pulled many of the looks but allowed me to help style myself and the other model, Sarah. The pictures and looks came together great, and once we done with the shoot I edited all of the pictures and uploaded them to our company Instagram. I find that Instagram is more 'to the point' versus Facebook. It allows users to simply upload a single picture as opposed to an entire album that often gets overwhelming for viewers. I am proud of the way the look book came out, and I hope everyone loves it as much as I do! We are hoping that by advertising and styling these pieces it will inspire customers to come shop with us. Often with fashion it can be difficult for people to see certain items such as a pair of jeans or a blazer and imagine how to make an outfit out of that. We are hoping that the look book takes away that worry! We paired together plenty of great looks for fall that will inspire customers! It was a unique hands on opportunity which is one of the main reasons I love my time at Robert Roe.

My boss allows me to have plenty of input for the store. She encourages me to research new and upcoming designers, unique brands, and fabulous looks that I think would fit our image for Robert Roe.  Despite my past experience in retail Naseem allowing me more freedom to make choices for Robert Roe is a new thing for me that I love and look forward to exploring further. I really feel like I am part of Robert Roe's future, and that is a cool feeling. I can't wait to see

Want to check out our look book for fall? Please do! Follow Robert Roe on Instagram @ robertroe

CP&D October 20th

This week the Capital Planning department has been very busy. I have yet to meet with CLS because some of the department’s priorities have shifted due to the president’s approval of a campus wide space analysis. Part of the work at Capital Planning is prioritizing usable space at Linfield. Over the course of a decade our school’s departments might look significantly different than they do now - for example, many student don’t know that Newby and Pioneer both at one point in time housed the chemistry department before Murdock Hall was built. In fact, many of the old structures on campus have been used for various departments over the years. This is because Linfield is constantly undergoing expansion whether it’s physical or interdepartmental - this is why we need a Capital Planning department. Like an architect, CP&D brings to life the visions of people such as the trustees, but always in most efficient way possible.

Currently we are taking inventory of all classroom space in order to prioritize and consolidate departments. This means I get to work with many of the blueprints of campus buildings – some dating back as far as the 1930s. That being said, I am in the process of learning how to read blueprints and calculate net-usable square footage of classrooms for each hall. It looks like this will be a lengthy task but my work will go before the board when our supervisor meets to discuss future plans. 

-KC

Hello from Vista Hills Winery

Hi my name is Stephanie Raso.

I am a senior at Linfield and a Communication Arts major.  As of a few weeks ago I am now interning at Vista Hills Winery.  I am excited to be working at Vista Hills and to lean more about the wine industry.  Last week the winery hosted a huge party for club members, which was a huge success. It was great to be a part of the event, because my focus with this internship will be Event Planing and Marketing.  Of course I will also be working in other areas of the wine business as well.  This weekend I will have the opportunity to start learning about the production of wine.  Harvesting and production are currently in full swing for the wine industry, and I am eager to take the opportunity to learn more about both aspects. 
I look forward to blogging about my experiences, as I continue down this internship path.

-Stephanie

Meet Olivia Uphoff!

Hello fellow interns!

My name is Olivia Uphoff. I am a Political Science Communication Arts double major attending Linfield College. I am a senior with a love for fashion and social media, like most girls my age. However, I am lucky enough to be able to combine those two loves as an intern for Robert Roe: McMinnville's newest boutique!

 Robert Roe opened in August and is owned by my dear friend and boss, Naseem Momtazi. Opening this store has been a life long dream of hers, and as a friend it has been such a touching experience to be able to watch Naseem's dreams come true! That being said, as an employee and intern at Robert Roe I have taken on the responsibility of marketing Robert Roe not only to Linfield students but to the McMinnville community as well. I truly believe that this beautiful town was in great need of a store like Robert Roe. We carry unique, one of a kind designers and great pieces that will unleash anyone's inner fashionista!

I just started working at Robert Roe this month, but I am positive that this will be a great learning experience with a ton of hands on opportunities! I can't wait to get started.

ROBERT ROE NOW OPEN!
Sat & Sun
11-5 pm and by appointment
RobertRoeClothing.com

410 NE 3rd Street Studio # 10

Gospel Rescue Mission 2nd-3rd Week

Hello All!

These past few weeks at Gospel Rescue Mission have been amazing. The first week I shared I was feeling awkward, not knowing my place yet. The second week there all of that changed; I feel welcomed like family. It has been a great opportunity to learn from not only the staff there but also the residents. Now when I walk into the mission I know people by name and they know mine. I've noticed that since being there many misconceptions I (and most people have) about homeless shelters are changing. Many people picture someone who is homeless as a drug addict, dirty, and not productive. When Cheryl (my supervisor) was telling me about how the mission got started, she told me that many of the houses near by opposed the mission moving in. They thought it would be unsafe, noisy, and dirty. However, after getting to know many of the people at the shelter and seeing their lives I don't see or agree with the stereotype. Fire capacity allows around ten females and ten males to stay at the shelter at one time. Eighty percent of the people staying at the shelter are going to school, working or a combination of the two. One women that is staying is moving out in a few days because she is working three jobs now and is finally able to afford her own place. These people are motivated individuals and know what is important in life. Although the situations that have brought them to the shelter are not ideal, the way they have completely changed their lives in just ten days amazes me. When I was there last Tuesday night a volunteer came to do the night shift (11:00 PM to 4:00 AM) and as I was getting to know her she shared that a year ago she had to stay at the shelter with her son. She came back to volunteer her time because of how much help the mission was to her. 

With these people in mind, I got right to work on some long-term projects for the mission. The first project in mind, was to try to line up vaccinations for the people at the shelter. I wanted to combine my nursing major in the internship and have found many connections between the two. Being here has inspired me to possibly volunteer my time as a nurse at an open clinic to help people in need of health care. Witnessing first hand the need for these adults and children has helped reinforce why I chose nursing in the first place. While here, I want to try to make connections with health clinics in McMinnville to help residents at the shelter. I started by writing a formal letter that my supervisor signed and called pharmacies around town. It was a little discouraging to not get calls back or have people say that they cannot donate the shots--but I want to find a way to meet them half way. Maybe they could cut the cost in half and we could fundraise the other? These are still questions that I will be working out the next few weeks. Another project I am working on is for an event in January they will be hosting called "Soup for the Soul". This auction will raise money for the shelter and will encourage community involvement. I have been contacting businesses and designing a pamphlet that I hope to take to business owners by the end of October/Early November. Lots to do, not very much time to do it i. I am looking forward to seeing what the result is! 

Finally!

Finally, I was able to start interning today at Willamette Valley Medical Clinic. After spending some time "shadowing" another Linfield student who volunteers at WVMC, I learned my duties consist of checking out rooms to see if they need any supplies/cleaning up, talking with patients- asking if they have any needs, and being there for any requests by nurses/doctors. Although I have an evening shift, which you would imagine would be a busier time in the ER, I was warned at the beginning of my shift today that it had been a slow day. I was okay with that; looking forward to just getting to know my way around the place! Well that didn't last long. A few minutes later, a cardiac arrest patient was being transported in. I watched from a close distance as doctors and nurses from all over the hospital responded to the code. I'm sure they all knew exactly what they were to do, but from an outsider's perspective, it looked like mad chaos. Probably about 15 people were crammed into a small patient room with more nurses running in. The CPR and shocks lasted for over 20 minutes, but it was successful! I was able to help clean up the room with nurses, talking with them about what had happened. They way they talked about it seemed to be an enthusiastic rush they feel every time a code is called. To me it seems scary and intimidating to be in such a situation. Already I was thinking today how I would not like to be an ER nurse. Of course, that feeling could change. Besides observing, my favorite part of today's experience was talking with one particular patient. She was the first and only patient I was able to ask if they needed anything. We ended up talking for about 30 minutes, until the end of my shift and the end of her stay at the hospital. I quickly realized she just wanted someone to talk to. She reminded me of my grandparents: able to fully recreate stories with amazing details and have every story end with a life lesson. I love talking and hearing stories from especially older generations. There is so much to learn from them. She wanted my name and made sure to tell me that "we would see each other again soon...she was sure of it." I certainly wouldn't mind...  

CP&D October 10th

Last week I was able to attend a business meeting with my supervisor and representatives of a small company that manufactures extremely efficient LEDs (light emitting diode). I’m sure every linfielder has, at some point, noticed our campus’s acorn shaped lanterns at night - these lanterns are equipped with CFLs, which has become most common, environmentally-conscious’s choice  on the market. However CFLs are not the most efficient lighting method in terms of lifetime and energy. I felt very lucky in that, rather than listening to an astute sales-pitch, I was given a brief yet knowledgeable lecture on the history of America’s lighting market and the technological development of the LED.

After some research to confirm what I was told, it turns out that LEDs use half the amount of kWh that a typical CFL uses during an entire lifetime, and while putting out significantly more lumens! As I have mentioned in my first post, part of my job at CP&D involves balancing Linfield’s utility bills for electricity usage. Although lighting accounts for a relatively small portion of Linfield’s utility bill, the implications for society are enormous! What if we could replace every light bulb with an LED? If one Megawatt powers about 1000 homes for an hour, then how many megawatts could we save in McMinnville by cutting the cost of lighting in half? These were some questions running through my environmental mind after the meeting. However the cold reality of economics seems to be a lesson revisited in my subject quite often – despite the efficiency of the technology the determining factor is if costs fall within the consumer’s advantage. I say ‘advantage’ because for larger organizations a project may fall within the consumer’s budget but not advantage. That is, there must be a payback period small enough to entice an upgrade. 

  Currently campus transition to LED’s does not look promising, however with rising energy demands the proposition could become very popular depending on the market within just a couple years. I will be meeting again with representatives of this company next week to do a physical inventory on campus with my supervisor. I'm very curious to see where it goes from here. 

-kc

Yamhill County 10/1 - 10/5

This past week, I worked on a different project than I have been. My main job so far has been to determine and run reports on what information has not ported over to Odyssey. The past several weeks, I was focusing on cases that had not ported specifically. Now, I am determining what other information is missing.

The most important piece of information that did not port is judge recusals. When a judge has a conflict on a case, he or she must draft a motion to recuse themselves due to lack of impartiality. This is also called a judge conflict. I have had to run reports and investigate what types of cases and what years are affected. I have determined that criminal misdemeanors and felonies, traffic citations, and restraining orders from years 1997-2012 did not transfer the corresponding judge conflicts when OJIN was transferred to Odyssey. I now have the task of drafting electronic copies of judge recusal documents for each case as well as including a "Recused" event on the case so that employees viewing the case will see that there is a conflict on the case. This is extremely important, especially for the calendaring staff when setting hearings.

In addition, last Thursday was the Trial Court Administrators' meeting at Yamhill County. Given that we are the pilot court for Odyssey and eCourt, several Trial Court Administrators from counties across the state came to see our new "bells and whistles." For those that don't know, the Trial Court Administrator is the most important position at the Courthouse, with the exception of judges. TCAs supervise all court operations - everything must go through them. During a "show and tell" of Odyssey for the out-of-town TCAs, one employee stated that everything about Odyssey "sucks." Not only was this unprofessional, but it portrays a very poor image of eCourt to the visiting TCAs. Even four months after the initial switch from OJIN to Odyssey, there are clearly some very negative feelings still lingering. I estimate that these feelings will likely not dissipate until at least June of next year. It is a slow-going process, and it is even slower in the public sector, as we are constrained by government.

Yamhill County 09/24-09/28

The county is slowly progressing towards where they need to be in terms of adjustment to Odyssey. There are still approximately 500 cases that need to be retrieved from Archives and scanned onto the system. We have determined several reasons why these cases were not ported over from OJIN to Odyssey upon "go-live" in June.
1. For criminal misdemeanors or felonies constituting domestic violence, a "DV" or "DVA" is often tacked on to the end of the case number. Since all criminal cases do not necessarily constitute domestic violence, the postscript "DV" or "DVA" was left off entirely when porting over cases into Odyssey. This should not have been overlooked and most of the cases still needing to be scanned fall into this category. This creates a great deal of extra work for staff and was certainly very frustrating to court supervisors. This is an issue with the Odyssey vendor, Tyler Technologies, who we are currently negotiating with about this issue.
2. Cases prior to 1992 were not ported over. This accounted for most of the 50,000 cases that were not ported over to Odyssey. By statute, the Court must only hold cases in their court management system for 20 years. All cases prior to this will be kept on Laserfiche if concerned parties need to recall case information from an older case.
3. Some cases numbers were transposed on court documents written by hand. An extra number may have been added or left off by human error, making that case number essentially nonexistent. This is an error on the part of Yamhill County staff, and one that we hope will be eliminated with the implementation of the paperless system. There will be no handwriting to read/translate/transpose. Court supervisors hope that having typed records easily accessible on Odyssey will prevent much human error.

This unfortunately means lots of mundane scanning for all court employees, including myself. I have been included in some conversations with Tyler Technologies, the Odyssey vendor, and they are very apologetic for these errors. There are issues still popping up just about every day, six months after the implementation of Odyssey. In the private sector, this would be a huge issue. However, this is the public sector and inefficiencies are to be expected. I would anticipate most issues to be resolved by the end of 2012.
This is definitely an exciting and ever-changing opportunity!

Hello! First Impression Rescue Gospel Mission

Hello Everyone!

My name is Shelby Lawrence and I am starting an internship at Rescue Gospel Mission here in McMinnville. I am a junior, pre-nursing major and am planning on going up this spring to the nursing school. For my internship I will be working with some health related topics such as vaccinations and awareness about disease prevention. I will also be reaching out into the community to help the Mission find donations of food, medicine, and money.


Upon arrival for my first day at the shelter (last thursday) I was a little uncomfortable. I did not know exactly what to accomplish the first day and did not even know all of the staff members at first. However, after an hour or so of being there I felt completely comfortable. The director, my supervisor, Cheryl, gave me a tour and introduced me to the other staff members. We went over the ideas I had and she told me some things that they would love me to start projects for since they do not have the time to do so. A few ideas we discussed were contacting local businesses for donations and conducting some sort of medicine drive for common medications needed. This got me excited to be at the shelter in this position because I not only get to interact with the people at the shelter, I also get to use knowledge I have gained from classes from my major to help me in the position. It will be a great opportunity for me to get to apply the school knowledge I have with actual practical applications related to my field. The rest of my first day included getting to know the staff and starting to brainstorm businesses with my supervisor that I could contact for donations. I am excited to go back this week!


Hope everyones internships are going smoothly!