School Events

I was recently (in May) told that I was chosen to be the State Ambassador for MATC (Milwaukee Area Technical College.) There are 16 technical colleges throughout Wisconsin and each year each college chooses one student that represents the college. Each college has a different role that they hope their Ambassador will play.

After finding out about the award I also found out that we had an Ambassador dinner to attend as well as 1 and a half days of workshops in Madison. I was so excited, a little nervous since I didn't know what to expect but totally ready for the challenge.

Tyler drove me to Madison; I had to be there at 8am to have breakfast with all the Ambassadors. Why is it that NO ONE understands that I am not a morning person?! Sitting around a table with faces that I had never seen before was a little intimidating. Every Ambassador has a student life coordinator that was part of the group that made the final decision on who becomes the Ambassador. There coordinators all joined us at the event. So I am looking around the room and I have no idea who is an Ambassador and who is a coordinator. It is to be noted that since we attend technical colleges there is a wide variety in student ages, so it is impossible to assume all the younger people are Ambassadors.  Great I found an opening line. After much asking around I started figuring out who my peers were. Naturally I gravitated to the one other foreign girl in the mix. She was from Laos.

After breakfast we started with an ice breaker. We had to think of something we liked that began with the first letter of our names, then introduce ourselves with “Hi, my name is blank and I like blank.” So of course mine was “Hi, my name is Robyn and I like Rainbows.” Once we did that around the circle, then we started.  The first person said their name, the next person said their name and the previous person’s name…and so on…so if memory serves me correct by the end we had - 

Adam likes Apples, Alyssa likes Accessories, Robyn likes Rainbows, Robyn (another one) likes Ruby Slippers, Sheng like Summer, Mihai likes Money, John likes Justice, Grace likes Grapes, Tarissa like turtles, Louise likes Lions, Heidi likes Hiking, Erin likes Exercise, Adrian likes Athletics, Kelly likes Kit-Kats, Corabeth likes Candy Canes, Tony (does not) like Tacos … Shooo I’m getting good at this!

We spent the day bonding over various other activities like the one blinded folded person in each group of four, trying to make a puzzle (the same puzzle) while the other group members give (which of course turns to shout) order to them on how to build the puzzle. Confusing! The blind folded guy in our group said he always knew when it was our group talking to him as opposed to the other groups talking to their person ‘cos he could hear my accent. HAHA I guess it does kind of rock!

After spending the entire day together we separated to change for the night’s event. It was really cool to see everyone in their jeans and shirts and then see them change into smart outfits for the evening awards ceremony.

 

The group of Ambassadors

The group of Ambassadors

We all received an award and a scholarship from Robert W. Baird. The award is really heavy! We actually had to practice picking it up beforehand so no one dropped it on the night! We also had to speak about how the technical college system has affected our lives. I will put the youtube link below so that you can see me get all emotional about missing my family… (I was not the only one that got emotional though.) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLT1XXJRqzo

The half day was filled with market strategy meetings Communications and Events Director for MATC. She has now adopted me and I visit her whenever I’m at the downtown campus. Meeting her actually also lead to another special meeting…

Tyler and I

Supported by MATC faculty
Vicki Martin, Archie Graham and Trevor Kubatzke

I think Robyn summed up this event pretty well, obviously I wasn't there for the workshop portions but my duty was to drive her there in the morning (one hour drive), scramble back to get some work done, then drive back to Madison again that night for the awards dinner. After three hours of driving I made it back for the dinner and awards ceremony which was very neat to see, Robyn is 100% dead on when she said that she wasn’t the only one to get emotional, I felt like for a very positive event there was certainly a ton of tears shed. All of that being said it was a very fun event and it was very nice to meet some of the people at Robyn’s school and share the moment with her. There certainly were no star ambassador awards in my schooling history.