8/9 - 8/13

Last Week in addition to my usual office duties such as filing case information and going to hearings I finished one of the books that CASA uses as a training and informational tool for its volunteers. The book I read was called Lost Boy and it was written by Brent Jeffs who is a nephew of the former leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The book detailed the abuse and neglect that the author suffered in the FLDS. For those who don't know the FLDS is the fundamentalist sect of the Mormon church which still continues to practice polygamy. I was very surprised to learn of how drastically polygamy affected the families within the church and the extent to which children in the church, especially young boys, were neglected and often forced our of their own families. It was a fascinating read and very eye opening in that it occurs in 21st century America. I would definitely recommend reading it.
This week I am looking forward to job shadowing a couple of attorneys and hopefully getting a good idea of what their day to day lives are like and hopefully some tips on law school as well.

Exception to the Rule

Today was my officially last day of my internship, which was bitter sweet because I am excited for RA camp, but sad to leave my work family behind for a month. I have learned so much from all of my mentors at AKT.

Recently, I learned that in Accounting firms and almost any business there are exceptions to almost every rule. this can be the case in GL coding for expenses. One expense can be one code one time, but the next time it can be something completely different because of the person.

I have learned a lot about working in a CPA firm not just during this internship period, but over the last three years that I have been working for AKT. I have learned how to deal with partners and they people who are constantly not following company policy. I also have learned that company policies are more like guidelines because there is room for interpretation.

I have been training the person who will replace me as Accounts Payable Administrator for a week and a half now. This was a real test of my knowledge to have to train someone on something that I just learned. This was a challenge because she did not realize that I actually knew something about accounting. She did just graduate from Corban with her accounting degree, and I understand that it must be hard to learn something from someone with no credentials and younger than you.

I am very confident after this internship that this is the career for me...maybe not accounts payable, but accounting. This internship will be very valuable for me when I become an auditor. I will know what the accounts payable people go through on a daily basis.

Teaching Experiences

On Friday it was a very big day for me because one of the teachers was gone so I took over for her and was one of the another teachers. I have taught lessons in front of the class before but this was my first time actually being in complete charge and having a lot more authority. I have been having an amazing time learning so many things about different disabilities that children have and how to deal with them. Things are still improving and we have been having some pretty great days with not as many behaviors. There is one child that has been giving me a lot of difficulties and it is becoming a little bit more irritating to deal with, he has Oppositional Defiant Disorder and is a borderline sociopath. I have been learning more ways to deal with his behaviors but sometimes it can be very hard. Overall though this past week has been pretty great and I am continuing to learn about this program.

8/2-8/6

Another disjointed week for us. Lars likes touring state fairs and meeting with listeners so Monday he was out fishing and Friday he was in La Grande at their county fair. Also Friday my boss had appointments so I went from 10-6 and filled in to help run the national show. For some reason, the national show gets a lot fewer calls so to offset that, we schedule a lot of guests. I think that puts more stress on us because when and if people don't answer, especially when the host isn't right there and doesn't know what's going on, it creates chaos. So the national show is somewhat easier because I'm doing a lot less screening, but, as I told my co-worker, I feel like a bounty hunter trying to track people down.

Close to Home

Today I met a women who recently had a brain tumor removed and now she has an infection. The older women had sang at little theater on the bay, and now is restricted minimal activities. She at all times wears a padded helmet, which is very well decorated I may add, due to the fact that she has a small section of her skull missing. Although she is under these circumstances, she is an incredibly positive person. Meeting this woman, really made me stop and think about my friend trent, who is 22 and has just been diagnosed with his second brain tumor and is having surgury the first of the year. This tumor however is 3X the size of the tumor he had when he was 13, although he is continuing to log and work on his families ranch.
I also got to help out introduce a gym member to different equipment and make sure the weight was the correct weight for her. One of the other patients that I help on a regular basis was also in today and we showed her some new exercises, including doing the ladder, and also stepping over cones that were place on the ladder. It is great being able to see how much she has improve since the first time she came in. Besides that though, my day was pretty normal.

Week 7/26-7/30

This week was crazy and really broken up. Monday and Tuesday I did not feel well and just did research from home. Wednesday was normal but Thursday Lars was gone, which slows down the phone calls and makes it reeeeeeeeally boring. Friday and this Monday were worse, as Lars was in Alaska and even less people called and we had only a couple guests. The host was on point with topics but just didn't bring out the passion Lars does so it makes my time go really slow. I have occasionally joined the KXL news staff in their 11 'o clock meeting where they talk about their stories for future segments. It's good experience getting to know them because if I don't get a job with Lars or with my last internship, I need to know as many people as possible. They're all really nice and I assume they like having a young buck in there.

The Prevalence Of Abuse

Last week I had the opportunity to view a documentary on child abuse, primarily sexual abuse, at Juliette's house along with a few CASAs. The documentary was very eye opening. It followed several victims of abuse as they recalled their stories and their journey's through the court system. It was really heartbreaking to see how sexual abuse had wreaked havoc in the lives of the victims. The documentary also revealed the inner pyshe's of some of the offenders as they described their motivation and methods in group therapy sessions. Some of the victims were adults and as they told their stories it was evident that they were stil dealing with incredible conflicts of emotion and pain many years after the abuse occured. It was definitely a sobering experience and one that makes you very wary of how many people there are who have bad intentions. It is unfortunate but the message of the documentary was quite clear in demonstrating that it is very necessary to be vigilant, aware, and careful in order to protect children.