Career Prep Day

Well it was a day to end all days, being our last ever day with UWBA, last dinner with my fellow CSCers as we all depart tomorrow. So as you can imagine, a roller coaster of emotions, mainly good ones, with the odd private tear as I bid farewell to people that were up until either 4 months ago, or even 1 month ago, complete strangers. But for some reason, Universe brought us all together to have one hell of an experience together.

First up .. at brekkie this morning some of us got up to say thank you to the Breakfast Crew. Thanks to the Holiday Inn for looking after us for so long.  It was a pleasant experience, and everyone so kind and friendly!  I am going to miss my poached eggs!

Today was Career Prep Day, so our last gig to finish off the month. It was a little exciting to get back out into the community to do some volunteering. UWBA, IBM and Ernst and Young (EY) come together as one and provided an amazing day which was organised very well by UWBA and EY. This event was based at Skyline College, and oh what a campus. We saw up to 80 students, and UWBA promised that all the data collected would be in Salesforce or ECM.

We met some amazing people whom work at EY, and amazing students of all ages ranging from 17 and upwards. I had many conversations with these students. To my amazement, there were even 2 young students whom were interested in Customer Relationship Management. Yes CRM, but not the CRM I was expecting. They had a slightly different take on it, but either way, they received a blast of the Shaz wisdom.

One highlight from this event was when Nicole from UWBA was speaking about the Skyline Sparkpoint to the EY volunteers. She mentioned about IBM and the CSC program, and how we had helped them with the Employer Engagement data. She continued on to say that she used the tool that we had provided to announce that EY was in the Top 10 companies that provide volunteers for engagements of this nature, so that was very exciting to see first hand the deliverable being used, knowing that Nicole would have spent less than 1 minute doing a check! Powerful stuff!

A fond farewell and hugs all around to Nicole and Ansa and to the rest of the crew from UWBA. You guys are amazing stars, so continue to shine brightly and pave the way. See you Ansa (and anyone else from UWBA) in Pakistan when Ansa opens the first Pakistan SparkPoint Center, and we will be there for the opening! Learn lots, give heaps, and glow!

This afternoon, Meaghan and Kaila very kindly hosted Benedicte, Ricardo and myself up to Twin Peaks. This was an amazing way to finish out the month, sitting on top of San Fran, looking down on this interesting, special city that we all have grown to love in our month here. So many feelings, so in awe of what we have been through, and how San Fran embraced us all in it’s arms, where we created so many fond memories. On top of that, we were blessed with watching the Blue Angels dancing across the sky as they practiced for their event tomorrow.  We ended up at a bar at the Castrol area called Twin Peaks, thinking we would stay with the theme. A nice cool Sierra beer and a lot of laughs equals a great recipe for the afternoon.

Tonight was our last CSC dinner together, and the chosen cuisine was Indian food. A great atmosphere, and good food which was Indian / Pakistan cuisine. Brittany from Atlas Corps joined us, and soon the whole group was briefly together! We were a noisy bunch of people in this little restaurant, I think in the end they were glad to see us go.

WIth a walk back to the hotel, we continued laughing and just chatting about the memories. I am going to miss my CSC family, as yes, that is what we are. Other CSCers before us would get it, and those after us will get it! The CSC program does change your life in many ways, pushing you outside of your comfort levels, friendships are born, growth happens. I would not change one thing! I know that I have new life long friends in my CSC Family and my UWBA Family, with memories that will stay with me for a very long time!