As seen on the Rockhurst Website

Rockhurst Interns Work For $20,000 In Grants During Their InternshipsSeptember 18, 2012

Internships are usually a time for students to get their feet wet at a future job. But for two Rockhurst University students in the nonprofit leadership program, their time as interns was used to make a huge impact for their organizations.

As interns, Haley Long, Lenexa, Kan., senior, and Josh Goralski, Naperville, Ill., junior, managed to each secure $10,000 grants to improve their respective organizations.

Long spent two semesters in a 300-hour internship for the Mental Health America of the Heartland in Kansas City, Mo. MHAH strives to promote better mental health of the community and improve the lives of persons with mental illness through advocacy, education and support. It was during Long’s second semester internship that she was asked to write a grant to help upgrade the technology at MHAH. The grant, $10,000 from the Victor E. Speas Foundation, upgraded the organization’s 10-year-old voice mail system and allowed MHAH to switch to voice over IP telephones.

“This was the most fulfilling experience I’ve had throughout my internship,” Long said. “I know that MHAH is an important organization in our community, and especially in the field of mental health.  This grant will enable the organization to continue helping people in the Kansas City area and beyond.”

Over the summer, Goralski spent his time in Geneva, Ill., at the Northern Illinois Food Bank, an affiliate of Feeding America. In fiscal year 2012, the food bank distributed more than 40 million pounds of food to more than 500,000 people. Part of Goralski’s intern duties included researching funding sources that would be a good fit for the organization. Through this research, he discovered that Pioneer Hi-Bred Corporation had recently restructured its corporate giving program. Its U.S. Food Security Grant appeared to be a good fit with the food bank’s Take 50 Food for Health Initiative, which would allow the food bank’s clients access to healthy food options, such as brown rice and whole grain pasta. During his last week at the food bank, the check for the full amount of the grant came in the mail.

The grant will allow the food bank to provide an additional 30,000 nutritious meals to clients in an effort to reduce their risk of diabetes, obesity, and other diet-related diseases.

“This was a pleasant surprise to everyone there because the Food Bank staff had been having a hard time funding this program,” Goralski said. http://www.rockhurst.edu/news/article/internship-grant-awards/

Come Holy Spirit

On Tuesday, Rockhurst had the annual mass of the Holy Spirit on Tuesday September 11^th. This year it just so happened to coincide with the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. It is the one time a year when President Father Curran cancels classes so that everyone who wants to can attend the mass. Plus as an added incentive for attending the mass, (as if anyone needed one) there is a free lunch after the mass. It was a really nice mass bringing together staff, faculty, students, alumni and Regents. The mass was held at St. Francis across the street where the student mass is on a weekly basis. All the Jesuits who reside in the Jesuit residents and were able to came to concelebrate at the mass. We also had a special visitor; the President of St. Louis University came in for the mass. Mass of the Holy Spirit is one of the events celebrated at every one of the Jesuit colleges and universities to celebrate the start of a new school year.

                The music was awesome. The Rockhurst choir did the music. The choir is composed of students, staff and faculty members. I really enjoyed the selection of music that the choir sang. The homily was also really nice. All around it was a great liturgy and a celebration of the Holy Spirit.

                Unfortunately I had class starting shortly after mass so I was not able to stay around for much of the lunch. One of my personal philosophies is that as a college student you never pass up the opportunity for a free meal. College students will wait in long lines for free food.  It was a good lunch of fried chicken, vegetables and baked beans.

                Last week started my first round of exams. I had a quiz and an exam last week and next week I will have a few more. It is crazy to think about that it is already time to have exams. One of my interests is studying poverty and with the new poverty numbers that came out this week. I want to end with this quote: 

“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”-Mother Teresa

Well last weekend was Labor Day weekend. Hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day weekend and their last big parties of the summer. Additionally, I hope that it has been a great summer for everyone.  My labor day weekend was spent doing homework for the most part. For a lot of Rockhurst students Labor Day weekend serves as a time to go back home enjoy some home cooked food and get whatever they forgot to get before they moved in. Now that Labor Day has passed it is time to buckle down and get to work with classes for the next month and a week till fall break which is the midpoint of the semester. I am taking 18 hours this semester so it is sure to be a busy semester for me. My classes are pretty reading intensive this semester. My classes include two intermediate accounting classes, Developing worlds economics class, Community Engagement (nonprofit class), Finance, and Management and Organizational Behavior class. All my professors are really good and my classes are really interesting. So I am sure it will be a challenging but interesting semester.

        Over labor day weekend the campus got a lot of rain which was much needed in the Kansas City area. It was a good motivator to get homework done also because it was not tempting to go outside. Additionally I spent Saturday morning enjoying the Notre Dame football win from Ireland. They played Navy over in Ireland. I am a big Notre Dame football fan and so it was great to see a Notre Dame football victory. Hopefully Notre Dame will keep the winning up. I am probably going to go to one of their football games while I will be home for fall break in October.

“Have a bias toward action - let's see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Start of my Junior Year

I cannot believe that I am over half way done with my undergraduate education. Last week I finished up the work for my summer practicum class for the nonprofit program. The class was to go along with the internship that I did this summer at Northern Illinois Food Bank in Geneva, Illinois. I interned there for over 450 hours this summer. For the class I had to do a presentation to my peers in the nonprofit leadership program here as well as write weekly journal entries. My tasks included grant writing, volunteer recruitment, coordination and appreciation. In addition this summer our family went on a family vacation to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. While we were there it was very nice weather and we hit all four of the theme parks as well as downtown Disney and one of the water parks (which I was not very impressed with to be completely honest). I must admit staying on Disney property but not in a Disney hotel is the way to go because of the free transportation. Going early in the summer was nice too because the parks were not as crowded as they are as it gets later into the summer.

                Additionally this summer I went to my cousins wedding up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was fun because the rehearsal dinner was at the Milwaukee Brewers stadium. It was a great weekend to catch up with my extended family.

                Anyway now back to Rockhurst where I am at now. For those of you who are just starting to ready my blog welcome! Thank you for your readership. I hope you enjoy my weekly blog which will focus on the happenings of my life and the student life around Rockhurst University. This year Rockhurst welcomed their biggest freshman class in the history of over 450 students.

                I am Josh, a junior at Rockhurst University studying nonprofit leadership studies and accounting. This year I am a Desk Manager in XL hall, a Supplemental Instructor for accounting and I am involved in various activities such as a small faith sharing group, the HSOM Social Entrepreneurship Initiative and more. Finally, I am from Naperville, Illinois (outside of Chicago).  Have a great week. I will be posting again soon about my life at Rockhurst.

This is me and my two sisters. Hannah is on the left and Bethany on the right.