Today consisted of two meetings and one work assignment. The assignment was to look up all of the locations for the pet store, Pet Supplies Plus, and make a spreadsheet listing each location’s city, state and zip code. The assignment felt a bit like busy work, but it gave me a good taste of how a job can be when there’s not much exciting going on. The two meetings we sat in were far more interesting. The first was basically centered around just touching base about progress for one of French West Vaughn’s clients Pendelton Whiskey, and the second was really cool because it was a conference call with the people at Redbull, where FWV was pitching an idea for a sponsorship with a certain barrel racer. Clay, the main guy who gave the pitch talked to us after it was over, and gave some pretty cool insight. He said that because FWV already had a reputation of working with prominent Southern lifestyle brands like Wrangler and Pendleton, Redbull asked specifically to work with them because they were trying to expand their branding into more southern sports like bull riding and barrel racing. Clay also said that because they had so much experience with that market, FWV was able to work very efficiently with Redbull and speed through some otherwise time-consuming details because of this efficiency. Clay told us right after the call ended that that was about as smooth as a pitch could possibly go and that because of their reputation, they really would have to bomb it for them to lose this opportunity. The call served as a really good example of how reputation and standing out amongst your competitors can often land you with excellent opportunities, like getting to work with large, successful companies like Redbull.
Category: Z WEP Archives
Day 4
My favorite part of today was once again working with the knockerballs. We recruited four young men to climb into giant inflatable balls and run into each other at full speed with the goal of racing around a cone before the other team. Today’s knockerballs competitors were a bit more sporadic than yesterday’s as they did not exactly stick to the rules of the game but instead spent the entire time trying to run into each other. Once our time limit between innings hit, we tried to herd them off of the field so the game could resume, however this proved to be very difficult. Not only did they stray from the goal of the game, they did not listen to our commands to “get off the field quickly”. Although the team had to exert a bit more energy than usual getting them off the field, it was quite amusing for the crowd and me. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a video of the chaos because I was on the field with the team creating a human barrier for the game. I did, however, find time to snap of a picture of the “Zooperstars”, giant inflatable mascot costumes that ran around the files and danced between several of the innings. Not only were they funny to look at, they interacted with some of the baseball players and fans and did hilarious things that made the crowd roar. Although I didn’t help coordinate their appearance because the promo team wasn’t as involved, I really enjoyed watching their performance as if I were one of the fans. Today was a wrap up of the weekday games and I look forward to working the games this weekend!
Friday, June 2nd – Short and Sweet
I am so glad that I have finished my first week at UNC-TV. This week ended with a short day, and was a continuation of yesterday. The only difference is that I was accompanied by Ms. Holt-Noel in the editing suite. After cutting all of the clips, I then got to see how everything is pieced together to make a story. It isn’t complete because many drafts will be made, but we got a basis. Have a great weekend!
-Kennedy Byrd
Day 4
Today I again decorated the sign for outside the store with liquid chalk, but this time with much more frustration. I had time to kill since the store was pretty slow this morning, so I spent an hour perfecting the placement and sizing of each letter that made up the quote, “I would stop shopping, but I’m not a quitter”. I thought this was so cute and quirky, not even thinking to look next door I poured my heart and soul into creating a beautiful, elegant sign to make people laugh and raise an interest of potential customers strolling by. After a tedious hour of crafting the sign, I was proud of my work and set it up outside the display window. Thankfully I glanced to my left, and was dumbfounded that Halie’s rival store had the exact same quote on their display sign. I was so frustrated with myself for not even thinking to check the sign of the neighboring store! While it set me back another hour, I practiced the gift of patience today as it was greatly needed.
Day 4
Today was anything but ordinary . I arrived at FHI at about 8:43 and got my cool bag. We had a quick meeting, and then we headed off to our first field trip! After around 15 minutes, we arrived at modern-looking building, but we didn’t know what the building was for. Once we entered, we were greeted by a few of the employees that were going to give us a tour. We went back to the lab, and there stood numerous boxes of condoms. Yes, we had traveled to a condom lab. The scientists and researchers at this lab tested the durability of condoms by pouring water in them and… blowing them up. We were guided to a room dedicated to blowing up condoms, where we viewed 5 explosions. It was a very interesting day to say the least!
Day 4: OR 4
“Scalpel! Clamp!” – yeah; they’d don’t actually say this. Nonetheless, today was definitely one of the highlights of my WEP thus far. So, remember the patient that had trouble in paradise? Well, his surgery was the one that I had the honor of witnessing today. Dr. Logel did a complete ankle reconstruction. The best part, I sat about three feet from the patient. Anyways, Dr. Logel made three incisions: medial, lateral, and posterior of the patient’s ankle. Throughout the procedure, Dr. Logel would use wires to decide on the precise position for the screws, taking x-ray pictures throughout to see which angle was best. Thankfully, the procedure went really well and Dr. Logel didn’t need to put an external fixator to try and maintain ankle stability. An external fixator is the contraption that one might see with the pins sticking into the inflicted area and metal rods holding it in place outside of the skin. It was honestly amazing to watch how Dr. Logel took an extremely unstable ankle and was able to irrigate the debris, remove the fragmented bones, and put them back in place with the help of screws all in under an hour and a half. I am looking forward to watching more procedures on Monday!!
Day 4
“I have a masters in Geography, but now I work in a condom lab” – our tour guide and experienced PQC Lab Technician
Our last day of the first week consisted of a field trip first thing in the morning, which had been shrouded in mystery by the CTI staff. All we’d been told was that it was the PQC, or product quality and compliance lab, but after today, I know more about condoms than I ever thought I’d know – how they’re made, what they can withstand, and how long they last, among many other things. First thing Friday morning, Caroline and I rode with the UNC fellow, Lauren, and arrived at the nondescript office building that houses the PQC lab.
The lab provides quality assurance for many types of contraception and anti-malarial medicine, and is USAID’s (US Agency for International Development) quality provider for all condoms worldwide. They take a few dozen condoms from a batch of a few thousand and test them for various defects – dimensions, holes, elasticity, etc. – and if even a couple of the test group fail any test, the entire batch must be destroyed. Since the facility started in the 90s, it has tested over a billion condoms – and we got to see demonstrations of the tests.
Condoms – and other contraceptive devices – are left in sealed chamber for months at a time, and then technicians conduct tests and smell them To test for holes, the lab technicians filled them with 330 ccs (about a third of a liter of water) and then used the “squeeze and roll” method to see if any water could leak out. To test the packaging, the condoms are submerged in a sealed water chamber and the technicians watch for streams of bubbles. Speaking of sealed packaging, I was somewhat horrified to learn today that condoms aren’t required to be sterile, and our tour guide informed us he has found dirt, hair, and even insects in the condoms.The most interesting part of our tour was the airburst test. We got to watch as male and female condoms were inflated in a closed chamber until they exploded, as to pass quality standards the condoms must withstand a certain amount of pressure. It was fascinating to see just how much condoms can withstand, and we certainly had an interesting day at FHI 360.
– Hope
VID-1u3q4sm – video of the airburst test
Day 4
Today, I went to the corporative creative division. I spent most of the day just shadowing and learning what the job entails and the different jobs within the division. The really cool part of the day happened in the afternoon when our host took me to the scenic/printing and video buildings. They had 3 or so different printers that spanned the length of each room. It was really cool to learn that they are the ones who printed the CA newsletters that everyone receives. When I got there, I saw that they were printing envelopes with the CA logo on it. The scenic department was in the same building and they make everything for parties and custom décor for SAS as well as for some CA events such as the recent Charger Derby. The scenic department has a lot of machine problems which leads to many fires. The person there told us many stories about how people would turn on a machine, which would sometimes smoke and catch on fire if left unattended, which, apparently, happens a lot. The video studio was a mix of the black box and Mr. O’Neill’s video production room, except much larger. I also found out that that was where they filmed a part of Iron Man 3. In that building, there is a famous T-Rex sculpture which is so old that people don’t even know why it’s in the building. All in all, today was pretty cool and I got to see and learn about other parts of SAS that weren’t part of the rotation.
Day 4: Week One Is Done
Me: “Stop messing with the globe.”
Kid: “But I’m trying to find my house.”
M: “Fine. Where do you live?”
K: *points*
M: “You don’t live in Canada.”
K: *points again*
M: “You don’t live in Venezuela.”
K: *points again*
M: “You do not live in the Indian Ocean. You live in North Carolina.”
K: *points again*
M: “That’s Antarctica…”
I successfully made it through the first week, and with only about twelve meltdowns, none of which were mine! Today was a chaotic and wonderful way to end the week because the kindergarten class had a rehearsal for their concert next week, and the entire school had “Super Kids Day” today.
I think I need to learn how to say “no” more often… As the kids were rehearsing their ridiculously adorable songs about moving from kindergarten to first grade, using the tunes of Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York”, Vic Mizzy’s “The Addams Family”, and Grease’s “Summer Nights”, the teachers and I noticed the kids were either too fast or too slow. At the moment, RCES doesn’t have a full-time music teacher due to events earlier this year, and none of the kindergarten teachers are musically trained. I mentioned that I had been in choirs for years and that my mom was a music teacher, and whaddaya know, guess who has 1.5 working hands and is directing over 100 five-, six-, and seven-year-olds in a concert on Wednesday? This gal right here. Mama, I hope I make you proud. Stay tuned next week for more concert fun.
In the afternoon, the children participated in “Super Kids Day”, which basically consists of a bunch of small humans running around screaming, dripping wet, throwing things through holes or at other small humans, becoming even crazier from the fifty billion popsicles they eat. Some schools refer to it as Field Day. At Cary Academy, it can be compared to the Middle School’s Charger Cup or Fun Fest. Pro tip regarding Super Kids Day: don’t let the kids hug you until you know they’ve changed their clothes (soaking children = soggy hugs). Watching the kids run wild and free after a week of no outside recess because of EOG testing was probably the highlight of my week. It was just the right time for some much needed fun in the sun.
Day 4- Fun Fact! Antibodies Are Magenta
I apologize ahead of time for the length of this post, but a lot happened today. For my final day shadowing Dr. Rob, I spent the first half of it not anywhere remotely near Dr. Rob himself. As soon as I arrived, he handed me my labcoat and a tray of antibodies that needed to be concentrated, and sent me to the quality control lab downstairs to a man named Brent (or Mr. Brent if I wanted to be formal). His specialty lie in the rows upon rows of machines that I mentioned earlier when I first Dr. Rob took me on the tour Monday.
Brent showed me how to operate the larger centrifuge, and showed me how to properly set up the container used to filter out the unnecessary parts of the antibody liquid, which took relatively little learning before I got the hang of it.
Now, centrifuging is a bit of a time intensive process, with about half an hour in between each cycle for this (the samples probably required about eight cycles, which I unfortunately didn’t have time to complete). In the mean time, I talked with Brent about his career, what sort of research he’s done up to now, and the current projects that he’s working on. He told me about his time at Emory University, where his close friend was one of very few people who was offered an internship at the CDC in Atlanta- the center where they handle the most dangerous diseases. Apparently, when he stepped into the extensive cleaning procedure researchers are required to go through at the end of the day, failing to realize that they also cleaned inside of the “spacesuits” themselves, he immediately panicked, thinking he had been contaminated with the Ebola he had been working with all day. Additionally, Brent had been allowed to use his blood cultures to show how Ebola grows and spreads, and it turns out that the virus liked him and his blood… quite a bit.
His research now is more categorical. Most labs, like those at NCCU, have significant amount of stored compounds. Unfortunately, people often forget to fully label them or sort them at all, leading to thousands of compounds that people don’t really know the makeup of. This is where Brent’s work comes in. He uses liquid chromatography and spectroscopy in order to determine the chemical makeup of each sample. The data evaluation takes a lot of time, and is very different from his previous work mostly on cancer cells, but he enjoys it nonetheless.
Finally, after leaving Dr. Rob’s lab, I’ve come away with a few new pieces of knowledge about a lab environment. The machines are rather loud, and you’d be surprised at how much safety protocol the more experienced researchers ignore. But, on the more serious side, I’ve learned to do all sorts of things, and observe all sorts of things, that I could never see in high school. I’ve been allowed to see and experience a professional lab environment that does research with real life impacts. In addition, I’ve also come away with a summer internship. I look forward to returning to Dr. Rob’s in the months to come.