On Saturday, we had the Sweetheart CASA luncheon at Outback Steakhouse and last I heard, we raised over 2,000 dollars! Since we only had 3 weeks to sell 150 tickets and ended up selling 140 of them, I’d say it was a success. As happy as I am that so much money was raised for the Athens-Oconee CASA program, I am SO SO glad that the event is over - so much stress off my shoulders :)

To celebrate the success of the fundraising event, my friends and I spent the evening painting away at Artini’s Art Lounge…nothing beats painting VanGogh’s Starry Night while you split a bottle of wine with your favorite ladies <3 

Julie wasn’t impressed by my dance moves…but the woman to her right found me quite entertaining!

We had SUCH a great time - as you can see, I wasn’t nearly as into my painting as the woman sitting across from me. I actually think I might be laughing at her facial expression in this picture

The final product!!! Almost better than the original! 

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Whoa lady, settle down….it’s the 3rd day of class. 

I’ve been planning a CASA fundraiser luncheon for over a month and even though all the details are finalized, I’m still a bit nervous about how everything is going to turn out. I tend to have extraordinarily high expectations for things like this (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), but I feel like I’m the only one that truly wants the event to be a success.

For instance, I stopped by the CASA office the other day to drop off the event tickets and what was one of the first questions they asked me? – “What if we don’t sell all of the tickets?” I know that’s an important concern to raise, but the way it was asked made me feel like they’re already planning to come up short. I just got so personally invested into this event and the last thing I want is for it to be a complete failure…

Here are the event details:

*We will also be raffling off over $200 in gift certificates for local restaurants!*

So Athenians, if you are interested in attending the CASA Sweetheart Luncheon on February 4^th, please contact me at rebeka.geer@gmail.com 

So much has happened!

1. Kevin bought me a new laptop because mine completely died. I was lucky enough to get a few of my documents off it beforehand, and I’m hoping Geek squad can figure out a way to turn it on so I can get everything else off of it. And if you’re wondering…my Korean notes never translated back to English, so I had to retype them from scratch – such a waste of time

2. I had an interview at Jackson Spalding which is a PR firm right here in Athens, and I’d absolutely love to intern there next semester. I think the interview went really well and this they emailed me the writing test. I had 90 minutes to answer some grammar questions, write a media pitch, construct short and long-term goals for a crisis situation, and a short response about what I could bring to the company. I didn’t do horribly but given the time constraint, it definitely wasn’t my best work….we’ll have to just wait and see!

3. I’ve begun planning a fundraising event for the Athens-Oconee CASA program! I’m so, so excited about this – the “CASA Sweetheart Luncheon” is going to be on February 4^th and it’s going to be a buffet-style lunch sponsored by Outback Steakhouse! We are going to sell around 150 tickets for $20 each and all of the proceeds will benefit the Athens-Oconee CASA program. I can’t even begin to explain the financial stress that the CASA program is under and more than anything, I want this event to be a success! My goal is to raise $5000 (If you would like to donate to the Athens-Oconee CASA program, please click on the donation widget on the right-hand side of the screen!)

And on top of all that excitement, I only have two more weeks of class and the assignments are piling up:

• 10 page paper about CASA for my independent learning class
• 7 page paper about the Horatio Alger Association for my Leadership and Service class
• 5 page paper for Theater
•  Theater test
•  Advertising and PR Test

Just a few more weeks of hard work, and I’m sure I can pull off a 4.0 this semester!

On Saturday, I went to the UGA game with my friend Julie and it was an absolute blast! We went to a friend’s tailgate before, and of course we hit up the Outback tailgate to get some free food (where we were able to snag a few pictures with Hairy Dog, UGA’s mascot!) The weather was perfect for a game day and the Dawgs walked away with a massive victory:

The man I asked to take our picture might have had a few too many breski’s - hence the diagonal photo, haha

Getting ready to tee it up between the hedges!

45 - 7? I’ll take it!

As part of my leadership and service class, my group has decided to adopt a few students at a local elementary school that are deserving of a great Christmas. We will provide Christmas goodies to five of the most adorable munchkins on the planet: K’aliyah, Tara, Brett, Briana, and Shamari. If you’re not familiar with my addiction to Christmas giving, check out this crazy video of me stuffing stockings for my African babies!

(As you can see I. Love. Christmas.)

If you would like to help make this service project a success (and give a child a Christmas they will never forget), please send a donation via paypal to uga.christmaskids@gmail.com!

Please reblog this post to help get the word out! 

Before and After:

It’s been a long month of training, but we did it ladies! To learn more about the Athens-Oconee CASA, visit the Children First website (or “like” our facebook page!!).  For more information about what it takes to become a CASA, click here.

Since June, the number of children being placed into foster care has increased by 200% - and these children need to be advocated for.

The Theta chapter at UGA will be hosting a CASA carnival next Wednesday, October 5, from 5-8pm. Hamburgers and hotdogs will be served, as well as other carnival treats including popcorn, cotton candy, and snow cones. There will also be live music, face painting, and of course - a dunking booth! Tickets are $5 and can be purchased from all Thetas or you can buy a ticket at the door. 

So if any of you live in Athens, GA or attend the University of Georgia, please reblog this post!! 

We were assigned over 300 pages of reading and the exam only had 38 questions.

38. questions. 

After I finished beating myself up for getting a 79, I noticed those lucky few who managed to get a score below 5.

note to all: taking a test in college is like being punched in the face repeatedly for 52 minutes - and if you think you did poorly on an exam, check out the test statistics and think “hey, at least my score is in the double digits.”

As most have you have realized, I have this wonderful ability to overload my schedule with 235 credit hours and never ending shifts at Outback Steakhouse…well this semester is going to be crazy, but a crazy that I’m going to absolutely love.

Class-wise, I’m only taking 13 hours: An appreciation of dramatic theater as an elective class (THEA2000), Advertising in Public Relations (ADPR3100), a leadership and service class (ALDR3900S), and a guided project in service leadership (ALDR4000).  Both of my leadership classes have a service component that requires me to volunteer with local non-profits and I can already tell that I’m going to commit so much time to this (but love every second of it!!). I’ve already got in touch with an AMAZING organization called Communities in Schools where I will be serving as a mentor for Athens Area foster children. I was so worried that I wouldn’t be able to work directly with foster kids because of confidentiality issues, but thankfully, I can. I’m still waiting to hear back from the organization so I haven’t quite got the ball rolling yet, but the program is definitely in the works!

CASA volunteer training begins tomorrow so I’m sure my Children First internship is about to take up a large chunk of my time as well. I’ve made announcements in all of my classes so far asking for new volunteers, so hopefully, we’ll get a great batch of people tomorrow evening :)

I’ve also remained in contact with the company I interned with this summer and I’m going to be working on projects for them as well. Even though I have no desire to work in the interactive cable industry, I loved the people I worked with so much that I’m going to keep the door open for future projects (if I have enough time, of course).

And finally, I’ll be working at Outback on Thursdays, Fridays and all day Sundays. As my Mt. Rainier climb gets closer – and my $1600 due date draws near – I’m sure I’ll be picking up additional shifts each week. But until then, 3 days a week is enough for me.

I’m anticipating a crazy awesome semester full of all-nighters…but I’m going to love every second of it! I’m so glad I’ve finally figured out where I’m meant to be!