Thursday, January 12, 2012

Schedules, Students, and the Spring Semester!

I often speak about how much I love my job at Udining!  My favorite thing about it is that I work with so many international students.  The first couple weeks of the semester my life tends to revolve around these schedules and trying to fill about 540 hours of shifts with an average of 60 people and their class and social schedules.
The majority of my staff is from Rwanda! 5 years ago I could not have shown you where Rwanda was on the map of Africa and now every time I see it on a map it amazes me how this tiny country (in comparison to the African continent) has had such an amazing impact on my life! 
These students are so talented and so smart and I will be honest I am so grateful that I am one of the few places they can work!  They amaze me how they work together when someone needs a day off to make sure the shifts are covered.  They sign up for extra shifts when we have caterings.  I know at any given time I have "world changers" washing dishes and serving food at the OC caf and do it well, with pride, and humility! I think my odds are pretty good that someday a president of Rwanda will have worked for me!
This semester at Udining our Student staff statistics are:
  • 61 student workers
  • 15 Americans
  • 46 International Students from:
    • Rwanda (33 Students)
    • China
    • Kenya
    • Ghana
    • Haiti
    • Burundi
    • Brazil
    • Nepal
    • Spain
I love that everyday I come in contact with people with a different world view than mine! I love that I am challenged everyday to see things from a different perspective! I love that I learn about different cultures!  I feel beyond blessed to do what I do everyday! I can not wait to see the amazing things these students and the ones that came before them will do to make this world a better place and I feel very blessed to know them and to be a small part of their life while they get an education here at OC  and I know I am a better person for knowing each one of them.

Now...if I can just manage to love the revolving student schedule which I am convinced is God's way of teaching me flexibility, patience, and to keep working on my perfectionism! There is always 1 shift I cannot fill! HAHA

6 comments:

  1. Ha ha. Nice one Jen. It's a nice experience working with you.
    There is so much diversity all over. Personally I like the multi cultural experience too.

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  2. Thank you Jen. I appreciate you helping us in different ways. I think I do learn a lot of things from working at U-Dining

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  3. Wow, I had no idea of the detail of what you do! It will be so cool in heaven, to know so many diverse people upon arrival!

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  4. Always a pleasure to work with grateful and encouraging people.

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  5. Nice blogging Jen! I can personally assure you that you do your work well on the top of your family and other responsibilities. I have learned a lot from you. You are a nice person.
    May God, your father, bless your heart and keep you strong! You rock! :)

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  6. Thank you Jen for that spirit filled testimony of your love for a Godly given job and the student workers at UDining. I am always thankful to God for you when I have to organize something because you always encourage/help your student worker (me included) to be organized in their studies, work, and life in general as to avoid stress, frustration, and missing the great blessings of God in their life.

    God asks all of us to be Holy just as he is (Leviticus 19:2), I trust in God that you will be holy (not perfectionist..lol) always and find a place to grow and help other grow for His own glory.

    Alain . S

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