Corey Funderburk's Field Reports

Bye!

Corey Funderburk — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:49:24 -0600

Hi Everyone!
This is really more of a goodbye as tomorrow is my last day as a VISTA :'(. I have absolutely loved my time serving with CTC so I want to say thank you to everyone who has made it such a great program (that's you HQ!)! You guys are great and supportive, not to mention extremely fun (makes all the difference).
To all of your other VISTAs who I have been so blessed to serve with, you rock! I loved getting to talk to everyone, going to conferences, forming new Facebook friendships, blogging with each other, sharing funny stories, talking on conference calls, etc. I hope everyone's terms have made an impact on their lives and the future holds even more!
So, just to recap on my life a bit (I learned when I logged in that the last time I posted a blog was 20 weeks ago... my bad), tomorrow I will have worked at the Pangea Foundation in San Diego for an entire year! I've learned so much and really been given a lot of responsibility and freedom to assist the organization. I always felt like a real employee and one of the team, but I am happy to say that starting Monday it's going to be official! I've been given the position of Systems Architect at Pangea Foundation. Basically, that means I get to work with the client (a wide variety of non-profits) to design the front-end/user interface of their new data management system (used for grant/funder evaluation and proving effectiveness). It's really pretty exciting and fulfilling. I help them: determine what fields need to be included in forms (and how the forms should be laid out), determine how they want to report their data (and how the reports will look), develop training materials/perform trainings, do tech support, etc.. I like the variety that my position offers me, I love my co-workers and I love feeling like what I do makes a difference. I definitely would not have been able to get this great position without putting in my time as an AmeriCorps first so I am really grateful for the opportunity to serve!
Some of the projects that I've accomplished while here include assisting in creating systems and training materials to help with and evaluate the hurricane relief effort, senior and low-income housing, and mentoring programs. I've gotten to travel a lot in order to train users and attend conferences as well (DC [ya, NTEN!!], Alabama, Mississippi, Seattle, soon Salt Lake City). All in all, pretty awesome.
The main struggle I had to overcome was figuring out my loan situation. My advice on that is to get the ball rolling as soon as possible so that if there are any issues you can get them taken care of before it's too late. Also, Danielle wrote a great doc on it that you should reference (Sorry Danielle, I'm too lazy to try and figure out how to reference it here...).
Anyone who wants to see more about me or keep in touch, please befriend me on Facebook - I keep that pretty well updated.
Good luck to everyone!
(Ameri-)Corey

Interesting new Google Tool

Corey Funderburk — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:50:40 -0600

I recently heard about this new tool that Google offers through its Maps page. Basically, the tool connects you via phone (for free!) to any business you search for on Google Maps. This works for long distance or local calls. It could be of great use to non-profits trying to save a little money, if you're at a phone that does not allow calls outside a certain area, or even if you're at a pay phone.

So, here's how it works:

1) Navigate to Google Maps.

2) Under the search text box, click on the link for "Find businesses."

3) Type in the name of the business in the first box and an approximate location in the second box. Then search. You should get a result similar to below (I searched for my org., the Pangea Foundation, in San Diego):

4) Once here, there are two places you can select "Call" - in the left side listing or in the little pop-up on the map. The following screen appears when "Call" is selected:

5) Now, you enter whatever phone number you want to use to call the business (i.e., your cell phone, office phone, pay phone, etc.) and click "Connect for free." Google will immediately call you (the number you just provided). As soon as you answer you will hear ringing as you are connected (for free!) to the business you wanted to call. (If you are using a cell phone, you will still be using your minutes, but otherwise there are no fees.)

6) In the picture, this is the link for the Learn More option.

Hope that's useful to someone!

When "Benefits" aren't enough

Corey Funderburk — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:23:48 -0600

Hey guys,

Anyone out there have one of those pesky "pre-existing conditions" that our benefits prefer not to cover? Well, I did, and it was time to fulfill a prescription (for a measly, oh, $150!) so it came time to find some alternatives!

Anyway, my doctor turned me on to a "patient assistance" program. Basically, I searched online for the website of the company that manufactures the medication I needed and then sent them an email explaining my financial situation. I received a reply the next day complete with information on patient assistance programs and an application to be completed by my doctor and myself. A completed application, attached tax forms and a month of waiting later and I am happy to say I received a little medical card from the company giving me my prescription for FREE! Booyah!

Hope this helps anyone out there who might have a similar issue. Good luck!

Projects, Daytrips and Life in General

Corey Funderburk — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:30:00 -0700

There has been a lot going on in my neck of the woods (San Diego, CA).

Work:
For one thing, my company, the Pangea Foundation, was just granted a contract to develop databasing software to be used in the Home Again Mississippi project (I think that is the project; If not, you get to see a cool webpage with stories). It is really such an honor that a company as small as ours was chosen to do such an enormous project. Unfortunately, though, we only have until March 30th to finish (people need homes!) and we just found out we got the job yesterday! Craziness! The gist is that there was some sort of insurance/state relief decision made where select people are each being given $100,000 to rebuild/repair their homes. However, the state of Mississippi has no way to track who needs it, at what stage they're at or any of the other details that go along with it. So along comes Pangea to the rescue! They saw some of our other systems and have heard about our great tech support and training assistance (ya baby) and felt we were the company for them. It's so exciting! Our software will hopefully expedite the process of all of the people getting the funds they need to rebuild their homes. Woot!

Second, Laura and I went to a Cultural Proficiency seminar last Friday that was very interesting. Many of the counselors who we are working with on our new AP Tracking system were there so it was good to network with them in addition to learning about cultural differences and how to overcome them.

Third, the mentoring program for which we have been working on a tracking system has been growing by leaps and bounds! It used to be just Wednesday mornings but then there was a waiting list to get involved! So now there is a Thursday morning session as well! (That was a lot of exclamation points, I apologize.) We help Karen, the program director at our office, get things organized and input all of the new data for the programs. It's been fun and I'm glad it's growing.

Moving away from work onto daytrips and fun times:

Laura, Mike Denegal (former VISTA leader) and I took a daytrip to Tijuana on Sunday.

It was way too much fun. Here's a link for pictures. Check them out! It was cool because we took the trolley from our office which was only $5 roundtrip and were able to just walk across the border, thereby missing all of the traffic and wait times! Everything is pretty cheap down there and there is a lot going on. If you ever make it to San Diego, it’s totally a fun thing to do.

Laura and I have also been taking some free classes at one of the continuing education campuses here in San Diego. We started off with HTML and then moved onto Dreamweaver (all the way through intermediate!) and Photoshop. It’s so cool to be able to learn new skills and expand horizons! There is totally one of those guys who can’t keep his hand down in lecture and likes to argue with the teacher (you all know what I’m talking about) but besides that, class is awesome.

Otherwise, fun things I’ve been doing include going to cheap local concerts, watching movies and baking. Oh yeah, and doing Tae Bo videos with new and improved Billy Bands (yeah, I’m weird)! You guys are going to see Laura and me at the conference and be like, “Dang, those girls are svelte.” Just kidding…

Thought provoking life questions:

I came to the realization the other day that my VISTA term is nearly half over. What that really means is that my year of procrastination that was to be used for deciding what I wanted to do with the rest of my life is nearly half over. I feel like I haven’t come to any real conclusions. I really like technology and when I work at it, I can learn and accomplish a lot, but I’m no techy genius, unlike many of my fellow VISTAs out there! I just don’t feel I have a ton to offer sometimes. I majored in business and I am pretty good at that – organizing, planning, implementing, etc. I could draw you a pretty nice supply/demand graph any day of the week. However, I’ve found that really putting things into practice is often difficult. All I really know is that I want to be useful and I want to help people but I don’t know in what area I can do that most efficiently. I know I don’t want to go back to school. I should probably move away from San Diego for an adventure and growth but it’s just so comfortable here for me. My family is here, my friends are here, I know my way around (Anyone who knows me well knows that is huge because I have absolutely NO sense of direction). So yeah, anyone out there in the same boat? Have any suggestions or ideas?

Hope everyone is doing well and that no one has frozen over with the recent weather. Looking forward to seeing many of you in April at NTEN!

Pancakes!

Corey Funderburk — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:35:41 -0700

Just wanted to give you all a head's up that it's the National Pancake Day Celebration at IHOP (I think IHOP is nation-wide, the name would denote International.... =)

Travel Tip

Corey Funderburk — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 15:00:15 -0700

Our fellow VISTA, Carl, sent me a website for a great airfare finder: http://www.farecast.com/

It's pretty cool because it not only tells you where to find the cheapest fare, but gives advice on whether to buy now or later based on trends in airfare prices. If you haven't bought your airfare for the conference yet, I definitely suggest you check it out.

Thanks for the help Carl! (Especially since he lives in DC and doesn't even have to travel. What a swell guy!)

Are We NTEN Members?

Corey Funderburk — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 12:19:22 -0700

I see on the CTC website that we are now in a partnership with NTEN. Does that mean that we are members and can get the discounted rate when we sign up for the conference?

Thanks!

Issues and Updates

Corey Funderburk — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 13:16:47 -0700

It has truly been a while since I wrote a blog. Anyone who reads Laura's blogs, however, pretty much knows what I'm doing. My friends here in San Diego call Laura my "life partner" because we spend so much time together - living, commuting, working. Thankfully, we get along and haven’t killed each other yet :). I feel like recently most of my time has been spent in trying to overcome a lot of bureaucracy.

Issue #1: Ed Award. I recently discovered that my loan doesn't necessarily fall into the "qualified" definition of a loan for which an Ed Award can be applied. Apparently, for a loan to be “qualified” it has to be given by the state/federal government. Why then, don’t they say “qualified state/federal loan?” I received a special loan through my school’s alumni association that is interest free so it is considered private. To transfer a loan to a federal one, you have to be currently enrolled in school. Well, had these “qualifications” been explicitly written on the website when I was first looking into AmeriCorps (I was still in school) I might have been able to change it. Instead, however, I joined up and even completed orientation without the slightest inkling that my loan would not be accepted. Thankfully, after a lot of conversations and some letter writing I have been able to get my loan approved. Yae!

Issue #2: Healthcare. For details on these shenanigans, you should read Laura’s blog. The basic gist – it is pretty much impossible to find a clinic in San Diego. The one clinic listed within 30 miles on Seven Corner’s website is only for children. Believe me, it’s true, we went there twice. How many juveniles are AmeriCorps members? Probably not many. I did look into finding a doctor when I first signed up but never followed through. My bad. Honestly, though, that wouldn’t have helped in Laura’s situation unless they had after-hours, same day appointments available. It is important to be able to go to some sort of 24-hour emergency center and in San Diego, that doesn’t seem to be a possibility with AmeriCorps benefits (not insurance). By the way, downtown inner-city emergency rooms = not so fun. Thank goodness for the Purell dispenser on the wall. I read Danielle’s reply to Laura’s blog and I was absolutely shocked by the advice Danielle had been given, “…show up at the ER and declare you have no insurance - depending on the state, you sometimes get better coverage that way than if you tell them about Seven Corners.” That is so sad. I told Mike Denegal what Danielle said about asking him for advice, he just laughed and said, “I love Danielle :).”

Now that I’m pretty much done ranting and raving I can tell you all about the things I’ve been up to at Pangea. Pangea is a non-profit software development company that specializes in web-based resident data management tools (I know it’s a mouthful). Our current systems include: AASC Online, AASC Families, Abilities4RSC, and Mercy Families. Here’s a little rundown on what these actually do: The systems are designed for service coordinators (like social workers who live on-site at an elderly home, low-income family housing project, etc). These service coordinators have daily contact with their residents in which they sort of act like a concierge would at a hotel – they provide services for their residents, whatever those might be. These services are provided in hopes that residents can improve their livelihoods and/or become self-sufficient. For example, say Mr. Johnston is living with his family in government-funded, low-income housing and needs to get a job but doesn’t have many skills. The service coordinator could invite him to a computer class that he/she is putting on, set him up to attend someone else’s, or possibly even help him get involved in a degree- or certificate-earning program. Anything she does for him she inputs into one of the systems. Two months later, after finishing his classes, Mr. Johnston lands a great networking assistant job at a local company and is able to move he and his family into an independent apartment building (that is, he no longer requires financial assistance to pay his rent). Well, this outcome is also recorded into the system. So, in the end, the system has recorded the steps the service coordinator took to assist Mr. Johnston in becoming independent. Having it in an electronic format allows the service coordinators to run reports and have tangible proof of the good they are doing. This translates into more government grants and funding for their residences and, therefore, more people helped. To try to keep track of all of this by hand would be mind boggling, whereas the systems can do it in about 5 seconds.

So that’s the basic idea, and now you may be wondering, “So what do you do AmeriCorey?” Laura and I have been working on the design of two main information systems: Abilities 4 Mentoring and Abilities 4 Education. Basically we get to design all of the forms and reports from the front-end perspective. The Mentoring system tracks mentoring relationships and their outcomes: Did the mentee’s grades improve? Did he/she stay out of trouble? The Education system is specific to San Diego City Schools and is being built in coordination with a grant given to track AP testing and its effects. The schools want to see if students who take part in programs like AVID or AP classes are more likely to go to college. In addition to these new systems, all of the older systems are constantly being upgraded so we end up doing lots of testing to find the bugs and quirks as well as field tech-support calls. Additionally, we’ve been working on updating training materials for all of the systems.

By the way, we got a little gift from our buddies at Microsoft. Apparently, this is what half a million dollars looks like:

Enough about work. One thing I am very excited about is the change from CNET to the NTEN conference. I went to college in LA and I am totally over that city (No offense to true Los Angelens, I just want a change of scenery). I am definitely excited to have some Washington DC adventures: new maps, subways, dead presidents, dollar theaters, the possibilities abound! Oh yeah, and learning at the conference too I guess.

This blog has become freakishly long. I’m making up for lost time I guess. Anyhow, I hope you all had amazing holidays and are refreshed and ready to get back to saving the world!

Corey

Pangea Life

Corey Funderburk — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 13:20:42 -0700

Hi all,

I hope that everyone had a great Halloween! Laura and I followed through on the Chipotle Boo-rito idea and I believe she will have the pics posted in her blog, so check them out! Besides that, work has been picking up quite a bit. It's nice to feel like I have a place in my organization now. I'm going to give a quick rundown of my most recent tasks:

Training Manual Updates: Basically, taking new screen shots and writing explanations as our systems are constantly evolving. I'm working on the version for the end-users (service coordinators in our case).
Laptop/Desktop Deployment: Setting up laptops for our co-workers to use at conferences for a computer lab they set up as well as for doing demos of the software we develop.
System Testing: We had to check that transfered data was moved correctly from one system to another by spot-checking different residents' info. Also checking that links, titles, content, etc are correct and working within the system.
Software Architecture: Continuing to develop the software for our Mentoring program including building forms, researching inputs and reports and working with the actual program functioning - watching the trainings. These trainings help us to see what kinds of activities go on and help us to make our forms more comprehensive and useful.
Researching for Education project - Our company received a grant to build software for tracking AP and Honors classes/tests in San Diego high schools. The idea is to see if classes like AP, Honors, AVID, etc are adding to students' abilities to succeed (i.e., go to college, get a job, etc).

So, that is basically it for me. I'm still working on my loan issues. No one seemed to be able to help. I wrote a scathing letter to my university with a referral from a past professor. Hopefully something will work out :-/. As far as the rest of life, things are going very well. I've been playing indoor soccer (highly recommended), going bike riding a ton, and doing some baking. Laura and I went to the Haunted Trail in Balboa Park (near our apartment in San Diego) and got chased by ghouls, goblins and creepsters running with chainsaws - good times. We even rode our bikes to visit this random, self-maintained topiary garden a few miles from our apartment. Some person turned their entire yard into a zoo full of topiary animals. Pretty nifty. Anyway, hope all is well!

AmeriCorey

Free Food Alert!!!

Corey Funderburk — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 17:45:22 -0600

Hey Everybody!

I just wanted to tell you all about this fun/free Halloween opportunity. I did it last year and it was a total blast. Basically, at Chipotle (really good burritos - is it only a West Coast chain?) if you dress like any of their menu items (using tinfoil) on Halloween, they'll give you a free burrito!!! My friends and I misunderstood and just dressed in tinfoil - Chip n' Dale dancer, Jailbird, Angel, Baby, etc. It was way fun and funny. Plus, what cheaper costume can you get than a roll of tinfoil? Anyway, hope everyone is doing well. Happy Halloween!

http://www.chipotle.com/email/06-html-198.htm

Americorey