Global Posts

This portfolio aims to display who I am as not only a worker, but a person. There are so many aspects that going into picking and choosing a career and these highlight those ideas. Professionalism is very important but I also feel that it is important to be raw and truthful all at the same time. It may not be the norm but I think that’s how someone can get a good idea of who you are and who they want.

Personal Information

Lorali Wray
loraliwray@gmail.com

2440 Hillsboro Quay
(757)-472-3480

Objective

My goal for a job after I graduate is to find something that I enjoy doing and that will make it possible to survive in this economy. I honestly don’t know exactly what that is but I will have to figure it out and I fell that things will happen the way they are supposed too.

Examples:
Seeking a federal position that specializes in human trafficking
Seeking a position that utilizes my skills in research, analyzing, and critical thinking.

Education

Floyd E. Kellam High School
Virginia Beach, Virginia
June 18, 2022
Graduated with honors

Work and Experience

Auto Connection- Virginia Beach, Helper

I did things like copy and keep track of invoices, order parts and deliver cars to other shops. I also did things like oil changes, plugging tires and delivering news to customers.

Patriot Electrical Wiring- Virginia Beach, Apprentice

I basically did anything and everything I could. I learned and installed thermostats and wired units. I would order and deliver parts and help with blueprint reading.

Sports

I played basketball in high school and my freshman year of college.

I cheered competitively from age 5-17, I also cheered for school in middle and high school.

Skills

Soft skills: being responsible, loyal, hardworking and organized
Hard skills: research and writing, analyzing data, Excel and networking

References  

Alecia Eimer

Contact: (757)-531-6002

Sargent Josh Gooch

Contact: (757)-404-1109

I want the main focus of my work to help people. I want to make a difference in individual lives and the world as a whole. My love of family and wanting to build my own one day is what motivates me. Work is important but family will always come first in my book.

I wouldn’t say I have lot’s of experience in criminal justice but I am confident that I have a well rounded amount of experience in plenty areas. I help my dad run his electrical company and when I’m home I help my mom with her stay at home daycare business. I love kids and I also love challenging myself and learning all types of things. The summer before I came back to school I worked at Auto Connection and picked up not only handy skills but also people skills.

I want my future career to be flexible with a family life and provide that fulfillment that makes me want to come to work everyday.

Some skills I feel like I have down is organization, networking and people skills and also going with the flow and being as flexible as I can.

Most people would say I like to stay very organized because it helps me stay on track when it comes to my work.

Im well aware my dad isn’t some big celebrity but I would choose to do the best I can to turn out like him. He built his life from nothing and has turned it into something beautiful and ambitious. He has values I adore and also am passionate about and in all his work he never looses sight of what matters most, family.

My topic is religion and how that relates and contributes to my identity

Tailgating with your student and their friends. High-energy basketball games in our top-notch arena.  Live music that will keep you dancing. Campus tours that will give you a glimpse into what campus life is like.

All this and more happens in just one month at Longwood’s Homecoming & Alumni Weekend, set for November 8-10. If you haven’t registered, we’d hate for you to miss it! And we’d love for you to bring the whole family. Lancer spirit will be over the top with the more than 700 alumni, current students, family members and friends expected to attend.

We especially want to make sure you have priority access to purchase tickets to the basketball matchups in our state-of-the-art arena, which are expected to sell out once released to the general public next week. Register by Oct. 15 to get this priority access.

So don’t worry, you still have time to get in on the energy and excitement by registering now: go.longwood.edu/homecoming

• Register by Oct. 15 for priority access to basketball tickets in our beautiful arena, which just opened last year.
• Get this year’s Go Wood shirt FREE.
• It all starts on Friday with a picnic-style Homecoming Kickoff dinner (including one free drink ticket), an exciting circus show for all ages, a preview of Farmville nightlife with DJ Joe Fu at local hot spot North Street Press Club and spooky ghost tours of campus to end the night.
• Don’t miss the exclusive, only-chance opportunity to buy a 2024 Longwood Scarf at the Lancer Family Tailgate for just $10 each.
• Speaking of tailgates… Be sure to bring your chairs, pack some food, and fill your cooler (alcohol is allowed within the tailgate area) for the BYOB Lancer Family Tailgate, starting at 10 a.m. Saturday. From there, we will head to the basketball game as our men take on Morgan State. Want to reserve a tailgate space? See your registration confirmation email for more details.
• After the game, join other Lancer fans for a meet-up at 3 Roads Brewing, and then head to the after party at local favorite North Street Press Club, where live music from The Tight Slacks will keep you dancing into the wee hours of the night.
• And finally, enjoy brunch in our current dining hall Sunday morning, then join us as the women’s basketball team takes on Hood College during Educators Appreciation Day, a collaboration between Longwood Athletics and the Office of Teacher Preparation. Are you a current or retired schoolteacher, administrator, or supporting staff member? If so, we are excited to offer you up to four FREE tickets. Details in your Homecoming registration confirmation.

Need more details about why this is a weekend you don’t want to miss? To view the full Homecoming & Alumni Weekend schedule and register today, visit go.longwood.edu/homecoming.

Adults: $35 (through Oct. 31); children (ages 6-17): $15; children (5 and under): FREE.

The more the merrier! We hope to see you there!

Please contact the Office of Alumni and Career Success with any additional questions. They can be reached at (434) 395-2044 or alumni@longwood.edu.

—Sabrina Brown

Hello my name is Caleb Grizzard. You can reach by email Caleb.grizzard@live.longwood.edu. I am currently a sophomore with a major of Sociology and a minor of PK-12. I would love to work in any part of Virginia. I am an college athlete and with my career aspiration I would love to play professionally, but if I can’t make it that far I would love to be a college baseball head coach. 

Coursework

SOCL 220

Identity Portfolio Part 2

Internal Dimensions: I am 21 years old, male, straight, college athlete, white, and I would say I am an extroverted. I am a very outgoing person and love to socialize to people. 

External Dimensions: Regarding geographic location, I would love to work in part of Virginia because I do love Virginia and would love to stay close to my family. Being a college baseball coach I would be making around 51k a year. Personal habits I like to do is hang out with my friends and also hang out with my girlfriend. Also, I love going and golfing with anyone who likes to go have fun out on the golf course. Talking about golf I have been working at Magnolia Green Golf Course for the past 6 years the experience I have is landscaping, washing carts, and cooking food. My religion is Christianity. I would love to graduate in the next three years and just get my bachelor’s degree and I would not stay in college any longer than that. I love to keep clean and also whenever I go out I love to dress casually. I have no kids currently but in the future I would love to have two kids. I would also love to get married in the next 5 years.

Organizational Dimensions: For the work field, Division/ department unit, and seniority I would like to be a head coach for a division 1 college baseball team. Work location I would like to stay in Virginia if possible but if I can’t I would go to another state. For political affiliation, I am a Republican. I am unemployed at the moment due to being in college. 

Four identities I would like to talk about more about my life are personal habits, marital status, geographic location, and religion. These four identities are the most important to me because they represent my life best and will represent my family in the future with my wife and kids. Starting with personal habits I will always love having my alone time with my friends even if it’s at a bar or the golf course. Also, having alone time with my wife in the future for a date or any activity we would like to do outside of the house. Like mini golf or going to the movie theater. Marital status is huge to me because I would love to have a family and that would be the biggest goal to accomplish. The geographic location is big. I don’t think I could ever go too far from my family because I am a family person and I know I would love to always go visit and have time with them every week. Lastly, religion is big to me because I love being a Christian man and I would like to be a Christian. All the identities All four of these identities are met in the same dimension being external dimensions. These four identities would help me feel more positive, excited, welcomed, and self-esteem.

Resume

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hnBXSQLbWJ2X-LVnAIa0pGaNBI4KcuabrU-TyM1hJNk/edit?usp=sharing

Critical Thinking

Problem solving/ Thinking from all suspectives/ Leading to good decision

Professionalism

certian type of attitudes/ acting responsible and accountable/ being able to communicate

Communitcation

sharing thought and ideas/ be willing to know if your right or wrong/ making sure if everyone has the information in the correct format

Teamwork

collaboration/ respectful of others ideas/ everyone contributing and everyones listening/ holding everyone accountable

Professional Examples

Critical Thinking- I demonstrate critical thinking by solving a problem with my teammates. While I was performing as a baseball player.

Professionalism- I demonstrate professionalism by being respectful to my professor. While I was performing as a student.

Communication- I demonstrate communication by helping out a classmate with his homework. While I was performing as a student.

Teamwork- I demonstrate teamwork by letting others in my group talk about what we should do in our presentation. While I was performing as a student.

What is my purpose to work?

Provide for my family in the future/ Having a place to stay/ Not being lazy

What motivates me?

I would say my family and friends motivates me.

How does your “why” impact your career path?

To actually have things to come back to like a house, food, kids, wife, pets, and TV

What jobs/experince have made I feel fulfilled?

When I was a carboy for a golf course it was awesome taking to alot of people and trying to get then to buy golf balls before a round.

How can a future career align with those experiences?

I would say sales could be the best with my experience

Reflect on work/volunteer experiences you have had?

What did I enjoy?

Talking to people

What did you not enjoy?

The actual work like cleaning the carts

What hard and soft skills do I posses?

Hard- I can landscape, anything to fix something, and coaching

Soft- I can socialize and outgoing

If someone were to describe what I would be good at, what would they say?

Anything that goes with talking to people and getting his way like selling something.

Who do I know that has the coolest job you have ever heard of? Why is it so great? What about you potential career paths/ major aligns with this job.

Professional owner of an MLB team because all they do is find players and take care of them.

Three reasons why I are interested in studying sociology.

my job/ love taking these types of classes/ know more about society

Longwood’s newest Homecoming tradition is back for the second year, and it’s specifically for parents, alumni and friends of the university!

Longwood has again partnered with nearby Sandy River Distillery to create a limited edition single-barrel bourbon called 1839 Collection—and bottles go on sale this month, just in time for Homecoming & Alumni Weekend on Nov. 9!

Parents are encouraged to attend Homecoming and experience Lancer spirit firsthand—tailgating, basketball games in the Joan Perry Brock Center and the chance to meet some of your student’s friends. Find out more and register here.  

Now back to the 1839 Collection. There are fewer than 800 bottles available for sale this year, but you can be among the first to know when Sandy River Distillery opens sales. Just enter your information at go.longwood.edu/1839Collection, and we’ll let you know the minute it goes on sale!

Sandy River is a locally owned and operated distillery that is part of an outdoor adventure center complete with a ropes course, bike and boat rentals, and log cabins and glamping tents available for rental. It was important to us to partner with a local business on this project, and we found really natural partners in Mark and Candice Smith, who own the distillery and adventure center. They are just a five-minute drive from campus, so you might want to add them to your list of destinations the next time you’re in town!

If you purchase 1839 Collection, there are three ways to get your bottle:

• Pick up at Longwood’s Homecoming & Alumni Weekend pregame tailgate event on Nov. 9 (preferred)
• Pick up at Sandy River Distillery
• Ship within Virginia

Note: There is no shipping outside Virginia at this time.

If you have questions, please contact 1839Collection@longwood.edu.

Here’s a toast to Longwood and our families!

—Longwood Marketing, Communications and Engagement

A small, lanky chicken scurried past my ankles as yet another droplet of sweat slipped past the edge of my eyebrow and fell into the silty dust beneath my feet. I glanced up and to my left as our host and educator for the day, Ranjana Lamsal, spoke with Parvati Mahato, the woman we had traveled by van over long, bumpy roads to visit. Parvati nodded and replied softly to Ranjana, gently bouncing her young, sleeping daughter in her arms as she spoke. I watched her multitask effortlessly–soothing her daughter as she recounted the story of her family’s dealings with a migration agent who ran away with over half of her family’s savings and forced her husband, Om, to start his foreign employment process from scratch for the second time in the span of a few months. Clearly, performing multiple forms of emotional labor at once was not a novelty for her. 

When we arrived at her house, Parvati and her mother–a beautiful, wise-looking older woman with long silver hair and an analytical gaze–dragged as many plastic lawn chairs as they could find out of their house, along with one of the children’s beds, just so that we would have a place to sit for our meeting. I shifted uncomfortably on the bed’s hard, hand-carved wooden frame and taut nylon webbing, temporarily distracted by my mental image of how difficult it would be to sleep on the webbing’s rough knots every night.

The experience of visiting Parvati and hearing her story first-hand, sitting on one of her children’s beds in her yard in rural Nepal, is one that will stay with me for the rest of my life. While we were on our excursion to the Terai, a rural region in southern Nepal, my peers and I were able to visit the homes or neighborhoods of four individuals who had opened cases with the local government’s Migration Resource Center (MRC) to try to achieve justice for exploitation that themselves or their family members had faced/were facing as migrant laborers in Gulf Cooperation Council member-countries. The importance of sharing such personal settings with the individuals and families that we were lucky enough to listen to cannot be undermined–being physically present the places where they carried out their daily routines contextualized their stories and made the experience of learning from our speakers hyper-real for me. 

Interacting with each individual we visited–all of them survivors of structural violence at the hands of the Nepali state, the government’s of GCC member-countries, and all the rich politicians in between–through normal conversations was also extremely effective for informing us about the day-to-day realities and consequences of undergoing struggles related to foreign employment within the Nepali/Eurasian/international system. It was because of the personal nature of those conversations that I began to understand what it looks and would feel like day-to-day for a single mom to raise her children without her husband, while he faces inhumane working conditions in Dubai, Qatar, etc. I was able to visualize the daily morning routine: preparing food, waking the children, getting them ready for school and/or work, feeding the animals, cleaning up the house, trying to get in touch with the relative abroad to check on them and receive information about how to advocate for them from thousands of miles away, and then making more phone calls or a long visit to the RMC to pass along information from the relative to case workers. If we hadn’t been sitting there in Parvati’s yard though, face-to-face with both the joy and struggles of her life, I don’t think I would have gained the same understanding. 

Another thing that became abundantly clear to us through our site visits in the Kawasoti province of the Terai and beyond was the imperativeness of the Safer Migration (SaMi) program and the presence of the MRC in each district of Nepal. At one point during our site visits, Ranjana looked at each of us and said, “Now you see how important it is that we are here. If SaMi wasn’t here, who would advocate for justice for these families? It wouldn’t happen.” That concept stayed with me for the entire rest of the day and throughout the next as well, when we went to visit the local government office of Kawasoti. Our presentation experiences in the government buildings we visited in Terai were also highly informative, but they felt much staler than our interactions with the individuals and families that Ranjana introduced us to during our site visits. 

Prior to those interactions, when we were listening to representatives of the MRC speak, I was more passively interested in what the speakers were talking about. The presentation took on a completely different meaning, however, when MRC clients began climbing the stairs and poking their heads into the room where we sat, asking for directions to one office or another to handle cases, inquire about services, look over documents, etc. The faces that appeared in the doorway were the reason that we were there- they were the manifestations of the knowledge and data being served to us on projected powerpoint slides, and it was only after I allowed myself to realize the weight of that connection that I became fully invested in what was going on around me.

Similarly, I don’t think I would have gotten nearly as much out of our visit to the Kawasoti municipality’s local government office had I not met Ranjana’s clients at their homes the day before. Honestly, the Kawasoti judicial committee presentation brought up a lot of anger and frustration for me, and I think I was feeling that way because I had fresh conversations with local people spinning around inside my head and providing personal, anecdotal context to the information we were being fed about Nepali policy and government structure. The Deputy Mayor explained the limitations of the power of local governments as that applies to bringing justice to labor migrants whose perpetrators flee to different provinces or countries, about her stance on divorce and the state’s involvement in domestic affairs, about the complexities of the civil vs. criminal case divide in terms of how the state can allocate resources to survivors, etc. 

As she spoke, all I could think about was Parvati’s face as she held her daughter–the shadows under her eyes and the determination in the way she clenched her jaw. I thought of the young boy whose father committed suicide after returning from working abroad–I remembered the boy’s quiet resilience, how his life and mind have forever been altered by the struggles he inherited from his father during his early teenage years. How could the Deputy Mayor have such an honest, comprehensive understanding of the issues faced by this extremely vulnerable population in her community and seem to relay this information to us as if it was the most normal thing in the world? In the moment, I knew my anger was directed at the wrong person, the wrong place, but I couldn’t help but want to stand up and shout, “Yes! And do you have any idea how these policies are inflicting violence upon the people your government claims to represent and care for?”. 

Once I had calmed down enough to think critically again, I eventually accepted that the Deputy Mayor must care deeply for her community to do the work she does, and that she and her colleagues are helping migrant workers in whatever ways they reasonably can–it’s the dynamics of the Nepali state that do not allow local governments to take much direct action, not individual negligence. I thought to myself, of course the Deputy Mayor and her colleagues can feel the pain of their community, and perhaps the frankness of her communication may just be an indicator of how long she has had to grapple with this kind of knowledge and how she has learned to cope with it. 

It’s still frustrating that Nepali’s local governments are not able to do more to help prevent further harm in the future, but it’s thanks to women and workers like Ranjana that labor migrants at all stages can have some hope for justice and safety while abroad. Balancing the need for further progress with the ability to have gratitude for the social resources that already exist in rural Nepal is a tricky line to walk, and it’s a line I found myself walking every day in the Terai. My gratitude for being there and having the opportunity to learn from so many people with such different life stories is clear and undeniable, though–this experience has changed my worldview profoundly, and it is one that I’ll never forget.  

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

As I stepped through the dark wooden doorway, I wasn’t sure what to expect–Kat and I had been anxiously awaiting seeing this room of our homestay house for weeks, as it was one of the only rooms we hadn’t yet explored and we knew that it housed beautiful artwork. Nothing could have prepared me for the depth, detail, intricacy, and delicate beauty of the statues that arched and sat and danced and stomped before me, though. They looked so real, so divinely powerful, as if they might unfreeze and wield their mightiness upon us at any given second. Kat and I were mesmerized, so much so that we momentarily forgot that the quiet, humble man with endearing crow’s feet who padded quietly into the room behind us had created these figures with a few simple tools and deft skill of his calloused hands.

These were the kinds of moments that Kat and I found ourselves reflecting upon days later as we sat on yet another bougie Qatar Airways flight, sad to be leaving Nepal and excited for what lay ahead of us in Jordan. Before boarding, Yanik and his team had organized a lovely, tear-jerking final dinner with our homestay families. We all met at a cute cafe’s outdoor garden, and we exchanged gratitude and memories and more than a few glasses of wine underneath the twinkling party lights that were strung above us. Our host dad, Krishna, had a way of making Kat and I laugh that was totally unique–somehow, dad jokes are dad jokes anywhere in the world, and he definitely capitalized on his final opportunity to share them with us.

In our conversations about all that we had learned during our brief time in Nepal, I found myself thinking about how in a past life, I could have been like any of these wonderful people that I had met halfway around the world, and they could easily have been like me. It was a unifying thought–the comfort that we all share our humanity and the capacity to empathize with one another across our differences is profound.

I also found myself remembering our 22-hour bus ride back from Pokhara, a mountainous city full of beautiful cafes where gangsters launder their money and where ferryman spend their days paddling people across the city’s yawning lake.

My cohort ended up spending one more day than originally planned in Pokhara due to the devastating flooding that recently tore through the floodplains of Nepal and tore up the country’s roads, causing landslides and traffic and slowing down the provision of essential disaster-relief resources to affected areas. The flooding was severe–Nepal received half of it’s annual rainfall in two days, and despite the fact that government officials had been warned ahead of time of the impending storm, preventative measures were not taken to protect the lives and livelihoods of the populations most at risk. In recent years, working class communities (often comprised of daily-wage workers) have settled in haphazardly developed housing on the banks of the Bagmati River and its floodplains. This is the only place that many of these families can afford to live, and they suffered and lost the most at the hands of the recent flooding.

My cohort and I were extremely lucky, as were our host families in Patan, to have our lives and homes left intact in the wake of the floods. My peers and I did suffer, however, when we were confined inside our tourist bus for 22 hours on the trip back from Pokhara due to landslides, Indian drivers in massive, colorful trucks (colloquially known as “tippers”) asleep at the wheel with their engines cut off in the middle of the road, and a mass exodus of people trying to reach family members in need or on a journey to find refuge on higher ground. The journey was brutal- the day before, we had geared up for an eight-hour bus ride, but nothing could have prepared us for the claustrophobia, desperate humor, waves of helplessness, and ultimately, the strong group solidarity that we encountered while we were trapped on that bus.

Once again, Krishna set the absolute highest standard for the seriousness with which he took our collective safety and wellbeing as a member of our student support staff, but also as a true friend of us all. During many occasions in the wee hours of the morning, when we were stuck at absolute standstills due to the tipper drivers decisions to take naps in the middle of the road, Krishna got out of the bus and banged on the sides of the trucks to wake the drivers so that we could move forward. He would then lead us ON FOOT through a maze of moving/non-moving vehicles with haphazard headlights pointing this way and that until we had made it clear to the other side of the blockade. This process definitely put him in harms way, as many of the drivers were barely awake, but Krishna showed no fear- he was like Moses, parting the tipper-sea for us. When he was back on the bus, he made sure to check in with everyone and provided us with water to keep us hydrated, dark humor to keep us smiling and grounded, and hugs when we started to go a little cray. He is such an awesome human being, and many tears were shed when we were forced to say “see you again”. I can’t wait for my post-undergrad return to Kathmandu to reunite with him and my host family, and to send the Annapurna circuit as a team with him and Ellie and Sarah!

There were so many epic, bonding moments, so many life-changing conversations had between me and Krishna and Nirvana and Laboni and Yanik and my peers and our guest-lecturers and our host families, so many beautiful sunrises and evening walks back home from our beloved classroom space- It would take years to recount all that has happened in the last month to the degree that these experiences deserve, but alas, time marches on and so do I! As I sit here writing this from our hotel in Jordan, I must now begin to chronicle the incredibly different, equally fascinating and growth-inducing experience we have already begun to have here. In Nepal, they do not say goodbye- only see you again! Now we have said Salaam Alaikum to Jordan… more on this soon.

1. Critical thinking, the ability to problem solve 

2. Professionalism, acting as one would in the appropriate setting

3. Communication, being able to listen to someone and incorporate that into the work

4. Teamwork, working well with others and holding each other accountable

5. Leadership, taking initiative and distributing tasks effectively 

6. Technology, having the appropriate skills for the job and being responsible

7. Equity and Inclusion, being fair

Personal Examples

1. I demonstrated critical thinking by creating different ways to get a range cars to different sublet shops when working at Auto Connection.
2. I demonstrated professionalism by showing up to school and work on time and completing my tasks, sometimes beyond my tasks.
3. I demonstrated communication by clearly voicing my boundaries in the workplace enviroment.
4. I demonstrated teamwork by working effectively with others in group projects as a student.

Fall break is right around the corner. Today’s post provides what I hope is some helpful information.

The break starts at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, and goes through noon Sunday, Oct. 13. (Classes resume at 8 a.m. Monday, Oct. 14.)

If your student will need access to their Longwood-managed housing at any time from 6 p.m. Oct. 9 through noon Oct. 13, they must file an Intent to Stay form no later than 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8. The form is available through the Student Housing Gateway.

Here are some important things to know about fall break:

—For security reasons, any student on university property during the break period should be sure to carry a photo ID and be prepared to present it at the request of any university official.

—The dining hall will close after dinner on Wednesday, Oct. 9, and reopen for dinner on Sunday, Oct. 13.

—Farmville Area Bus Service (FAB) will end at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, and resume at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 13.  There is no bus service for Lancer Park during the break period.

—No guests are permitted in Longwood-managed housing during the break period.

—At the start of the break, all residence hall rooms and apartments will be entered and inspected for safety violations and general break preparation compliance. In addition, during the break, Longwood-managed housing rooms and units are subject to entry for limited work orders and/or facility safety inspections.

Fall break checklist for students living in Longwood-managed housing AND leaving campus:
—Remove all trash, contraband and/or perishable food.
—Thoroughly clean the assigned living area, including the bathroom and common spaces.
—If applicable, adjust the room thermostat to a low/medium setting.
—Students should take valuables and important items with them (medication, eyeglasses, wallet, etc.).
—Shut down and unplug all electronics, except personal refrigerators or apartment appliances.
—Turn off all lights.
—Close and lock all windows.
—Lower all window blinds/shades.
—Lock all doors.

Safe travels to all the students going home for fall break.

—Sabrina Brown