I'm always amazed at bloggers who actually find the time to write everyday about their lives or about the things they are passionate about. I've become a HUGE fan of the Huffington Post, Change.org, and Social Earth incredible blog websites that discuss global topics and have bloggers who are hugely recognized within their field.
Wow well here's a quick recap of November 2009- till today!
The job in Flagstaff is still as wonderful as ever, I feel so happy that I've found a place that I truly fit in and absolutely love, Flagstaff is known as a major transient town because most people leave after spending less then 5 years here, it being a college town and all this seems to be the trend. People in Flag say that unless you've been here 10 years you are not a local. I always find that interesting and am curious in seeing what happens in the future, this place has truly been where things started coming together for me in so many ways, I think reading the recap below you'll see what I mean :)
The biggest and most important excitement of the end of 09 was most definitely the completion of my first Citizen Philanthropist project with Citizen Effect, we were able to raise $1200 for a new school in Ica, Peru. We had two awesome dance events that we were able to raise money for these students, then I had a really fun holiday dessert party at my home, and the best part of it all was the week before I left for Texas for the holidays I got the most incredible news ever :) I got my first gallery show to display my Latin American photographs at the new Criollo Latin Kitchen here in downtown AND I made an incredible new friend, Amita, the owner of Mayan Magic, she agreed to helping me get the word out about my non-for-profit photography initiative benefiting education in Latin America, more updates on that below.
So the new year seemed like it was going to be one of the best years ever.
After such an amazing natural high that was the month of December, I went home and visited family for the holidays only to end my trip by taking my amazing dog Tux to the vet. I had adopted Tux in January 09 when I graduated from Elon and had moved to AZ for an internship. Tux was my first dog ever and I had fallen in love with him the minute I saw his video on the adoption website and got him the 2nd week I moved to AZ. Tux ended up having a chronic kidney condition that the adoption agency didn't disclose so unfortunately Tux had not been treated all year and ended up passing away when I arrived back in Flagstaff. It was a huge shock for me because he had been running laps with my crazy brother, Eddie, just a week before so I was baffled and confused.
Thank goodness for my incredible co-workers/friends in Flagstaff. Flagstaff is such a huge dog friendly town it's pretty much expected and accepted to take some time to deal with a pet's loss. My wonderful wonderful friends, Leveta, Juanita, Lin Marie, and Rob have been incredibly wonderful. They all made sure I had someone to stay with for a couple of days, picked up lose ends for me at work, and made me amazing dinners! I honestly couldn't have been with better people that week and I am sending them a HUGE shout out for their incredible support and friendship.
With a new move (lease ending jazz) I'm now super excited to be working with Amita the owner of Mayan Magic at this incredible cafe and living with her.
A new year also came with a new job for me, I'm transitioned out of my AmeriCorps role and will actually be working for the university now. Still doing exactly what I've been doing but at a part-time capacity and with a little bit of a change in supervisor structure.
In my free time I've been increasing the dancing finally that my past injuries seem to be under much better control. I've been dancing about three times a week and have been learning tons of new ballroom styles, while I've always loved to dance I've never really done it formally (unless you want to count drill team for a year in HS). The dance community is the first big thing I jumped into when I got to Flagstaff I knew it would be a way for me to meet people in my new community and it most definitely has and I've been having a fantastic time doing it. I got to dance in an exhibition in Phoenix the first weekend of January and it was an incredible rush,I got to go down with fellow Flagstaff dancers, Rob and Jamie. I miss so much the performance side of dance that I enjoyed so much when I grew up as a gymnast I'm loving getting to do it again. I even got asked if I wanted to compete in a Pro/Am competition in the spring, and while it may not happen immediately I'm super excited about the possibilities of getting to perform more again.
The projects with Citizen Effect and the Citizen Philanthropist projects I've been working on continue to be a key part of my "free time", I love that even though I can't live in Latin America right now I have been able to find a way to combine my interests in photography, social enterprise, and philanthropy into a way to provide education for students around the region. It's a huge thrill getting to tell new people about the work that we are doing and constantly getting help and suggestions from an incredible group of people. This project is ever evolving and I'm actually just recently been in contact with Rachel Zedeck of Backpack Farm, an incredible Social Enterprise that Rachel helps create sustainable communities in Africa by teaching sustainable farming techniques check out her information here: http://www.socialearth.org/social-entrepreneur-with-a-backpack-feeds-an-african-community, she has many years of experience in ngos and is going to help me to figure out if the photography initiative can grow into something bigger to be able to make a bigger impact in the lives of students in Latin America. I'm so excited, I feel that life is finally starting to come together and I'm actually getting to spend my time doing things that I absolutely love and am passionate about.
I am getting to know Rachel through an incredible website called changents.com that allows individuals who are working to make the world a better place to connect with others who are doing the same and with individuals who are interested in helping to make things happen. I'm so excited to be a part of this site, excited to be a part of this incredible citizen philanthropy movement that is encouraging individuals to actually take action and help create the change they want to see in the world, I love being a part of it and can't wait to see where it takes me. To check out my Change Agents profile click here: http://changents.com/coralzayas
A good friend that I've made here, is Amie, her and I meet through Gear Up a federal program about college access in low income schools, I'm a Big Brothers Big Sister mentor once a week and help Amie at one of the local high schools. Amie and I learned that we have LOADS in common, more specifically with our interests international education, Latin America and global citizenship. Amie is a few years older then me and has been working on a project now known as Casa Verde since she graduated college. Her and her husband Joe now own stunning property in Nicaragua where they hope to have an international education center, a place that will benefit both Latin American education, rural development, global citizenship through an international education after school curriculum and so much more. Me and Amie spent substantial time in November working on an application for the Unreasonable Institute, a project that would have created start up funds for the organization so that we could make this dream into a reality. And while we didn't back to the finals that doesn't mean we are giving up, we've created this idea into something that builds on Amie,Joe, and my strengths and hopefully one day we'll all be able to work on this project full time and get to work in areas that we all feel are hugely important to create positive change in both the US and Latin America. So we continue to look out for opportunities that may be in the future allow us to get to go this work full time.
The photography will be on display in my first art walk on February 5th, and will go up for my first gallery show at Criollo Latin Kitchen in March. I'm hoping the more people that learn about the initiative the more students we can help throughout Latin America.
Well that pretty much sums up life right now, while 2010 started pretty rocky for me with incredible friends I'm moving on and hoping for a great 2010. Dancing into the new year with my friend and now more formal dance partner, Rob, always brings a smile to my face. Dancing, helping Amita with the incredible Mayan Magic, and continuing work on my Citizen Philanthropy projects and with the exciting spring opening of my work the new college resource center couldn't be more exciting.
This year I hope my blog takes on a new light, it will no longer be just the exciting moments of college life like all my travels, but also more about personal growth. I'm come to realize not very many people know why I do the things that I choose to do and I think taking you all along this journey of exploration will be a great way to transition out of the college updates and into this amazing adventure that has been post graduation and everything that it brings. I'd love to hear your comments and support through email or through the blog comments. I hope you enjoy this journey as much as I am even though many of us never get to see each other since we now living in such far off places.
Excited to be back on top of the world :)
Coral :)
