Hey TI’ers!

It’s Amie from the LMTI Staff! First of all I’d like to thank all of those who attended the Lock-In on March 15th. The event was A LOT of fun and I hope you all had an awesome time! Now..on to my blog.

Id like to tell you today about a phenomenon in the LMTI Office: One-of-a-kind-not-for-sale-LMTI-Merchandise-Office-Supplies (As seen above). Almost every week (sometimes twice a week) we receive a mysterious blue box at the office from a company called 4Imprint, Inc. In these blue boxes are free samples of just about any item you could ever think of...pens, coolers, letter openers, flashlights, coffee mugs, chocolates, etc etc. Everytime Jamie opens a Blue Box she decides who gets what  item. Maddogg usually gets the pens to chew on and any obscure items, I get the useful bags and screwdriver sets, and Jamie gets anything cool like light up pens or post it flag contraptions.

With the 4Imprint branded items all over my desk, I began to wonder what I could do to make them match my LMTI Gear..so I slapped a return address label on and Tada! One-of-a-kind-not-for-sale-LMTI-Merchandise-Office-Supplies! After realizing that we could do this, we decided to label EVERY free sample we had and, in true LMTI staff fashion, it has gotten out of control. I must say however, maddoggs clock and my John Deere Lunchbox look mighty fine as LMTI Gear.

Now, here is the most exciting part of all! Recently we received a Logo Bean in a Blue Box. Jamie granted me this item, so I planted the bean in the pre-packaged soil and dilegently watered it every other day or so..and when I came in on friday:

Currently Listening To:             Kanye West - Late Registration
Current Video Game:               Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories
Last Movie Seen:                     Grandma's Boy

I've been involved with Teen Institutes in New Jersey for going on 6 years now.  The number one question I get about my job and my passion is, "Justin, what exactly do you do?"  This is a good question.  Tax analysts analyze tax, Cooks cook, Nurses nurse, but Project and Administrative Assistants doesn't have such a simple answer.

I work for the Lindsey Meyer Teen Institute, New Jersey's largest Teen Institute program.  Now most everyone who reads this knows what T.I. is, but you also know how hard it is to describe T.I. and everything that goes with it to people who don't know and don't want to listen to you for 3 hours talking about hamster dances and natural highs, and affecting positive change in your schools and state.

I'm attending Fairleigh Dickinson University as a full time student and I spend one day a week at the office. Over the summer, in crunch time, I spend a lot more time in the office.  

As for what I do at the L.M.T.I. office, I am the Project Advisor for the Northern Region.  I'm in contact with high school group advisors and Student Assistance Counselors to make sure your action groups are going smoothly and let everyone in my region know about upcoming events that L.M.T.I. is running.  It's a lot to keep track of, but I only have one region, Chris Storms has almost all the rest, so next time you see him say thanks.

As the Administrative Assistant, my jobs include, but are definitely not limited to, organizing registration and applications for the summer conference, inputting this information into our database, and reading and compiling all the summer conference evaluations.
 
This certainly doesn't cover everything I do.  The parts of my job that I enjoy the most are when I'm working with all of you, the high school students.  The staff and I also spend a lot of time laughing and talking about anything, but more than anything we talk about where we want to go for lunch that day.  I hope this clears up what exactly it is that I do.  Until next time...
-Justin "Maddogg" Maxfield