An Attitide of Gratitude | CIP Student Life Blog

An Attitude of Gratitude

By Julie Shepard, Academic Coordinator

Stefan and Jason are here at CIP Berkeley in December 2008 stuffing envelopes for a little extra cash. It’s one of the duties here that’s got to get done. With a spirit of enthusiasm and more exubberance than ever expected for 9:30 in the morning, Jason and Stefan began folding, sorting, stuffing, stamping. glueing, and boxing mailers that are about to go out into the community to announce CIP’s Summer offerings and on-going events. The have a tray of Hershey’s kisses and a radio playing KFOG to keep them inspired and alert. There are about 500 letters to be mailed.

“We’ve got a system,”says Stefan, age 20. “Yeah,” says Jason, also age 20 (but he had to really think about it when I asked him- that’s a long time to be alive already.) “First we eat a Hershey’s Kiss,” says Jason. “Then we divide the stacks of envelopes into half,” says Stefan. “We put all the address stamps on and they go into this box over here. Then we fold all the papers and put them in.” (Two pages, letter on top, trifold down to middle, top first and bottom last.) ”Then we put the postage stamps on them.” Jason chimed in, “And he does the glueing.” “After they are closed,” adds Stefan, “Jason puts the 25 Year Anniversary stickers on them. There are a lot of steps.”

The young men look very proud of their work, which is complex and requires multi-tasking and many steps to remember. The envelopes are neatly stacked, the stickers are all on straight, and the letters are folded precisely and with care. What pros!

Next they will carry all the boxes of completed envelopes to the post office across the street and put each carefully assembled piece of “mailer art” into the out-going mail boxes with care and pride.

So if you see an envelope coming with the shiny silver “25 Year Anniversary” sticker on the back on it, think of Jason and Stefan. They, along with assorted staff, helped with a spirit of caring, involvement, and professionalism.