ChockaLife

Hollywood Life - Becoming a Writer / Joelle Cornett

You often hear that everyone's got a script in development in Hollywood, but how do you actually get from script to screen for real?  Joelle tells us what it's like to be a writer in Hollywood and how she got from dream to reality.

 

Life in a Resort - Living in Crested Butte Colorado /Extreme Skier, Wendy Fisher

Thinking of living in a mountain ski resort? Each has their own distinct personality and way of life. Which one is right for you? Crested Butte began as a coal mining town, not a manufactured ski mountain: a real community where crowds are few and the locals are the heart and soul of the town. Located smack dab in the middle of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, big city distractions are well away. A true mountain adventurer will find all they need. No busy interstates bring hordes of day trippers. Crested Butte locals work and live in town full time, making for true community events.

Crested Butte has everything a ski town offers. A full roster of summer and winter activities and a mountain that will test your skills and satisfy your need for adventure.  While the mountain is known for some of Colorado's best in-bounds extreme terrain, there is something for everyone. This town also has the oldest mountain biking group in the world and the tracks to prove it.

A bona fide local, Wendy reveals the things that make Crested Butte special and why you just might want to live there too. Wendy strapped on her first sticks at 2. She honed her skills at Burke Mountain Ski Academy in Vermont, trading western powder for ice. As part of the ’92 Winter Olympic team, she qualified for the DH/SL combined and GS, and continued to ski with the national team through the mid-1990s.

Next, Wendy conquered the big-leagues of extreme skiing, winning two World Extreme Skiing Championships and the 1998 pro tour title and competing in the first X-Games women’s skiercross. You’ve probably seen Wendy, holding her own with the guys, skiing big air and big mountains in the films of Matchstick Productions, Warren Miller and Powder Magazine.  Recently, she proved she's still got it (did anyone really think she didn't?), filming Switchback Productions, Super Mom for Salomonfreeskitv.com

Wendy is the mother of two boys, but her devotion to snow sports and community continues. She is currently the Crested Butte Mountain Resort's Ambassador and teaches private ski lessons and finds the time to be the Executive Director of the Crested Butte Snowsports Foundation. I got the chance to speak with Wendy Fisher, long-time local, Olympian, extreme skier and proud mom, about what it’s like to live and ski this mountain town.

Follow Wendy on Twitter and her Website

What's it Like Working for an International Humanitarian Organization

Lainie in the Field - Africa

 I've always been interested in and fascinated by those who choose to work in parts of the world where either disaster, war, famine or poor governance has created a dire medical situation.  These heroes are a special breed of humanitarian. Most of what they do is never celebrated or publicized to match the degree of their sacrifice and hardships in war zones and disaster areas.  While we always think of the doctors and nurses first in these organizations, there is an entire administrative team behind the lines working to get the medical staff what they need in order to do their work.  Lainie's path to working for a medical humanitarian organization began after her first volunteer job in Cambodia with an Australian Government program similar to the Peace Corps.  In the past five years, she's found her calling in this organization working as an administrator in the field with medical teams - making a difference doing useful work serving people in great need. Her original area of study was communications followed by work as an administrator in small businesses, while volunteering her spare time for community organizations. Since her initial assignment in Cambodia - she has worked in Kenya, South Sudan, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar, and is presently in a position in Geneva headquarters. I spoke with her about how she got involved with this organization, what it's like to be out in the field and what it takes to endure the challenges as well as the unique rewards of helping those in need. 

Always Wanted to Start a Nonprofit? Free the Girls

Many of us are passionate about a cause that tugs at our heart but we often feel limited in our ability to become involved either by lack of time, money or the idea that we're not qualified. Rarely, are any of these things true. Volunteering for a nonprofit of your choice is always an option - but starting one - now that takes moxie.

Kimba likes to refer to herself as an “accidental abolitionist.”  An Emmy-award winning producer and 20-year veteran of the television and video production industry, Kimba has always had a passion for storytelling.  Just two short years ago, though, the story of modern day slavery and sex trafficking wasn’t even on her radar.  When her friend David approached her as a partner for a new organization he wanted to form to empower survivors of sex trafficking, she was intrigued.  Little did she know how the issue would grab her heart and never let go.

Free The Girls is a nonprofit organization that works to provide jobs to women rescued from sex trafficking in developing countries by helping them set up micro enterprises selling bras. Through the collection of bras in Western countries, they strive to educate people and organizations about the scourge of human trafficking worldwide.

Kimba heads the Free The Girls U.S. office and is responsible for day-to- day domestic operations of the organization, which includes speaking to women’s groups on the subject of human trafficking, igniting fires in new abolitionists, raising funds for the cause, and packing and shipping thousands of bras.  Kimba hopes she serves as an example that global change requires people from all types of backgrounds to step up and offer what they can where they are.

True Peace Corps Stories / Kelly in Tanzania

The Peace Corps is a life-defining leadership experience that you will draw on the rest of your life - so says the introduction on its website - and for every returned volunteer that I've met, it's certainly been true. The main mission has been to promote world peace and friendship, one volunteer at a time. Kelly recently returned from serving in Tanzania and we talk about her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Hollywood Life - Becoming an Independent Film Producer / Scott Einziger

Scott Einziger is an Emmy award-winning producer of groundbreaking reality shows like The Howard Stern Show, The Amazing Race, and Big Brother.  Now he's set his sites on independent film, forming his own production company, Unguarded Content and developing stories into film, scripted, and reality television based on real people and real stories. He tells us about his start in the business and continuing creative journey in a new role.

 

Want to Work as an Au Pair Abroad? Here's How.

Travel, learn another language, play with kids...and get paid!  Learn how Michelle found a great host family in France, what it takes and what you need to be an au pair abroad.

What's it Take to Teach in International Schools?

For all of you with dreams of living abroad and who hold a teaching certification – there are many incredible opportunities to take that experience all around the world, live a life less ordinary, and have a satisfying and rewarding career in education.  Listen to James as he gives you tips and insider info on how he did it.

Hollywood Life - Becoming a Reality TV Producer / Bill Pruitt

Bill Pruitt, nominated three times by the Producers Guild of America as “Non-Fiction Producer of the Year” and Emmy award winning producer of shows The Amazing Race, The Apprentice and Deadliest Catch, talks about his creative journey to becoming a hit reality TV producer. He has produced television all around the world for CBS, NBC, MTV, National Geographic, History and Discovery - filming on nearly every continent on the planet. His adventures as a producer have included; following contestants racing around the world, candidates vying for a job working for Donald Trump, truckers in the High Himalayas, perpetrators of the Rwanda Genocide in France, crab fishermen on the Bering Sea, alleged terrorists in the Congo, pot growers in the Emerald Triangle, gator hunters in the Louisiana swamp and commercial spear fishermen diving deep into the Gulf of Mexico.