Ladies Night At Cooper’s Hawk

The Astyra Ladies
The women of Astyra love to wine and dine, especially together! 
 
We all met at Cooper’s Hawk last week for an evening to unwind with the same people we work alongside daily. The night began with indulging in a wine tasting before being sat down by the waitress for a savory meal.
 
“This just reiterated that Astyra is like a family and I love that,” Ashley, our newest Astyra lady, said.
 
This was Shaila’s first ladies night also and she said getting to know who she works with outside of the office is a nice feeling.
 
Although we aren’t quite sure when this tradition started, we plan to continue having ladies nights!

Galentine’s Day

Astyra ladies enjoying lunch at TASTE
Astyra ladies love to spend time together and we all know Valentine’s Day is not complete without a quality meal with the girls. Eight of us decided to bond over a new-to-us lunch spot called TASTE.
 
TASTE first opened in Virginia Beach as a wine & cheese shop in 1973. Since then, it has grown to offer a variety of foods and desserts at its nine Virginia locations!
 
At lunch, we munched on various salads, sandwiches and chips while talking about our plans for the future.

Astyra’s 2018 Holiday Spirit

Astyra staff dressed for Halloween
Mary Alice the Ouija Board

The holidays are always a special time for our Astyra family. To celebrate, we dressed up and decorated the office for Halloween. Spider webs covered the windows, creepy masks were on every door and a spooky ghost greeted anyone who entered.

We also hosted an internal Halloween costume contest with three prizes: Funniest, Scariest and of course, Best Costume. Carmen came dressed as a “Smarty Pants” with Smarties candies on her pants and a full on nerd outfit which deserved the “Funniest Costume” pumpkin prize. Taylor painted her entire face to resemble a skeleton police officer and won the “Scariest Costume” pumpkin prize. 

Mary Alice went all out and dressed up as a Ouija Board with bi-colored contacts and a black candle. Due to her hard work and dedication, she earned the “Best Costume” pumpkin prize.

As the temperature dropped and our minds wandered to the upcoming feast we decided to continue our Astyra tradition of our newest internal Astyra employee frying a turkey for the office for Thanksgiving. This time, Jody and Taylor were our lucky fryers!

We ended the year by decorating our office with three Christmas trees, hanging ceiling ornaments and making snowflakes. Our annual staff Christmas holiday dinner was at Wild Ginger. We were glad to spend time together and to announce an employee promotion!

We also played a few pranks around the office with Asty the Elf. Our poor CEO, Ken walked into his office and caught Asty on his desk drinking a bottle of Whiskey!

*Follow our Instagram page to see more photos!

Taylor dropping our turkey in the oil
Asty the Elf enjoying "Elf Juice"

VSU Profession Enhancement Workshop

Professor Jonathan Young and Taylor
Our Recruiting Assistant and Virginia State University alumna, Taylor helped teach a one-day profession enhancement course in August.
 
She lectured students on crafting elevator speeches and sparking interest in the person they are speaking with. Taylor also coached the students on proper handshake techniques and body language. The students received tips on how to improve their overall demeanor when marketing their professional skills.
 
Following the course, students felt more confident in their abilities to meet and speak with professionals.

August 2018 Is The Month Of Giving!

Carmen posing with eggs
Vivia, Melissa, Carmen, Tianna, Ken and Taylor
Jody, Melissa, Tianna, Brenna and Carmen
Carmen at the YMCA Bright Beginnings Program
Cutting bagels, organizing donations and greeting everybody with a smile was the job of six Astyra employees on an early Tuesday morning.
 
At Shepherd’s Way Relief CenterAstyra helped prepare and serve breakfast to 133 people in need.  Sigmund Collins founded the center in 2012 to provide relief from the afflictions of poverty in the Richmond area.
 
That morning, the kitchen manager Richard Lepper, showed up at 6:30 to make seven pounds of grits and about 25 dozen eggs. At 8:30 a.m., Astyra volunteers arrived not knowing what to expect but excited to work and help out in the community.
 
On one side of the kitchen, Carmen handed out hard-boiled eggs while Tianna passed out a variety of bagels. Our CEO, Ken, got an intense arm workout from scooping the crowd’s favorite: cheesy grits drenched in butter.
 
Just past the serving table, Melissa sweetened everybody’s day by giving them sugar packets for their coffee. Vivia helped flavor the bagels by providing jelly, cream cheese and butter. Lastly, Taylor was in charge of ensuring everybody had the utensils they needed to enjoy their hot meal.
 
Astyra also had an office drive the month before that led to three large bags of clothes, jewelry, shoes and a box full of canned foods and toiletries being donated to Shepherd’s Way Relief Center.
 
Later in the month, six Astyra employees participated in another staff volunteering day at Bon Secours’ Evelyn D. Reinhart Guest House.
 
The Reinhart House is a place for patients’ families to stay as opposed to driving far distances to and from the hospital. As a way to support the families, the lodge allows volunteers to come and cook a meal for the residents.
 
Astyra has been a long-time volunteer for the Reinhart House, which made it easy to prepare for the day. The Astyra volunteers made vegetable breakfast casserole muffins, home fries, bacon and biscuits.
 
Melissa multi-tasked between supervising and frying the home fries. Carmen and Jody focused on cutting the onions and tomatoes while Tianna whisked the eggs. Brenna was on bacon duty ensuring they were just the right amount of crispy. Our CEO, Ken, baked the biscuits to a golden brown.
 
The breakfast turned out to be a hit!
 

“The breakfast flew out of here – loved by everyone,” said Elisabeth Rigsby, house assistant.

Carmen was a superstar this month!

In addition to attending our volunteering days, she also volunteered with the YMCA’s Bright Beginnings program to take a child back-to-school shopping just like Victor did earlier this month!

“As a 1st time participant in the YMCA Bright Beginnings program, being able to help kids feel good about themselves in school and beyond was rewarding. It reminded me of how incredibly blessed I am, and that encourages me to want to give back even more,” Carmen said.

She plans on helping out with this program again next summer!

Meet Our Newest Employees Of 2018!

Vvia, Taylor, Tianna and Jody

Vivia Lewis joined Astyra as a Recruiting Assistant earlier this year. Ms. Lewis’ role at Astyra is to source and screen for qualified candidates, edit resumes, schedule interviews and communicate with contractors regarding their assignment.

Read more about Vivia

Taylor Choyce was born a California native; she made her way to the east coast in 2013 to earn her Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Business Management. Taylor has recently joined our team at Astyra as a Recruiting Assistant.

Tianna Mosby is Astyra’s Operations Admin & Executive Assistant. She is the first face you will see when you walk into our office and acts as the operator when you call. Tianna recently earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communications.
 
Jody Montague recently joined the team as a Recruiting Assistant bringing over ten years of customer service experience to the office. She loves helping people and is excited to continue doing so.