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Q: What is it like serving as a DSW in the Airport’s Travel Well Ambassador Program?
A: Walking, walking and more walking. It was interesting to me especially because I had never really gone past the International Terminal, so my DSW deployment taught me a lot about where things are in the terminals, like what Airlines were in each terminal etc. It was a little intimidating at first as I wasn’t sure how people were going to react with me telling them to please put on their mask, but lucky for me most people abided by the rules and actually were friendly when I had to remind them. My days working as a TWA consist of walking the terminals and making sure everyone was wearing mask, staying 6 feet apart, in addition to giving directions whenever someone is lost etc. Thank goodness for me, everyone seemed to behave ~at least on my watch.
Q: Any memorable moments you’d like to share?
A: I can’t think of any memorable moments, as my deployment is part-time, 4 hours a week for a month. Nothing really that stands out, at least not yet.
Q: What do you take away from the experience?
A: For me, it was just learning where everything was in each terminal, things that never crossed my mind or thought I would even need to know. Well now I had to because a passenger could come up to me and ask. Something as simple as “Where’s Uber or Lost & Found?” would’ve stumped me before helping as a TWA. I hate to admit it, but earlier in my deployment, I really did not know. I’m very grateful to Marissa San Juan, who gave me a full tour of the entire Airport on my first day, explaining everything from top to bottom –but really, from the International Terminal to Terminal 3 – which I’m so grateful to her for; otherwise I would have been lost and it would have been like the blind leading the blind. So, big thank you to Marissa for her guidance and patience with me.
All in all, it has been a good experience, and actually very nice to be able to walk around the Airport once again and engage with people…. albeit safely, with masks. It was good to see people traveling again and made me feel that maybe normal is in the near future. I’m hopeful that next year, these time’s will all be behind us.