Semester Reflection Part 2

I think that the greatest challenge facing our generation today is our increasing dependence on technology and our laziness and need for instant gratification. This was the topic of my Ampersand article, because working for an environmental organization over the course of internship really opened my eyes to the fact that so little people really care or are willing to make an effort for anything that doesn't benefit them directly. We are constantly designing new technology that lead us closer and closer to getting whatever we want without having to put in any effort. I don't think that this is healthy. I think if we continue creating new gadgets that will allow us to do everything the easy way, we will become so dependent on technology that we won't know how to live without it.

History has never been my strong subject, but I think that over the year my view of events in history and the way that they have shaped the culture of America has changed. After studying the different financial crises in our history, it really brought to my attention the poor economic state that our country is in right now and the way that it is affecting more than just my ability to find a summer job, it is affecting the entire country. I also now have a different view of war after reading the novel Slaughterhouse Five. War is usually depicted as a group of extremely brave young men who have chosen to fight because they are passionate about their country, but in Slaughterhouse Five the author Kurt Vonnegut points out that most of the men who join the war aren't particularly brave, or passionate about their country, or even ready to be in a war at all.

At this point in my life, there are so many carrer fields that I could see myself enjoying or prospering in, but I still have not decided which field I really want to pursue a career in. It is certainly possible that by Senior year I will be more sure of what path I want to take in life, but if that's not the case, I have decided that I am going to take at least two semesters off to travel after I have completed High School. By doing this I will experience new things, reflect on the what I really want in life and decide what I really want to pursue as a career. After I take a short time off to travel, I want to go to UCLA, Soka University in Orange County, or San Francisco State.

There are several things beyond grades that motivate me to do well in school. First,the freedom for personal expression that is given to us at this school helps motivate you to do well because you begin to use projects as an opportunity to present ideas that you have and get them accross to others, or to express your talents. For example, if you are a talented artist, you will be motivated to create a professional and well done art piece, so that you can show your talent. Another thing that motivates me to do well are my parents, and my future.

Semester Reflection Part 1

Working in a Project-Based environment can be both benificial and challenging. In a project based environment you are given much more freedom, you are given an opportunity to use your personal creativity and motivation to produce a quality product. This is benificial because it gives you an opportunity to use your personal interests and creativity to produce something that will be graded based on your full potential of talent, rather than recieving the same assignment as everybody in your class and being graded on your percentage of correct answers. This also gives you more of a motivation to do well on assignments, because you are given a chance to show your own personal talents. This is also challenging because the freedom that you are given can make it easy to procrastinate and choose the easy way out, two things that must be avoided.

Internship was by far the most valuable experience of my Junior Year. My internship experience at Pro Peninsula taught me many things. I gained direct insight on what it's like to work in the real world, and to be working for a large orginization in which your work will affect the lives of many peope, not just your own grades. Not to mention I now know how to edit a website, use photoshop, create a poster for an event, and work with children. Internship also really changed the way I looked at things. I interned in a field of work that I had never been interested in, and had never considered working in the future. But after working there, I became much more interested in that field of work and it is a type of job that I am considering working in sometime in the future.

One academic challenge that I was faced with this year was transitioning to using computers as the basis for all of my schoolwork. I have always been horrible with computers and have encountered many issues with images and videos that have failed to load, conflicting security and password settings, emails that have failed to send, and more. I also don't always have internet at home, which was a struggle for me because the majority of the time it is necessary to have access to internet in order to do homework. I often had to go to the library to complete my homework because I wasn't able to do it from home.

Writing Reflection

I would like to say that I have always put 100% into my writing, but as I look over pieces of my writing over the course of this year, it is apparent that over the course of my junior year I have learned a great deal about writing techniques and how to apply them. I have always taken my writing seriously, but looking over my pieces of writing that I have done over the course of this year, I noticed a darastic change in the quality and thought put into my writing. I chose my two favorite writing assingments to compare. The first piece is entitled "My Hero" and was the first writing assignment for our Junior year. I had an excellent topic and many good ideas, but I did not communicate them as well as I could. I used simple sentence structure and almost no writing techniques to get my point accross.

I compared this with my Ampersand article, one of our most important and most recent writing assignment. When writing my article, I paid very close attention to detail and revised it many times, looking for specific writing techniques, such as "concerts, not pancakes" and "make meaning early". I used more complex sentences that got my point accross without just bluntly saying it. To achive this higher quality writing, I used my knowledge of writing techniques that we had learned over the year and went through many drafts and revising processes, and had it by critiqued by many people, which made a huge difference.

For the future, I want to ensure that I get a rough draft of my writing as soon as possible, rather than procrastinating and trying to make a perfect final draft at the last minute, because over the course of this year I have learned the importance of the rough draft revision process. I will also ensure to go over the drafts as carefully as possible and have my writing by as many people as possible.

Historical Reflections

If I could choose any one Historical figure to come back to life so that I could run into them at college, I would choose Abraham Lincoln. There are several reasons for my choice of historical figures. I have always admired Abraham Lincoln for his perseverance and continuous effort to make something possible even when all of the odds are against him and when he is told he wont be successful. As Lincoln said himself,"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just."

I would also want to show him how much things have changed from the time that he was president, because I think that he played a huge role in the anti-Slavery movement that made things the way that they are today.
I think that Abraham Lincoln would make a good professor, because he has proven that he is a very powerful leader and can positively influence a large amount of people. I think that Lincoln's wise ideas about life could be used to educate and give students a better view on life. For example, Lincoln once said "Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." Quotes like this bring me to the conclusion that Lincoln would be a very successful college professor.

Literary Reflections

If I could bring any one character to life from a book that we have read this year , it would be a Tralfmadorian from the novel Slaughterhouse Five. A Tralfmadorian is an extraterrestrial being from the book Slaughterhouse Five who can see the whole span of time, and believes that there is no free will and everything that will happens is already predetermined. Out of all of the characters in all of the books that we have read, I chose a Tralfmadorian because he would have a viewpoint on life that is the complete opposite of mine, and is more interesting to me than any of the other characters that we have read about this year.
There aren't very many roles that a Tralfmadorian can play at a college, but I would have him as my roomate. If I lived with a Tralfmadorian, he could answer any questions that I have about the past or future, which could be infinitely benificial. I would want to learn more about the Tralfmadorian view on life, time and free will. I would also give him insight about how differently people see things on earth. I would want to be able to see things from a Tralfmadorian perspective, because I don't believe in their ideas of no free will and I would like to see it for myself.

I am a Japanese immigrant coming to America, I chose this character because I am interested in learning more about the struggles that Japanese immigrants were faced with when coming to America at this time of war.

Research:
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/immigration/enemy-aliens-overview.html

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Japanese_American_life_under_U.S._policies_before_and_during_World_War_II

Out of the list of innovations came from the aftermath of World War Two, the technological advances that were developed over the course of the war. Some of the most famous examples of technology which were developed during World War Two and used heavily over the years are nuclear weapons, jet engine, ballistic missiles, and U-boats. These more advanced weapons made an extremely big impact on wars in the following years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_during_World_War_II

http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=23618

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/85094_technology-advancements-of-world-war-2

Blog 14

1. During World War 1, more than 9 million men died on the battlefield. During World War 2, 40,000 men served on U-Boats during World War 2, and 30,000 never returned.

2. I don't know much about these wars, so I hope to learn more about how these wars have impacted our world today


3. There were a great deal of technological revolutions and advances in the medical field that took place during World Wars 1 and 2 that have greatly impacted where we stand today.

GOW final essay

Jim Casy is introduced in Grapes of Wrath as an ex-preacher who gave up his practice because he felt that he was not worthy of preaching teachings that he did not truly practice or believe in. Throughout the novel, Casy undergoes a transformation in which he goes from being an ex-preacher who no longer knows where his spirituality fits in with his lifestyle to a man who has discovered exactly where he stands and uses his newfound knowledge and philosophies about life to guide others through a difficult journey. Casy’s ability to take a negative experience and learn from it in a way that led him to a positive transformation reflects the overall theme of the novel, which uses Jim Casy and the journey of a family during the Great Depression to show the valuable realizations and positive transformations that can come from going through hardships. "There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing.” These are the words that Casy found rang true to him after giving up his practice as a preacher and reevaluating his faith and spirituality. He also came to the conclusion that "maybe a fellow ain't got a soul of his own, just little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody". These ideas that there’s no such thing as sin and virtue and that everybody has a special piece of this “soul” that makes them important rings as a constant theme throughout Grapes of Wrath, as Casy uses his voice of wisdom to guide Tom Joad and the Dust Bowl farmers through their struggle to find opportunity in a desolate time.
Throughout the novel, Steinbeck makes a strong point that religion and superstition is over dramatized by many and made into something that does not rely on common sense. This idea is first presented in the form of John Casy’s newfound philosophy, and carried throughout the book using different examples. Through the course of the story, these ideas are presented through the teachings of Jim Casy and the transformation of Tom Joad, as well as Rose of Sharon, who is preagnant with her first child through the family’s journey to California. For the majority of the book, Rose of Sharon is found worrying and complaining about the safety of her baby. She is told by a religious woman that if she takes part in “sinful activities”, such as dancing, that her baby will die or “be born bloody”. This thought scares Rose of Sharon, who spends all of her time ensuring that she does not sin in order to save the life of her baby. In the end, her baby dies right away in a still birth. This could be blamed on the amount of sin that Rose of Sharon was surrounded with, but the true reason is the difficult circumstances and environment that she was traveling in was much too harsh for a pregnant woman, no matter what amount of sin was happening around her.
When reflecting on the characters and the events of this book, you will find that Casy’s idea that every one of us has a spiritual importance, that we all have the power to make a change and shouldn’t rely on just one holy power to do everything for us. As the book progresses, Casy himself begins to take on a role similar to that of Jesus, helping people guiding people with his words and changing lives with his teachings. This is ironic because this happened after he resigned from his job as a preacher. The book ends with Rose of Sharon using her breast milk to nurse a starving man to life, making a sacrifice to save the life of another and presenting herself as a holy figure. This act of nobility again ties back to Casy’s philosophy.

Blog #12

Public works projects are facilities and improvements designed for the benifit of the public and funded by the government. Some examples are hospitals, public building, schools and railroads.

Some of the most famous examples from the New Deal include the Golden Gate bridge, Hoover Dam and the Del Mar fairgrounds.

It would be benificial today to make more low income housing and improved healthcare and educational systems.

What is the main purpose and goal of Pro Peninsula?



“Do your part, make a difference, save the environment”. These are words told to us by countless environmental activists and organizations constantly, and sometimes it feels like the majority of us don’t even pay attention. It’s easy to say that you want to help, and to tell someone that they need to make a change, but actually getting people activated towards even making an effort to actually make a change takes much more effort than you would think. It is difficult to explain exactly what Pro Peninsula does, I often find myself out of words when I am asked this question and expected to explain it simply. The easiest way to understand the purpose of Pro Peninsula is understanding the goal that they provide for themselves. The purpose of Pro Peninsula is to strengthen individual and community efforts to protect the natural environment throughout the Baja California Peninsula. Everything that this organization does is done in an effort to accomplish this goal. Having Sea Turtle adoptions, hosting events like environmental film festivals and other fund raisers, traveling to elementary schools throughout San Diego and the Baja Peninsula and educating the children about how they can help the environment, selling t-shirts and tracking the migration paths of the Sea Turtles are just some of the things that Pro Peninsula does in order to make their goal a reality.



At my internship, my job was originally supposed to be marketing and more behind-the-scenes action, but a big part of what Pro Peninsula does involves reaching out to the community and getting everyone involved in making a difference. In an effort to do this, Pro Peninsula has a program in which they provide elementary schools with low incomes with pen pals in Mexico, so that they can work together to make a difference. Luckily, I was given a chance to experience this side of the organization as well, as I was given the opportunity to accompany my mentor on a few field trips in which she went to the elementary schools and helped the children become activated in helping their environment. It was really empowering to see the students’ excitement about this project, showing that Pro Peninsula really was making a difference. One thing I noticed was that the children of a younger age seemed to be much more interested in the information that we were presenting. Once the students reach seventh grade, they seemed to be suddenly too cool to be interested in participating in school and appreciating the beauty of saving the environment. Francis Kinney, head of social relations for Pro Peninsula, noticed this difference as well. “I think it’s just that age, once you get to about 7th and 8th grade it’s just not cool to be interested in school at all.” She said about the attitude difference between the 7th graders and the younger students.





Saving the Sea Turtles that dwell along the San Diego and Baja California coast is the number one mission of Pro Peninsula. These beautiful creatures are becoming endangered, but many people don’t really take this into consideration, and therefore don’t do much to help the situation. Nature conservation centers such as the Chula Vista Nature save the lives of many of this animals and providing a safe home for them in a man-made habitat that suits their needs. These nature centers increase awareness of the conditions of these animals by showing them to visitors and giving a helpful tour with background information. Bringing elementary students on field trips to centers such as this is another way that Pro Peninsula makes an effort to reach out and activate the community.




One thing that the environmental organization Pro Peninsula prides itself in doing is providing opportunities to experience and see the beauty of our natural environment to those who otherwise never would have been able to. This year, Pro Peninsula is taking a group of fourth grade classes from Kimmel Elementary School on a series of whale watching trips on a boat leaving from the dock of San Diego harbor. The trips were funded completely by Pro Peninsula, who was given money from a variety of sources. On their own, these children would never have the money to participate in such a trip. The looks on their faces when we first caught glimpse of a great grey whale in the distance was priceless.




On the field trips to the many schools, there were several things that we were trying to impress upon these young minds. The first, and most obvious, was clearly to keep them engaged with saving the disappearing wildlife in our oceans and helping our environment. But I think the most important thing that we were trying to impress upon these children was the power of working together. As Frances Kinney explained to a class of wide-eyed 5th graders, the reason we had them writing to children of their age in Mexico rather than in America was not simply just for fun. It is necessary for us to work together with others who are affected by this loss of wildlife in order to really make a difference. This is an important lesson for these children to learn, because it applies to many things in life. Some of the children were native Spanish speakers, and others were not. We encouraged the two groups of children to work together to help each other out to see how much the students could get done without needing the help of their mentors, because this is something that they were capable of doing. To my surprise, the children really made an effort to work together to create their letters.

Blog #5

1.) One piece of work that immediately stood out to me was Constance Abram's mentor interview. I really liked the picture that she used, it was well photographed and jumped out and grabbed my attention right away. The introductory paragraph was very well written and made me want to read more, which is very important in an interview.
http://ohmyinternship.tumblr.com/post/380372247/mentorinterview

2.)Another interview that is very impressive is Emilie Colwell's mentor interview. I really liked how she did her title and headline and used different fonts and font styles to draw attention to the important aspects of the interview. She also used good questions, and I like her use of pull quotes.
https://sites.google.com/a/hightechhigh.org/emilie-colwell/mentor-interview

3.) Hallie Chavis also put together a mentor interview that really stood out as high quality work. She had an attention-grabbing title and interesting headline that immediately interests the reader, and I really like how she used a quote to start off her article.
http://halliechavis.blogspot.com/

Mentor Interview

“I had found that life, businesses and relationships all revolve around creating connections with people”



Head Marketing Consultant of the environmental organization Pro Peninsula Giuliana Schroeder opens up about her bi-national childhood, what she loves about her job, and the building blocks of where she stands today.
By Alia Boynton

Judging by the job she works at and the cool and calm demeanor that she handles dealing with customers and business associates from different parts of the world, you can automatically assume that Giuliana Schroeder is a woman who has seen and experienced many different cultures. It is a typical Wednesday in the open airy office that Giuliana-or Gigi, as she prefers to be called does most of her work out of, and she is dressed in casual sweats and comfortable sneakers as she sits cross-legged on a bench and sips her coffee, using her pink Blackberry to record our conversation as I ask her questions about her fascinating background.

“I have traveled and lived all over after high school, in between college studies, and post my BA degree: Florence, Tokyo, Mexico city, Seattle and its been by encompassing both college studies and travels that I decided to focus my efforts in the environment and education field.” The main thing that stands out about Giuliana after working with her for some time at the Pro Peninsula office is that she has an extremely laid back personality and handles situations with a mature disposition. It is not so apparent at first, however, how she has grown to handle herself in such a way, but it is clear that she has a long and rich history beneath the surface. “I was raised as a bi-national kid, I have dual citizenship, and moved back and forth between San Diego, Mexico City, and Cuernavaca, Morelos for most of my life…it’s been by encompassing both college studies and travels that I decided to focus my efforts in the environment and education field,” says Giuliana about the travels and background that lead her to becoming so successful in working with the environmental organization Pro Peninsula that she is with today. When she mentions things about her life growing up, it is inspiring and astonishing, although the way she talks about it makes it all seem very casual and commonplace.

AB: Where did you go to College?
GS: I got my BA in humanities at Soka University of America, a liberal arts school in OC whose main focus is to promote the idea of “creating value”, which is the literal meaning of Soka (a Japanese work). I also have a Minor in Fine Arts.


AB: What are the benefits/negative aspects of traveling and moving so often while growing up?
GS: I think that the benefits mostly involve being able to adapt better to change getting to know different people. Through doing this through my childhood and growing up I had found that life, businesses and relationships all revolve around creating connections with people, so I think this allowed me to create a lot of different connections in a lot of different networks and places that have given me a lot of confidence and a lot of options, especially if I am put in a position where I need to move around or change jobs. The setbacks that you don’t have that sense of creating roots somewhere, I’ve always felt like I’m from many places, and I’ve moved a lot so I feel like I don’t have as many people that I can really identify with because no one was changing locations as often as me.



AB: What led you to choose to major in humanities?
GS: I was interested in liberal arts in general, and at the time I was also minoring in fine arts and I had been taking the courses that I was more interested in, which were more so like philosophy and literature, and it was towards the end of my Junior year that I saw that all of my classes were in that category. It was between that and International relations, so I almost double majored, but in the end I just chose to do Humanities. It was kind of a decision that was made for me.

AB: What lead you to finding at job at Pro Peninsula?
GS: I’ve worked all over in order to get here, at many unrelated positions like more community service and public relations or advocacy and legislation promotion, but I think the job that got me here was at Pronatura Mexico AC, the largest Mexico-based environemental nonprofit, as a Communications and Publications Consultant for two years. I helped in events, website, translation, editor and writer of their magazine. Definitely the building blocks to where I stand today.

AB: How exactly did you hear about this job?
GS: I think it was from a website called idealists.org, I was being interviewed by a lot of places at the time, but I’m pretty sure it was idealists.org, which is a website for people looking for jobs in non-profit organizations and social work type of things, and it was mainly just good luck and timing.

AB: What is your favorite part of working at Pro Peninsula?
GS: I love a lot of things about it. When I was first looking for a job in the environmental field I always wanted to somehow mix the idea that I was giving back to Mexico, that I was able to use both languages, that I was able to use art in my work as well as education, and the events I get to plan are very fun. I like a lot of parts of my job but if I had to choose, probably the big answer would be what we stand for. To help the community and create a long term goal in environmental conservation.

AB: How do you think that all the traveling you’ve done has really benefited you over the years?
GS: It really helped me with being able to adapt easily to change, being able to mature and be more independent. I moved to Italy for a year when I graduated high school by myself and found an apartment by myself, so I think that I learned not having someone to turn to and having to figure it out on my own, that gave me a lot of independence, which is something that people in my family cannot necessarily relate to. I think that’s what I benefited from the most.


AB: Out of all the places you’ve been to, which stood out the most?
GS: Probably Thailand. I lived in Japan for 6 months, and the last two weeks I traveled to Thailand. I kind of felt like I should have lived there. Japan was incredible, but it was a culture that was difficult to identify with.

Rough draft of opening article for Mentor Interview:

Judging by the job she works at and the cool and calm demeanor that she handles dealing with customers and business associates from different parts of the world, you can automatically assume that Giuliana Schroeder is a woman who has seen and experienced many different cultures. It is a typical Wednesday in the open airy office that Giuliana (or Gigi, as she prefers to be called) does most of her work out of, and she is dressed in casual sweats and comfortable sneakers as she sits cross-legged on a bench and sips her coffee, using her pink Blackberry to record our conversation as I ask her questions about her fascinating background. The main thing that stands out about Giuliana after working with her for some time at the Pro Peninsula office is that she has an extremely laid back personality and handles situations with a mature disposition. It is not so apparent at first, however, how she has grown to handle herself in such a way, but it is clear that she has a long and rich history beneath the surface. “I was raised as a bi-national kid, I have dual citizenship, and moved back and forth between San Diego, Mexico City, and Cuernavaca, Morelos for most of my life…it’s been by encompassing both college studies and travels that I decided to focus my efforts in the environment and education field.” Says Giuliana about the travels and background that lead her to becoming so successful in working with the environmental organization Pro Peninsula that she is with today. When she mentions things about her life growing up, it is inspiring and astonishing, although the way she talks about it makes it all seem very casual and commonplace.

some of the questions that I asked Gigi during the interview:
What were the negative and positive aspects of traveling so often while you were growing up?

What is your favorite part about working for Pro Peninsula?

How did you find out about this job opportunity?

Out of all of the places you have traveled, which stands out the most?

Communication in my Work Place

The communication between the people at the work place is very good. There are only two people working in the office with me, so they are constantly communicating any new and relevant information that has come in to eachother clearly. They coordinate events and arrange to send each other updates or any necessary information. There does not seem to be any confusion or miscommunication.

Something that was a good experience to work on was creating a blog for the company. It was much more interesting than simply creating a blog account for school, because I had more freedom to design it and add more photos and videos to the account, and it's interesting to have the freedom and responsibility to create something that will represent the company.




This is my mentor, Giuliana, exhibiting an example of the proper dress code for the office, which is very casual and includes jeans and tennis shoes.




This is the desk that I was given, it provides a good amount of room to work and has two good computers.




Some of the work that was required of me today involved going over financial documents and ensuring that all the right names were listed and making notes of the ones that were not.





The people I'm working with are very animal friendly because of the work field that they are in, and have many pets. There are dogs roaming around the office that they regulrarly play with and take on walks.

Q:Has your company been affected by the recession?
A:Yes it has, our funding comes from government grants and private funding and people are much more hesitant during the financial crisis. This is one of the reasons that we have recently merged the company with another orginization.

Q:What impact has the recession had on product demand?
A:Buyers are more hesitant now, and we have had to downsize during the recession. We have recently let go 3 or 4 employees because of budget issues.

Q:Does the recession have an impact on the ability to travel to different elementary schools?
A:No, all of our elementary school visits are pre-budjeted.

Today I woke up at 8:30, and for breakfast I had cereal and grapefruit. I got my stuff together and got dressed and ready to go and still had some time to relax before i left for my internship at 10. My mom gave me a ride to the site which took about fifteen minutes, I arrived at the office at around 10:15 and went inside at 10:25. The first person I saw was my mentor Giuliana, who let me into the building and then spent the day with her and her co-worker Francis in their office. My main work space is at a desk located next to the window. It is a nice place to work because the office is big and open and my desk is in a nice spot. For lunch I brought a sandwich and an apple and ate at the office around 1:30. In the afternoon I helped tally up surveys that had been given out to children in elementary schools and worked on setting up a blog for the company. My mentor is working on a calendar for me that will describe in further detail the work that I will be doing daily, but in the next few days I will be most likely working on setting up the company blog and website editing. I think i will do very well at helping with the website and blog and going on fieldtrips and working with kids, as well as making choices for the film festival. To succeed at this internship, I'm going to need to learn more about html editing and websites, but I am very excited about working on this and being able to create something for the company. I'm nervous because editing the company website and dealing with the database information is a big responsibility and they are relying on me to make sure things go smoothly. I got home at around 5pm, the afternoon commute was not bad.