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?