Internship Week 4

6. Describe your POL preparation process. What presentation tools are you planning to use? Are you relying on notes, a memorized talk, something else? How are you preparing for questions you might be asked?

For my presentation of learning I am going to use powerpoint. I am going to use powerpoint to illustrate my internship experience. To talk about my slides I am going to write down what I am going to say on note cards and shuffle through those to know what to talk about. Along with note cards I am going to try to memorize as much I possibly can, but I am not going to memorize a script I am going to just memorize the main topics and go off of that.  I am going to prepare for my questions by going over possible questions with another student. 

7. How do you feel about returning back to classes next week? Do you anticipate a different experience of school now that you have been immersed in a work place? What are you looking forward to about coming back? What are you going to miss about internship?

I am excited to return back to school only because I do not have to wake up as early as 5 in the morning. Other students do not want to go back to school because they have to wake up earlier but when school starts I get to sleep in for another 2 and a half hours. I am going to miss having a new scenery everyday and doing physical work instead of being at a desk. I am going to anticipate that coming back to school is going to literally suck. Its going to take a bit of time to get use to sitting for a long period of time and writing. I haven't written anything with a pen or pencil since school ended. I am sort of looking forward to coming back to school to see all my friends but I am not looking forward to doing homework. I am going to miss meeting new people and getting a new project everyday. I enjoy learning different types of propagation and what a horticulturist does. I am going to miss the fact that I can goof off all day long and yet get something accomplished. But overall I am going to miss the people there and how friendly they are too me.

Week 3 Internship

3. You are probably more than half-way through your project. How is it going? What challenges have you faced? What have you learned? What are you doing to ensure a successful completion of your internship project.

I am more than halfway done with my project. Its an ongoing process that will continue until the exhibit is ready to be shown to the public during Easter Sunday. I have been able to complete all the necessary steps to further my project. I have pruned and planted the cuttings from the pentas plant along with getting the plant to the final stages. Throughout this project I have learned all the basic skills of horticulture. I have learned how to prune, divide, and take cuttings from multiple plants and ensure that they will continue to grow after they have been cut back. I have been on task and working on my project everyday for the past couple of days making sure everything is ready for the final stage. Once the plant gets to the final stage it will get moved to a new table. 

5. Who benefits from the work that you do at internship? How and/or why?

The main people who benefit from my work is the Horticulture Department and the public. I am able to help my team leader along with his team members prepare the annual Easter Butterfly exhibit along with the 2014 Tiger exhibit. I am able to help out on the TIger exhibit because I am propagating the “tiger grass” by division. Because I provide a second set of hands I am able to get the process to move along alot more efficiently. My mentor and I are able to split a single plant into as many as 90 single plants and re-pot them for them to go again. If my mentor had to do this himself it would take him a good chunk of his time but by me helping him along we are able to finish alot sooner. On the Easter Butterfly exhibit I am able to prune and take the cuttings of the plant. Since I am able to do this my mentor can proceed to the next step and we can move along more smoothly. I cut the cutting off and hand it to Keith and he takes it and plants it. We were able to fill cut and replant the pentas plant all before lunch. 

8. What are social interactions like in your workplace? Do people spend a lot of time socializing? Are people isolated, doing their own things? Lots of collaboration on work projects? Not much collaboration? How does the social dynamic impact or reflect the organization's work?

The social interaction of my internship is a very friendly one. Everyone knows each other and jokes around. Not only does it take place in the department I work in but all throughout the park. Multiple departments work together on a single project and because of that  many people know each other. For example, today I worked with this lady named Jennifer, wherever we drove people would say hi to us or nod their heads. I asked her at the beginning who are they and what department they worked in but after a few people she said I don’t really know and continued driving. The Safari Park is a very socially active area and everyone ask where the tigers are or where the monkeys are. If you are a new employee to the park you are going to ask the veteran employees to help out. This probably happens but when you are covering a 1,800 acre park you are going to need more help.

Internship Week 2

1. What is the biggest challenge face at your internship?

The biggest overall challenge I faced during internship was the hours. The hours are brutal and do not with my schedule at all. I start at 6:00 am and end at 2:30 pm. Getting off at 2:30 is pretty good but waking up at 5:00 am is not. I live around 45 minutes away from the park which is a long drive every morning. Everyday it feels like I am more and more tired driving up. I cannot sleep earlier because of club sports and a SAT prep class. My club sport starts at 6:30 and ends at 8:30, I get home at nine and I have to still eat and prepare lunch for the next day. I go to practice Tuesday to Thursday. On Friday I take a mock SAT. A four hour test every Friday along with a 5 hour class on Saturday. Those classes come with homework. I cannot drop the sports of classes so I am exhausted by the next morning.

5. How do you see your role at your internship?

My role at the internship is part worker and part student. I will spend 3/4 of my day working with my mentor on the stuff he needs to get done or with another team member on their projects. While we work I am instructed on what to do and why we do it. For example, we trim plants to get cuttings and keep the plant from growing bigger than we want it. We do this by cutting at the stem and removing the first set of leaves, from here we take the place where the leaves use to be and dip it in water, take the stem that you recently dropped in water and cover it in powder, then stick it in the soil. After I am told what to do my mentor or whoever I am working with explains why we do it. Then we get to work. I do the exact same things my mentor does and that includes the tedious task of washing pots. Throughout the week I am shuffled with other horticulturist learning what they do in their section of the park along with working with them to maintain it.

8. Who is your mentor? Describe his or her life, education, career path and more.

My mentors name is Keith Thomas. He grew up in England as a farm boy. He had a lot of cattle and dogs. His early childhood consisted of him and his siblings helping keep the farm in working order. He did not want to be a farmer and moved to California at 24. His wife is from San Diego and every time they came to visit her family he wanted to go back to England less and less. Eventually he just moved to San Diego with his wife. Keith has been working for the park for 8 years and has not changed this job there since. When he first started he use to be under a woman named Gail. Eventually he became his own team leader. By becoming a team leader Keith controls the upkeep in the park. He is known as the Village 1 team leader, village one consist of the entrance all the way to Hidden Jungle and Bats. Keith went to college in England and was trying to stay there until he met his wife Diana and moved out here at 24. Keith had no intention of becoming a farmer but his brother did. His brother now owns a farm in England just like his dad.

Internship Week 1

1. Choose an employee in your company and after a conversation with him or her, describe his/her education, overall career path and current job description.

One of the first people I had a conversation with is Mike Hogan. I found out after talking to Mike for a little bit is that he use to work in the same department as my mom. They worked in the same building  and knew the same people. He left around the same time my mom left that department. I do not know why he left the county but when I talked to him more I found out later that he is good friends with my mom’s friend. And on the way back from Jamul my mom texted me and told me to say hi from her and his old friends. He use to work for DPLU, Department of Planning and Land Use and now he works as a the Lead Hospital Personnel at the San Diego Safari Park.  I do not know exactly what he does at his new job but on the first day I worked with him we planted 500 cypress trees at the Daily Ranch.

2. Describe the project you'll do at internship, including the skills and technology you need to do it and what you hope your project looks like as a final product.

My project this internship is propagating and preparing the plants for the butterfly exhibit this Easter. This is my main project that I will be assisting on. The final product will not be able to be on displayed until Easter. The entire internship will be a general overview of Horticulture. I will learn how to trim, prune, and prepare plants for future uses. We taking small baby plants and raising them to big big and fill an exhibit. Another part of this use is that we can cultivate plants that are not allowed back in the United States. Plants are not allowed to be transferred across the border so plants from Baja California cannot be brought back into the United States. The plants here are the only Baja plants you will see unless you go to Mexico. After those plants have been taken care off. This is one portion of my overall project. Another part of the internship is learning how the park functions and how all the staff maintains the park.  

Pre First Day of Internship

Hopes:
One of my biggest hopes for this internship is to be able to expand my horizons on what I want my career to be. I still have time to change what I want to be in the future so hopefully I will be able to consider a different career path. Another hope I have is to be able to maintain my relationship with my mentor after the internship. it is a good to build strong friendships when you grow up and hopefully I can turn to my mentor for help on projects in my future high tech education. My last hope is to be able to represent High Tech in a way it should be represented. I do now want to be the student who burns the bridge between High Tech and the Wild Animal Park.

Dreams:
My dream is to work inside the park more than in the back. I would prefer to be inside the park planting and helping than in the back planting. Also my dream is to have a good time interning there. I choose this internship because I want to do something outside and fun. Maybe not play fun but a project that is enjoyable. A project I can take pride in. Another dream I have is to be able to have a project where I can contribute to the reconstruction of the butterfly exhibit.

Fears:
My biggest fear is not being able to get use to the time schedule. Waking up at 5am is not on my checklist of things I want to do. But getting off at 2:30 is pretty great. My fear is that my body will not adjust to the change and I will be sleep deprived and I will not be able to work to the best of my abilities.