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.
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