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.

Post Visit Thoughts

Survival
* San Diego Safari Park
* Drove myself
* 40 minutes from school
* Bacon Egg and rice
* All fast foods are available in the park.
* Tables behind the scenes
* I will work all over the park
* Scattered throughout the park

People
* Keith Thomas and he is a great mentor who is really into what he is doing.
* Keith Thomas loves his  plants and works his hardest to keep his side of the park up to standards.
* His two other employees
* That they enjoy what they do and are willing to work extra hard to get it done

Work
* Setting up the butterfly exhibit that will be showed during Easter.
* Physical Labor, and basic gardening skills.
* I'd going to learn about our environment and how big of an impact plants play in it.
* I will help create the butterfly exhibit.

Thoughts
* What will provide a challenge is the hours of work.
* The hours
* By working harder and trying to learn as much as i can throughout the experience
* Pay close attention to what Mr. Thomas says and ask when i need help to work as hard as a can

And...
* Is there any other students doing the same internship?
Maybe

Internship First Thoughts

What are you looking forward to most about your internship experience?

What I am looking forward too in my internship is a chance to have a enjoyable time. Its not exactly in my range of where I want to be in the future but it will give me insight into other possibilites. Planting trees and designing a eco system allows to to understand plants and animal species. This internship is going to be an out door internship so I am excited to learn about biology.

* What are you most concerned about in your internship?
My biggest concern about internships is not enjoying my internship. I know that internships are suppose to model a job experience but i want mine to be enjoyable.* What type of work do you plan to do, what are your hopes for your project, etc?
What i plan on doing during this internship is to be able to understand ecosystems and plant life. My grandmother is big on planting and having her own garden and my mother is a landscape architect, so i will be able to bring what I learn at the Safari park home. My biggest hope for the project is that it will inspire the Sophomores to take the internship I did. * What are your goals for your site visit?
My goal for my site visit to to have an overview on what I am actually going to be doing. I have no idea on what happens at Horicultutre but I am willing to learn.* What questions do you have about internship?
Nothing

12

Post your thoughts about your partnership with an Explorer student! 
What are you excited about?
I am excited to work with Noah on creating a story that will be fun for me to write and enjoyable for him to read. I am also excited that we are writing creative writing, we are able to write without guidelines to follow. 

What are you nervous about? 
Im nervous that will not be able to meet the expectation my 4th grader had on me. I would like to excel past his expectation and show him that when you grow up you can do work like this and the fact that the work is not as hard as it seems.

What are your hopes for this project? 
My hopes is to have a a children book that is ultimately successful. I am not a very good writer so hopefully I can write a story that I am proud of and willing to show off. 

What are your fears for this project? 
My fear is not to be done with the book. Also I am fearful on the fact that the book will suck and that my partner would not like it. 

What do you think your story will be about? 
I already have a plot I discussed with my partner. It going to start with a guy in the year 3000, this guy is no ordinary guy he is placed in a insane asylum along with 300 other people in space. One day the space prison loses power and he escapes, once he is back on earth he finds out about all the new technological advances that has happen. He then discovers that the invention of a time machine was developed. He then steals a time machine and travels to the medieval ages. Once he arrives here he funds the kingdoms with new weapons. Weapons including guns and grenades. What the prisoner did not know was the fact that there is a new police that has developed during the time he was locked away. This new police control and maintain the time zones. The police reverse what the prisoner has done, turing the clock before the prisoner disperse the guns out and stoping him before stealing the time machine. The END

Blog 11

What are you most proud to show during your Student Led Conference?
I am most proud to show my grades. Even though its the beginning of the year I still have good grades. I am also proud of the fact that I am taking all honors possible this semester. 

What would you like to change, following your SLC?
What I would like to change about my SLC is how prepared my resume was. I know that my resume is not where it should be. I plan on changing this by dedicating a block of time to working on my resume and getting it critiqued by my old teachers. 

What goals do you have for the remainder of the semester?
My main goal for this semester is to get a 4.3 GPA. I will strive for this goal by being on task as much as possible and working on every project to the best of my ability. 

What are your ideas for internship... and how will you work with a parent or guardian on securing a great 
internship?
Some ideas i have for internship is to intern at the Sharp hospitals down the street. Either in a specialist building for surgeries or in a pediatrician building for kids. I will work my family friends to get an internship with them at there office. 

Blog 10

1. What is history?

History is the study of the past events. Events can include the life and death of a person, a win or lose, anything that happen in the past. History is continually written everyday. We look towards history to correct our mistakes and not make the same mistakes. We also learn from history to understand why things are today.

2. What is ideology?

Ideology is "not just a subject for intellectual debate, but a matter of life and death." (Introduction American Ideology) Ideology is a belief, a theme, or an idea. Ideology is a certain belief that the majority of the population uses. "two of these so-called Christians met two Indian boys one day, each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots and for fun beheaded the boys." (A Young Peoples History of the United States) 

3. Can history be neutral? Why or why not?

History should not be neutral but history is bias. History is wirrten in a way that the following generation would be proud of their country. Christopher Columbus is a example. When you learn about him in elementary school you only hear about the good thing. You hear about how he sailed across the sea to find new land. But they did not included what he did when he got there. You would not want your grandchildren to know that you led an expedition to a new land and you completely destroyed their culture. History is not neutral, history is presented to show how great a person was not the faults he had. 

4. Zinn discusses what he considers the typical way Americans study or understand history. How has your experience (either in school, or simply in your life) been similar?

Throughout class we are shown how great America is but we do not see what we did to get here. "“This was the start of the history of Europeans in the Americas. It was a history of conquest  slavery, and death. But for a long time, the history books given to children in the United States told a Different story-a tale of heroic adventure, not bloodshed. The way the story is taught to young people is just the beginning to change.” (A Young Peoples History of the United States) America is shown as a very great and proud nation through its history books. What many people don't understand is the crimes against humanity America commit to get here.

5. When you consider Zinn's discussion of the typical American study or understanding of history, how has your experience (in school or in life) been different?

Since we were little, we have read about the great battles America has participated in and has won. Yet we are never told the wars we lost they are simply classified as "withdrawn". I was born in a different country and my family has only started living in the US, because of that I have a different view on the US. I have been on both sides of the world. A first world country and a third world country and seeing what America is in person and just speculating it from the outside is different. I grew up knowing America is not the paradise the world sees but a country with its messes hidden.

6. What did you read that stood out to you positively? Why?

I liked how the author in How the U.S. lLost Out on iPhone Work is how he gave the important facts first. " Almost all 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads, and 59 million other products were manufactured overseas." When an author gives huge statistics at the beginning it will keep my attention. It stood out because it showed the sheer magnitude of the work being done for apple. It stood out positively because it shows me what I want to know at the beginning not draw big gigantic circles for me to endlessly follow. 

7. What did you read that you disliked? Why?

What I disliked about the articles was how lengthy each article was, it was excess information just like my Narrative Nonfiction book. I rather them give me the main facts instead of every little bit of story. " I had grown up in the dirk and dankness of New York tenements, had been knocked unconscious by a policeman while holding a banner in a demonstration, had worked for three years in a shipyard, and participated in the violence of war." (Passionate Declarations) I thought all this extra background knowledge is unnecessary for the topic of unjust war. Why do you need to know that he got knocked unconscious before, that has nothing to do with war. 

8. How were some of your biases or preconceived notions confirmed by what you read?

The fact that the United States hides the bloodshed they have caused in the past. People see how great America is until they see its past. 

9. How were some of your biases or preconceived notions challenged by what you read?

In the iPhone story I already knew that Apple is getting blamed for shipping the work oversees. What I do not get is why lame them. They are a business they want to make money. You cannot blame Apple for taking away jobs when they are the ones who create it. I was challenged by the fact that many people are to blind by there own self interest to see a business frame of mind. I am pretty sure if you put any person who lost there job into Steve Jobs position they would not help the rest of America. 

10. What unique perspective, element of creativity, or new questions do you bring to our study of history?

I want to know the other side of the story. We might have won this war but I want to know what the country who lost has to say about it. What is in there history books? And what is there view on the event that just happened.