Blog_14 Internship Readiness

While at Year Up, I believe my first instinct going into my internship I will automatically show my true kindness, a smile and my eagerness to get work.  Even though I have the traits of a hard worker naturally, I want to be able to develop the skill by automatically being confident with tasks given, asking the right questions in the beginning and making sure to understand the task before taking them on. I want to make sure I don’t volunteer for everything and know I won’t get looked down upon if I am unable to tackle a task. While in my internship I want to be in an environment where I’m equally capable of completing task and going beyond to make sure the task is done at every level possible. I want to be able to stand out by volunteering for tasks no one wants to do and giving productive suggestions that the company will be able to use for future reference. When it comes to my future manager, I want them to be able to be available, organized, and clear with the tasks that are given. At this moment my current job consists of a manager that is unavailable during my shifts. Questions and communication are unclear, so I am unable to refer to anyone. I try to take initiative and make the best out of situations.

Journal Entry_2 Revised

December 29, 2011

This is the day that I had neither go to school or work. To me the world didn’t exist and sleep was my best friend. Even though I wish I had bigger plans for the break, it was great to have the option to sleep all day if I wanted to and not care about anything. The plan was to sleep until I couldn’t any longer, do my homework, and wash my hair. Unfortunately, things changed. I received a call I never thought I would get. I found myself rushing to the hospital to see about someone. That morning my mother went to work like any other day. She arrived to work described as screaming uncontrollably with sharp pains. My mother didn’t want to call 911, even though you are taught to do this in an emergency. For certain people, when you have to choose between your health and a big fat bill, you are willing to put your health second. This is what my mother chose to do and did not call for an ambulance. A co-worker ended up taking her to the emergency room where their doctors found that a fibroid had formed and was the cause of her real pain. Hearing all this was shocking to me, and I couldn’t believe what choices she made in order to receive help. No one should have to make those choices.

Journal Entry 3

December 31, 2011

The plan; Getting a hotel, going to a club and spending time with that special someone for the new year. What actually happened, I had to work my whole winter break including New Years Eve and day and that special person never showed up. My New Years Eve was the worst but I don’t blame anyone but myself. Sometimes I try to give other people the benefit of the doubt to make plans but they never come through. I truly believe that if I want something done I have to do it myself. I am the only one I can depend on.  After work and feeling sorry for myself, because everyone else had plans and I didn’t, I went home and rented some movies. I figured since I don’t have any cable I would set my alarm for 11:58 pm and wait until 12 midnight. I sat in the dark watching movies feeling like it was just another night at the house with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Just like Christmas it didn’t seem real, the holidays don’t have that same effect like they once did. It was getting closer to the time and all of a sudden my phone started going crazy with text messages of everyone wishing me a happy new year and what was I doing for the night. I was so down in the dumps that I didn’t even feel like answering anyone. By the time midnight came, I said happy New Years to myself, watched the rest of the movies and ended up falling asleep. Whoever said that the holidays meant happy time for everyone?

Journal Entry 2

December 29, 2011

This is the day that i had to neither go to school or work. To me the world didn’t exist and sleep was my best friend. Even though I wish I had bigger plans for the break it was great to have the option to sleep all day if I wanted to and not care about nothing. The plan; to sleep until I couldn’t any longer, do my homework, and wash my hair. Unfortunately things changed, I received a call I never thought I would get, because I found myself rushing to the hospital to see about someone. That morning my mother went to work as any other day. She arrived with sharp pain and was described as uncontrollably screaming in pain. My mother didn’t want to call 911, even though you are taught to do this in an emergency. For certain people when you have to choose between your health and a big fat bill, you are willing to put your health second. This is what my mother chose to do and did not call for an ambulance. A co-worker ended up taking her to the emergency room where there doctors found that a fibroid had formed and had cause real pain. Hearing all this was amazing to me and I couldn’t believe what choices she had to choose to do in order to receive help. No one should have to make those choices.

Journal Entry 1

December 25, 2011

The plan, Open presents, eat breakfast with mom and brother, go to church and then final stop to San Bruno to open more presents and eat more food. Plans sometimes never go as planned. I woke on Christmas day thinking I would spend time with love ones and being able to relax. Instead my time was spent on a schedule which only a few things went into play. This Christmas wasn’t the same for one; it was as if this Christmas didn’t exist, as if it wasn’t really real to begin with. With these certain feelings I just pushed them aside for the moment and enjoy what I could from the day. I did enjoy breakfast and opened gifts that we could afford to give each other, to my mother and brother. After rushing Jkhari, the little rug rat, that morning we made it to church at 12:00pm thinking that was until had at least an hour to praise the Lord on his birthday and celebrate with people I have known for years. Unfortunately the plan changed, and very disappointed I was. Usually church starts at 11 am, but since I haven’t been to church in awhile I guess I didn’t get the memo that both services were combined for today and was already over by the time we got there. I couldn’t believe it, I actually felt like I failed someone for not getting to church that morning. Like my great grandmother used to say, it doesn’t matter if you come late to church, as long as you come before the preacher man says amen. Well I got there real late that the “preacher man” wasn’t even there when I got there. I and my brother ended up meeting up with other family earlier than scheduled and headed to San Bruno where we ate more food and open presents. Since I came with other people I only was able to see some people for about five minutes and arrived home around eight o’clock.

Blogger_10_Internship Readiness

I feel someone who is has qualities of internship readiness is prepared. By being prepared you are making sure to write everything down when directions are given out, and asking questions if something is misunderstood. For the internship you must bring the necessary materials for the day, catching up on any reading and/or becoming familiar with your job tittle and tasks for the job.  By having respect gives you a personal persona towards others and your boss.  You must be respectful to others in their personal space and keep on task without having to be told over and over. You must have an open mind even though you may be nervous about the job. Do not continuously have beliefs that you will not succeed. Keep yourself positive and know there’s always a solution. In my internship I want to be able to show readiness by never leaving class without making sure to have full understanding of the concept at hand. If I ever find myself having questions, I will take the initiative to find, a fellow colleague or teacher, after class. Other examples of me taking this seriously would be for me to go over my past evaluation, be ready for my future evaluation, look at infractions and see how they can be avoided next time, personal days taken and make sure to be careful about taking any more, and being proficient in my homework and never having anything late. It’s important for me to communicate all these examples with my advisor, site leader and teachers to make sure I am on track and anything that they may feel will be great feedback so that I can improve.

 In this program, a few things that I have been told that I need to improve on was more patients with fellow colleagues with understanding concepts and to take the initiative to more of a leader and encourage others to show their inner leader. With that feedback, examples of changes are making sure a fellow colleague has fully understood a concept and that I, the teacher, or the rest of the class has not moved on until everything is understood. If for some reason we do have to move on from the topic, I take the time to go up to this colleague and ask once again if there is anything that I can go over. In projects outside of the classroom but still in Year Up, Inc., I have volunteered to make a ‘Thank You’ YouTube Video for those who invited us to the ‘Carmen’ Opera. I have helped with the Year Up, Inc. Gala where we raised money for the site from cooperate partners and those who wanted to invest in this non-profit. So far I have been asked twice to be a part of meeting with people who either want to learn more and invest in Year Up, Inc. or other site leaders from other Year Up, Inc. sites in the U.S. Lastly I have encouraged a fellow colleague to be more open and volunteer for different events within the site. I have made an announcement to others that I would like more students to volunteer for the events that I am asked to do. I told them to ask teachers or site leaders what they need to do to get noticed and what they could be doing better to be part of those events. I believe that even though some are not making it apparent, they have the same, if not better, skills and drive as I do when asked to talk to those interested in Year Up, Inc.

Blog 9_Worst Job/Best Job

I’m the current Diesel specialist for their stock merchandising position at Macy’s. I enjoy it because I’m on my own and do what I need to do without anyone having to see over me. Primary responsibilities are counting and organizing new merchandise, filling out paper work for the new items, and organizing the back stock and floor. When I say floor, I am referring to where people shop. I can say it’s not enjoyable at times when the other stock merchandiser, in the morning, doesn’t do their job and doesn’t communicate with me on what needs to be done. Skills I get from this job is bettering my communication with others I have to work with and making sure that merchandise is organized. I have learned so far with this job is that not everything is going to work out perfectly. Bad situations will happen and people are not going to do their job, so you have to let them know as professionally as possible how things need to be improved for next time. The voluntary work was lending a hand for a catering job. At this event, a basketball court acted as a ball room for the night where primary responsibilities were decorating around thirty tables for about hundred people and helping serve food and dessert. I enjoyed that even after the hard work the night was a success but the process was something I will not volunteer for again. Skills I can take from this experience to help with my internship is staying organized with your team and having great communication when organizing an event. I would make sure to have enough help and for each person to know their job with no confusion. I learned how much work I can consume on my own before needing help eventually.