Blog 22

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Block Presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

I was most proud of my speaking and content. I feel I was very confident, thorough and informative towards the audience.


(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Block Presentation (self-assessment)?

AE

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

P

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

My mentorship was by far the best part of my senior project. It helped me a lot throughout the year gathering research and information.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

Be better at deadlines. I waited til the last minute for a few components.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

I believe that the senior project has shown me how to accomplish long term goals. I've been planning this since August 2013, so it really allows me to put the planning skills to use in future projects and endeavors.

blog 20

(1) What is your essential question and answers? What is your best answer and why?

My EQ is "What is the best way a Union Station worker can successfully aid the homeless in getting off the streets of LA?" My answers were "provide them with proper housing", "introduce them to Sources at Union Station" or "volunteer and help the cause first hand".

My best answer is "volunteer and help the cause first hand", because I believe that with a global problem such as homelessness, being able to help directly would have the largest affect on the community.  When people can volunteer, they are able to get a deeper meaning and understanding of the problem, therefore making it, in my opinion, easier to connect with the clients and work with them more effectively.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

Volunteering myself was very helpful to me. It let me really see how much work goes into the process of helping homeless recover and get themselves back on their feet and living independently. Looking at my other answers, they weren't really something that just anyone can contribute to. With volunteering, literally anyone can help and contribute.

(3) What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

My biggest problem was actually finding my 3rd answer. I was talking to my mentor about it, and she asked me what my first two were. I told her and she basically told me, how do people find about these programs? How does Union Station get the resources to be able to run these program to aid the homeless? They recruit volunteers. Volunteers are what help make the program work so efficiently and successfully.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

My two most significant were my mentor Octavia Sisley and a book called Housing the Homeless. For Housing the Homeless,it gives me insight on how to properly accommodate the homeless in providing housing, what kind of standards should the housing be, and how long should they be prepared to stay in the housing. My mentor was by far my biggest help, however. She's been volunteering for Union Station for 15 years before being hired 2 years ago. She has insight and information on literally every single thing that goes on within the organization, and her knowledge of homelessness was a huge help for me.

blog 21

Literal

·     Octavia Sisley, Union Station Homeless Service

Interpretive

What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?s

I think understanding how much more work is put into homeless services than just serving meals. It takes a lot of dedication, planning and understanding of your clients to be able to successfully aid in ending homelessness.

  Applied

How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ?  Please explain.

It helped me form my first two answers by just understanding how the whole organization works, and understanding how the main goal of Union Station is to provide housing, as well as getting as many homeless to come into the intake center at Passageways.

blog 19

Organizing dinner in the park event

Volunteer files 

Work station

Organized files after all my hard work

LITERAL
(a) “I, student name, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
(b) My mentor, Octavia Sisley.
(c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours).   Post it next to your mentorship log.
(d) I aided my mentor in filing and recording volunteer hours, as well as planning activities for future events. We helped renovate the Family Center, as well as cleaning out old storage room to put more up to date equipment in.  
INTERPRETIVE 
Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  


APPLIED
How did the component help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped. 

I think the biggest part was helping to renovate the Family Center, where it allowed me to better understand what exactly sufficient housing is for our clients. I am able to understand their needs, how to accommodate them and aid them in living comfortably.

Blog 12 revised (again)

1. Tell me about the different housing options clients have here at Union Station. How are they different, how are they similar?

2. Which have you had experience working in? 

3. Is there anything you especially like about one of the facilities?

4. Do you have a favorite facility? In terms of either, what they do inside there, or favorite in terms of favorite to do work inside of?

5. How much of an impact on the homeless community do you think each facility has?

6. Which has the largest impact?

7. Can you tell me about the new facility, Del Mar?

8. How long had Del Mar been in the works? 

9. Do you expect it to be just as, if not more important than the other facilities already in place? 

10. If you had to work in one of those facilities for the rest of your career, which would you choose? Why?

blog 15

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

I plan to do 30 hours of extra membership at the different facilities of Union Station Homeless Services.

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

I will keep a log as well as take pictures of my experiences and activities.

3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

I will be working in all the housing facilities, understanding them more and experiencing how they all work and function.


4.  Post a log on the right hand side of your blog near your other logs and call it the independent component 2 log.

Blog 12 revised

blog 12

1. What's the best thing about this job, in your eyes?

2. Is there ever a time you think about getting a different job, or wishing you never got into this organization?

3. How has doing this as a career changed you?

4. Do you see yourself doing this until retirement?

5. What makes this so enjoyable to you?

6. If the college you saw what you were doing right now, what would their reaction be?

7.  If you had to make a pitch to someone to get into this organization, what would that pitch be? What would you say?

8. What is one thing about this career that makes it more unique than others?

9. If you had to talk someone into chasing this a career, what would you pitch to them?

10. Name one moment that speaks to you the most. Like, where you just thought "man, I love my job" when it happened.

blog 14

• LITERAL
  (a) Statement saying: “I, student name, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
  (b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component
  (c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours).   Post it next to your mentorship log.
• (d) Explanation of what you completed.    
• INTERPRETIVE 
  Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  
  
• APPLIED
  How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped. 

LITERAL

a)I, Bradley Yamashita, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

b) my mentor, Octavia Sisley

c)

d) Extra mentorship hours

INTERPRETIVE

I worked extra hours at mentorship, which I believed was the best idea for my independent component. I spent time in the office, the kitchens, or in the family center. When in the office, I created logistics, spreadsheets, and prepared envelopes to be mailed out to volunteers. In the kitchen, I helped prepare meals and organize volunteer groups (telling them what to bring, how many, proper attire, etc.). In the family center, I was essentially a housekeeper, cleaning the facility and taking care of chores.

APPLIED

I think it helped me understand because of how much work is put into the organization. It's not just giving out meals to homeless, it's really devoting yourself to different events, logistics and several other things that go into the organization running smoothly. For example, our annual event, Dinner in the Park i a huge event. We have around 600-700 volunteers, and we serve around 4,000 people. Planning it with my mentor was tough work, what with all the volunteer names we had to keep track of, boxes of supplies we had to prepare, and letters to volunteers that needed mailing.

This is one of the many things i do in the office. This is a wish list for the Station that we send out to all our volunteers. 

This piece of art was created after our Thanksgiving Dinner in the Park. It's called the "Thankful Tree", where volunteers wrote down why they are thankful and we put this together.

Final draft of the wish list we sent out to volunteers. Looks a lot prettier right?

I also have to file a lot of papers. A LOT.

blog 13

Content:

1. Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why? 
I think my talking was very strong, my content and information was precise and I believe I made time, as well. I think overall I did pretty well.

2. Questions to Consider
       a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

       AP

       b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.

       I think I did very well with eye contact, speaking loud and clear and engaging the audience. My activity could've used some work though.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

Just talking about my topic, as obvious as it sounds. Letting the knowledge I have on my topic kind of speak for itself, and try to be as informative and thorough as possible.

4.  (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?

Remember to bring my final lesson draft, and not worry about time so much, because I ended it kind of awkwardly at the end trying to get as much time as possible.

5. Finding Value
What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?  

"Providing resources necessary to allow homeless to build themselves toward self sustainability."

blog 12

1. How did you become interested in homeless social services?

2. Was it something you were always interested in, or did something happen that really got you interested in it?

3. How has doing this as a career changed you?

4. Do you see yourself doing this until retirement?

5. What makes this so enjoyable to you?

6. If the college you saw what you were doing right now, what would their reaction be?

7. Speaking of college, what did you major in? How much did that help you now?

8. What is one thing about this career that makes it more unique than others?

9. If you had to talk someone into chasing this a career, what would you pitch to them?

10. Name one moment that speaks to you the most. Like, where you just thought "man, I love my job" when it happened.

Blog 11

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

Union Station Homeless Services

2.   Who is your contact?

Octavia Sisley

3.   How many total hours have you done (total hours should be reflected in your mentorship log located on the right hand side of your blog like your WB)?   

60

4.   Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.

Helping with logistics, planning orientations, set up for events, and office work.

5.   Email your house teacher the name of your contact and their phone number confirming who they should call to verify it.  

For sure.

Blog 10

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you over the break with your senior project?

I continued to do mentorship, working out logistics of our recent Dinner in the Park event, along with beginning to create orientation plans for new volunteers.

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did and why?  What was the source of what you learned?
I learned that social work, while helping others, is also a lot of planning, logistics and organization. My source was working first hand on one of the biggest events at Union Station.

3.  If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers of your EQ, who would you talk to and why?

I would interview my mentor, Octavia Sisley, because she, being my mentor, is obviously very knowledgeable on the topic of homeless social services and has taught me everything I've learned throughout the year. I look forward to allowing her to help me expand my knowledge.

extra blog post for december

This month at Union Station was pretty uneventful, but definitely very busy. I aided my mentor in preparing for Dinner in the Park for Christmas, which is so so similar to the Thanksgiving event. It was a whole lot less work however, because since people, for whatever reason, feel more need to give back on Thanksgiving and not on Christmas, there is less preparation to be made. That doesn't mean there is not your fair share of work, as my mentor and I had to deal with several angry volunteers, saying how mad they are that they missed registration and can't give back, or trying to drop off food that we cannot accept. Luckily, the event turned out great, like it always does, and I look forward to volunteering and mentoring in 2014.

Extra Blog Post: November

This month at Union Station, we were all focusing on the upcoming Dinner in the Park event that's held annually at Central Park, where we feed the homeless a delicious Thanksgiving meal. 

So, for a lot of the time we would be putting together several signs and making flyers, making phone calls to volunteers and working out logistics. It was stressful. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this experience, however, it really helped me understand planning out events and work on my skills as a manager of sorts of a program.

blog assignment 9

1. I reviewed the rule of three for writing an EQ.

2.  Review the following EQs and

• Tell us if it meets the rule of 3 criteria.
• Tell why it does or why it doesn't

 a.  What is the most important factor in healthy weight loss?

-The question is too vague, with no specific group of people that the EQ is targeting.
 b.  What is most important to securing a conviction in a criminal investigation?

-The question is very specific and is clearly not a yes or no question.
 c.  What is most important in creating a hairstyle that best satisfies a customer?

-This follows the rule of three as it is specific and allows for additional research.
 d.  How can an Anesthesiologist best treat chronic pain?

-This follows the rule of three as well, as it gives possibility for several different answers and is specific as well.

3. How can a social worker best provide support for the homeless community?

Blog 8

Content:

1.  What is your working EQ?-How can a homeless social worker aid the homeless community to get off the streets of Los Angeles?

2.  What is a possible answer to your working EQ? Please write the answer in thesis format.  Examples:
-Reaching out to the community and getting as many people involved in the cause will help get shelters running faster and more efficiently, therefore, allowing more of the homeless to find permanent housing and stability.

3.  What is the most important source you have used that has helped you come up with an answer to your working EQ? 
- Talking to my mentor, she is very knowledgeable and provides me with very in depth and accursate information.

4.  Who is your mentor, or where are you volunteering, and how does what you are doing relate to your working EQ?
-My mentor is Octavia Sisley, and I volunteer at the Union Station Homeless Services Administrative Offices, the Family Center and the Adult Center. At the Administrative Offices, I create several brochures, fliers and marketing ads that would encourage more people to become more involved in the volunteering and helping the homeless.

Blog 7

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.
-For my 30 hours, I plan to do some community service in some of the other facilities of Union Station, such as the Adult Center, where we cook and prepare meals for homeless, or at Passageways, where homeless come in to begin the Union Station program.

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

-Get my volunteer hour paper signed, as well as take a log.

3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

-It will give me more perspectives of the environment, and different opportunities to work and communicate with the clients.

4.  Post a log on the right hand side of your blog near your mentorship log and call it the independent component 1 log.

-Ok.

Additional Monthly Post

This month at Union Station, I did a lot of office work with my mentor, helping create different manuals,  slideshows and spreadsheets. But, if there was one thing that stood out in particular, it was the day I had to go into the Family Center for the day to do my daily jobs. So, I went in, and the first thing I notice is how many families were there. What really made me pay attention to all of them was that they were all so grateful for everything we at Union Station do for them. It really warms my heart to see how much of a change we can make in people's lives.

Blog 6

Content: 
The purpose of the second interview is justify your mentor as an expert in the field.  Thus, you will be asking at least 5 questions about their background and/or the background of the organization or company where they work.

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?

Octavia Sisley at Union Station Homeless Services (Family Center) in Pasadena.

2.  What five questions will ask them about their background?

-Did you ever plan on becoming a social worker?
-When did you realize you wanted to become a social worker?
-What college did you attend and what did you major in prior to beginning your career?
-Did you work anywhere else before Union Station?
-If you from 15 years ago saw what you're doing right now, career-wise, what would they think?

Blog Assignment 5

The Pentagon: 
(1) Positive Statement: I'm seeing the homeless community in a whole new light. (I didn't see them in a bad way before, I just understand their problems and struggles a lot more now.)

(2) EQ Content:  Pick a piece of research or your interview.  How has it helped you improve your understanding of your topic?

I had an article that just really discussed statistics on homelessness, like how many are drug addicts, how many are single women with a child, etc., it improves my understanding because it gives me more of an idea on how wide the variety of people are in the homeless community.

(3) What has worked for you so far in the senior project?
My mentor's are very easy and fun to work with, and this is a topic I quite enjoy.

(4) What hasn't worked so far?  
My mentors schedule doesn't always work with mine, but other than that everything is going very well.

(5) Finding Value:  

•  What is a potential question you would like to study this year? "What is the best way to aid homeless people in getting off the streets of Los Angeles?"
•  What do you plan to do for mentorship?  I actually do a wide variety of things for my mentor, such as helping create ads to recruit new volunteers, planning events, or just doing basic office work like going through files.