Blog #10 - The End - Tuesday, December 13
My WLE has been a fun and eye-opening experience for me. This program has helped me learn overall what workplace looks and feels like. I feel that I've grown significantly as a person and as a worker, and that the possibilities for me are endless. I hope to continue to apply all the skills and life lessons I learned at my WLE to my life and to future careers, as it will benefit me greatly. That sums it up the most (and my other blogs practically discuss info that I've learend at my WLE), and it has been quite a nice experience to have. I may look for WLEs similar to this job, as I found this one quite interesting, but I never really know what could be next. The future is wide open and I just might decide to go for a completely different type of job experience on my senior year. I also know how to dive into finding a job and getting one now, so I can go into certain workplaces I once felt unsure about, but this time with confidence instead of the fear of not knowing. There are endless possibilities.
Blog #9 - Life At My WLE - Tueday, December 6
Today at my WLE, I did my usual work. For Lawson Middle School, I finalized permission slip submission for the school's Yosemite Field Trip. At IT, I assisted one of the employees, Adam. Adam works on the fire alarm systems at school sites, and I assisted him with troubleshooting and solving fire alarm problems at school sties. Then I continued to work on my project with my mentor. I have improved as an intern greatly by being more efficient with my work. I am always trying solve problems resourcefully and effectively, trying to save time and doing my work fast. I have also become more used to the environment, making my work easier and not as nerve-wrecking. My workplace is a great place to work because everyone there is very friendly and professional, the environment of the place is very easy to settle into and is quite comfortable, but still motivates you to work hard. As with any workplace, you may not like some of the people, or you just struggle with some of the bosses or the way they work there, but it is overall an excellent place to work.
Blog #8 - Professionalism - Tuesday, November 29
In order to find my WLE and get hired, I had to call a lot of places. I had to face disappointment whenever I was denied for the job or the place I called did not accept interns, regardless I had to keep trying. There was a lot of stress and pressure on me to get an internship because I couldn't find any, and the deadline was getting closer and closer. Eventually my mom saved me, landing me an internship at her workplace, which is CUSD. I think the most effective way to get a job is to have experience and confidence. If you are confident in yourself and you are determined to keep trying now matter how much you fail, it is important to continue to persevere. Having connections and hook-ups can really benefit you, as that is how I got my internship. Sometimes people are a lot nicer than you think they are. As a result of my WLE, I think being a professional or a responsible adult in the work world means that you have to do your work and not complain, doing it as efficiently as possible while collaborating and keeping a positive attitude. There are tons of factors that could take a book to be a professional and responsible adult in a workplace, but I believe those are the most important, being punctual, efficient, and respectful.
Blog #7 - What I Learned: Reflection - Tuesday, November 22
I have learned that I am a pretty good worker when I have clear directions on what to do. Having good guidance eases the nervousness and makes overall work easier. I also learned that I am good and using my resources to find better ways to complete work that seems otherwise long or tedious, in a quick yet efficient manner. I faced many challenges during my WLE, a big one being very tired, so work becomes very difficult or begins to feel extremely slow. The only way for me to overcome them was to keep pushing through and persevering, instead of just sleeping on the job or giving up.
I learned that, inevitably, I will face challenges like this every single day in the future, but I cannot let these problems bring down my spirit to work. The employees at CUSD are inspring, many of them are hard workers that dedicated themselves everyday to long 8 or 10 hour shifts, and despite all their tiredness throughout and at the end of the day, they continue to work. It helps me know that it is important to dedicate yourself to your work, especially if it is a work or career that you are extremely passionate about. It also helped me learn how to not be intimidated by other workers, or the job itself. In the end, as long as I do what I'm supposed to do and set my mind to it, it really is not a bad thing. My creativity was put to use many times by myself mostly. Someone would assign me work and tell me a way to do it. I would try it, but if I'm not feeling it, I think about it. I think about how I can make this work faster and easier for me, and try to think of many creative ways to work around it. It does not always work in my favor, but it did test my creativity.
Being placed in three different jobs at once was a big challenge, as there is a lot to keep track of. It made me learn that the community is so important, because they are all very connected to those three jobs I was doing and they're connected to even more jobs. What these jobs do is support the community that is so cooperative and nice, and they are a big part of the city's environment and have large effects on the city. I did not believe that work could actually be stress-less when I thought about it. Even though there will be a lot of stressful moments at work, it is as simple as setting your mind to the task at hand, and working as hard as you can. If one were to not follow those guidelines, they would struggle tremendously at any workplace. In my WLE, I learned a lot about doing office work that many go through everyday, and having a better understanding of it. I got a better understanding of technology and electronics through IT. The communications department helped me understand how the community of a place works and how important they are to us, and how we can cooperate with them. If someone were to ask me why what I did at my WLE was important, I would say that my WLE is very important because we help the community, the students, and schools of Cupertino. We support them and give them benefits to better their lives and experiences. We are doing our best work to help education and the future of these students and those of the community of Cupertino. What I've learned for my WLE will affect my choices different in an educational approach. It made me important how important a school district is, it is the backbone of schools and it really helps the students and staff have a better learning experience; it makes school more fun. It'll make me think about how I treat education, and that I should treat it with more respect and have more appreciation for it. That I should always treasure it.
I learned that, inevitably, I will face challenges like this every single day in the future, but I cannot let these problems bring down my spirit to work. The employees at CUSD are inspring, many of them are hard workers that dedicated themselves everyday to long 8 or 10 hour shifts, and despite all their tiredness throughout and at the end of the day, they continue to work. It helps me know that it is important to dedicate yourself to your work, especially if it is a work or career that you are extremely passionate about. It also helped me learn how to not be intimidated by other workers, or the job itself. In the end, as long as I do what I'm supposed to do and set my mind to it, it really is not a bad thing. My creativity was put to use many times by myself mostly. Someone would assign me work and tell me a way to do it. I would try it, but if I'm not feeling it, I think about it. I think about how I can make this work faster and easier for me, and try to think of many creative ways to work around it. It does not always work in my favor, but it did test my creativity.
Being placed in three different jobs at once was a big challenge, as there is a lot to keep track of. It made me learn that the community is so important, because they are all very connected to those three jobs I was doing and they're connected to even more jobs. What these jobs do is support the community that is so cooperative and nice, and they are a big part of the city's environment and have large effects on the city. I did not believe that work could actually be stress-less when I thought about it. Even though there will be a lot of stressful moments at work, it is as simple as setting your mind to the task at hand, and working as hard as you can. If one were to not follow those guidelines, they would struggle tremendously at any workplace. In my WLE, I learned a lot about doing office work that many go through everyday, and having a better understanding of it. I got a better understanding of technology and electronics through IT. The communications department helped me understand how the community of a place works and how important they are to us, and how we can cooperate with them. If someone were to ask me why what I did at my WLE was important, I would say that my WLE is very important because we help the community, the students, and schools of Cupertino. We support them and give them benefits to better their lives and experiences. We are doing our best work to help education and the future of these students and those of the community of Cupertino. What I've learned for my WLE will affect my choices different in an educational approach. It made me important how important a school district is, it is the backbone of schools and it really helps the students and staff have a better learning experience; it makes school more fun. It'll make me think about how I treat education, and that I should treat it with more respect and have more appreciation for it. That I should always treasure it.
Blog #6 - Leadership Skills - Tuesday, November 15
In my WLE, I feel that the leadership skill that I am using the most is Complete Projects Effectively and Think Critically. I am using it so because a lot of the work I do is office/organizing type work, and I always try to finish it in the most efficient and quickest way possible. If I feel that one way of sorting does not work, then I will try to create a new way that suits the situation better in order to make the work more efficient. Finding new ways of working is also an example of Thinking Critically. I feel that I am using these leadership skills pretty good at my WLE, I try to utilize them when the time is right, and most of the time have positive results on my work ethics, always trying to find new ideas. I feel that I could improve on these skills by trying to make them better the first time in order to not waste too much time on planning or thinking. It helps me get through my work faster and getting through my work faster makes the day feel much faster, as having a slow day makes work seem boring and makes it feel like it lasts forever. My mentor definitely uses Communicate Powerfully the most. Jeremy works in the Communications department, where strong speech is the most important tool, as he is talking with parents, employees, and the Superintendent everyday of his job. He represents the school district and through his powerful speech, he will output a positive image for the Cupetino Union School District.
Blog #5 - Progress On My WLE Project - Tuesday, November 8
Today at my WLE, I helped the middle school I work at, Lawson, organize a field trip to Yosemite National Park. The field trip is an educational and fun experience for all students at Lawson Middle School. At the IT department, I worked with one of the employees there named Kyle. Kyle helps in technical and internet problems for the schools around the Cupertino Union School District. If a school has a problem with anything technology related, it's his job to go to the site and help them solve the problem. What I did today though was help him with repairing technology, something he also does in his job. Lastly in communications, I worked on my WLE project with my mentor, Jeremy. Jeremy talked to me about how I should start the project, so he gave me documents to study about the school bonds, and I put down ideas on Google Docs (which is shared with him) about how the structure of the website will work and what will go in each area. I have completed this so far, and soon may come the actual website.
Blog #4 - Project Brainstorm - Tuesday, November 2
For my WLE project, my mentor and I have actually decided that he can give me a project that involves the school district's funding. He wants me to create a website about CUSD's bonds. A bond is money that the government will give to the school district solely for renovating and modernizing schools that are not up to modern standards or just need to be updated to modern standards. The purpose of it is to let the government know that the district is trustful with this sort of money, that the constructions will be finished on time and that the money will be used correctly. My mentor came up with the idea first because he his a large part of the communications district, and he feels that I can help create a good website because my input would be the average person's input. There would be no bias in any way because it is my input and opinion, so I can help project data to the public in a sense that they would understand well. I am excited to do this project because it sounds very significant. I feel that it gives me a big role, that I get to help the school in a big way by helping their learning conditions. It makes me feel like I have done the whole world a favor if I do this because it will help education, it has a very feel-good vibe to it. In the next 3-4 weeks, I will have to study data about CUSD's past bonds and how that statistical information can be projected to the public. I will have to take notes and input it into some kind of temporary document, then start creating the website and adding to it. Eventually, finishing touches will be made and the website will be good to go.
Blog #3 - My Role - Tuesday, October 25
My main responsibility in the Cupertino School District (CUSD) is to support the employees of the district with their work by completing simple yet time consuming jobs that others do not have the time to finish. I am there to specifically help teachers, IT technicians, and the communications office. My title around the area is mostly known as an Intern, but my CUSD badge titles me as a contractor; a person who is temporarily on site of the district to complete jobs that other employees do not specialize in. Other tasks that I am specifically completing are: organizing, filing papers, creating copies for employees/teachers, helping with the district's websites and how we display that information, creating spreadsheets, and many more. The work can sometimes be overwhelming and at other times average-paced. In the communications office, I am also part of giving the people's opinion on what the district does, for I am the average person; my opinion does help the district. A regular day in the district would start with me arriving at the district and checking in with my mentor for about a quick 5 minutes. Afterwards, I would start a short walk to the next door middle school, Lawson Middle School. I sign into the office and head to room 29: Music Class. Music Class is run by two different teachers, Mr. Dave Lewis and Ms. Jessica Vaughn-Marra. Both Mr. Lewis and Ms. Marra constantly assign me busy work to be doing for them, mostly office-type work that they would normally do in their spare time, but can instead leave it in my hands. I would be organizing spreadsheets for the school band's annual Disneyland, sorting out donations given to the music class, making copies of sheet music, and organizing sheet music. Both of the teachers have very stable control of the class, so I do not do much hands-on teaching, but they have me do a lot of work anyways. After spending 4 hours there, I would eat lunch, then head over to the IT department, or Information Technology. The IT Department usually has me do quite simple work; IT is very intelligence-heavy and requires years of experience with programming. IT is also very on top with small office work, so most of the times, I would learn how they work, how their meetings work, or how to work well-known programs on the computer past the average knowledge, such as Microsoft Word or Excel. They showed me the website Lynda.com, which is a website meant for training employees, or simply people who stay at home, how to use many different and common office programs to their fullest potential and extent. After IT is done, I go to the Communications department with my mentor. My mentor, Jeremy, gives me a lot of work involving the school district's publicity. He would have me clip newspaper articles that relate to the Cupertino Union School District, let me sit in on meetings that involve the employee's rights and their working environment, and also let me help in the creation of a website for the CUSD Bonds (to renovate the school) and the school district newsletters. The work day is very busy and it helps me experience how it is to work constantly for long periods of time, the tasks done there are simple, yes, but simple does not necessarily mean that it is easy.
Blog #2 - My Mentor - Tuesday, October 18
My mentor's name is Jeremy Nishihara. Jeremy works in the Communications department, working with high-ranking school officials, such as the superintendent of the Cupertino Union School District. His job is to directly communicate with the community of Cupertino; if CUSD is involved in publicity (such as news reports, articles, interviews, etc.), he is in charge of that. He is also in charge of communicating with the parents of students that have questions, comments, or concerns about the schools/district.
Their typical day mostly involves work related to the community and school district, such as parcel taxes, District Bond Programs, being in charge of the school's website, and many more. Jeremy works at CUSD almost everyday. Jeremy became interested in the communications area because he loves to talk with the community and have his occupation be very interesting and impressive to the public.
Their typical day mostly involves work related to the community and school district, such as parcel taxes, District Bond Programs, being in charge of the school's website, and many more. Jeremy works at CUSD almost everyday. Jeremy became interested in the communications area because he loves to talk with the community and have his occupation be very interesting and impressive to the public.
Blog #1 - My Workplace - Tuesday, October 11
My workplace is called the Cupertino Union School District, and it serves schools and students all across the bay area from K-8. The Cupertino Union School District (CUSD) is a fairly large business. They are one of the largest school districts in California and have many employees and students. My workplace is in Cupertino, but they have schools in other cities in California, such as Sunnyvale, Fremont, and others. It looks like it has been around for a long time. The district itself is fairly small, but they plan to move out soon to a better area, in order to further expand one of their newest middle schools, Lawson Middle School (which is where I also intern). Many people work for CUSD, but the district itself has only about 50 people working. If counting the schools, there would be hundreds of employees. CUSD employees those that are skilled in their profession, but are open-minded to newcomers with less experience, and teaches them how to work in their setting quickly and efficiently. Most of the people there have 4-year college degrees, some 2-years (such as my mom, who works there), and some may have not even graduated from college. CUSD is very efficient and organized, creating systematic ways to work with each other in order to get work done safely and quickly. Some employees have pointed out that the technology in the district is sometimes a little outdated, making it harder to comply to the standards of work today, but CUSD is constantly trying to upgrade the district and school facilities whenever possible.
