Blog 22: Mentorship

Literal 
In total from when I first started in September, I have done 197 hours. My log of specific hours is on the right side of my blog and it is updated. I know we were supposed to do at least 50 hours, but since I did more I hope what applied in the beginning of the year that all our hours for our mentorship counts as community service still applies.
Contact Name: Ariana Nasseri
Mentorship: Amar's Children Center
Interpretive
The most important thing I've gained from this experience is to be more understanding of autistic children. Before I never really understood their struggles and how most of them are bullied until I saw it with my own eyes. Many kids bullied Sergio because he reacted to things differently than the rest of them and that isn't okay.. I think we should all be kind and accept each other for who we are. There is no use in bashing others for things they can not control.
Applied
What I've done has helped me answer my EQ because Ariana is actually in an early intervention program with Sergio. She is trying out 40 different programs with him, I know it seems crazy right. But she has to find out which one is the best for him and which one will help him accomplish more in life. Sergio actually has a mild case of autism but he has been very cooperative the whole time and he seems to understand things the way Ariana explains them.

Blog 12: Mentorship 10 hours check

1. I do my mentorship at Amar's children center.
2. Ariana Nasseri is my contact.
3. I have done 43 hours at my mentorship place.
4. Ariana helped me what therapy techniques to use on children with autism and I socialized and helped out with Sergio and the rest of the children and also helped out the teachers on any excess work.

Summer Mentorship Component

Literal:  

1. (Know) Using google doc (drive) link a log of specific hours and a description of your duties.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiaoXnoo5uuodGpmYVM2cmVfemsyRHhkRk1qZHFZeFE#gid=0

2. What is the contact name & number of where you volunteered?

The contact name is Ismael Cervantes and the number of where I volunteered at is (626)-851-9223.       

3. (Need to know) What questions were raised because of the 10 hours of experience?  List them.     

• What makes a cake so unique and appetizing for customers?
• Does one make more profit with iced cakes or whipped cream cakes?
• Why does it seem so easy to make a cake but yet it's so difficult?
• How can you become famous and known as a cake decorator?
• Can this actually be a successful career?

Interpretive

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

The most important thing that I gained from this experience is that creativity is the key. You decide the color, borders, and what to put on the cake to make it look amazing yet delicious. You come up with your own original ideas in how to replicate characters or a certain theme. It takes up a lot of time and you have to be very skilled in order to make it look neat and tasteful at the same time. If you are not a creative person in general this job does not apply to you.

Applied

5. What is your senior project topic going to be?  How did what you did help you choose a topic?  Please explain.

Actually I am changing my senior project to Personality Disorders (kids with autism). At first I chose cake decorating since I thought it was be easy and fun since my uncle is a cake decorator. But as I was doing my hours I realized that it really doesn't spark my attention and it is not something I want to focus on for the rest of the year. Creativity isn't my greatest strength and being a cake decorator was all about creativity and the input and time you put into it. As an actual career in my future, anything in humanities as in helping others has interested me. I tried doing different topics too but everything was about confidentiality and it is just difficult find information on it. Then, I found personality disorders and I found a couple places I can actually work with children diagnosed with autism and it was be a pleasure for me to help them. I believe that's really what I want to do as my topic and it interests me 10x more than cake decorating ever did.