Internship Week 4: Final Blog

How do you feel about returning back to classes next week?
It relaxes me knowing that I return back to school next week...At internship I dress as if I have a POL everyday, so I'm looking forward to the whole roll out of bed and throw on whatever I see in my closet routine I've been doing lately for school. I'll miss my internship and the people here, but it will be sort of nice to be back in the school environment and see all my peers and teachers....at least I think it will be. There is also a possibility that I'll just feel plain bored at school because I've gotten used to doing different things all day and sitting in the classroom doesn't sound all that interesting. At least I won't have to worry about getting my clothes ready the night before.

Do you anticipate a different experience of school now that you have been immersed in a work place?
No, I've always sort of treated school as a work place in some sense. I mean, we are actually doing some sort of work there so I concentrate & stay on task...most of the time. I don't expect my schooling to differ now that I've been immersed in a work place.

What are you looking forward to about coming back? What are you going to miss about internship?
I am looking forward to how much I don't really have to plan ahead for school. Well there is always homework and I don't really know what we'll have to do for Haley's class(but everyone says its a piece of cake) but I'm really just looking forward to how relaxed our school environment is. I'm very glad we don't have to wear uniforms. But as it comes time to go back to school and leave our internships behind, I will miss leaving randomly in the middle of the day to go to a meeting that isn't in the building or going out on a hike. Those are things that we most likely will not do back at school...And I think most of all I'll miss my mentor. Her name is Trish, she is great! I think the fact that she has children who are in college/just graduating college really benefitted our Mentor/Intern relationship because we were able to understand eachother better, her as a mother me as a child...is sounds kind of strange to make that connection, but its something that I often think about. Trish is someone who I look up to.

Internship Week 3: Blog 2 out of 2

Read another student's blog. What stands out to you? What experiences do you have in common? What contrasts do you see? What questions do you have?

I chose to look at Noah's blog...he is interning at UCSD which caught my interest because thats a college that I am potentially interested in pursuing my education at....Anyways, sometime last week he was telling me about some Child Development study of the childs ability to match facial expressions with emotions, if I'm correct. I thought I would see a bunch of psychology stuff on his blog but I didn't. I don't even know if they are currently conducting the study?

What stands out to me is: There is a post that has a picture of a clock. The caption says

Time stood still as I entered the room. My body was telling me it was bedtime, my mind said it was 9am, and the clock told me it was 4:00...

At first I was thinking what is this picture of this clock doing here. Then I saw the caption and thought it sounds like some sort of exerpt from a cheesy girly novel...Twilight per say. Besides that, it stood out to me becuase in a way I feel like that at internship, seems like all the days are blended together and never end and I lose track of time ALL the time.

Experiences I have in common with Noah are: I have experience with technical difficulties. Like Noah said he isn't a tech kind of guy at all, well I'm not a tech kind or girl either. Theres a difference of knowing how to use the basic functions of basic software such as Microsoft Office programs, but it is taken to a whole new level when I was introduced to the Strategic Plan. Its something I've never seen in my life; a combination of PDF, PowerPoint, and Links?! It was sort of thrilling to just look at it and to my amazement, clicking on a link was much more fascinating than it usually is. My other technical difficulties is Microsoft Excel...Part of my project is creating charts, which I, for the most part, was comfortable with until I actually started doing it. Excel likes to decide how its going to display the information instead of letting me choose, which is completely frustrating because I really just can't do anything about it, it doesn't let me choose. That can get frustrating for me especially because I like to have some sort of control over the projects I work on, also the fact that the graphs made me have to use my math brain...I'd say my math brain is my weakest assett when compared to everything else. My grades even say so I passed with flying colors in Biology99% and Eglish3/History(Honors)98% but only 91%in Math3..I guess I should work on my math brain some maybe I'll go work on my Aleks when I get home. I guess a weak math brain isn't technically a technical difficulty.

He posted about the culture at his internship site. I think his site and my site share similarities as there are many coworkers, and a couple big bosses, everyone interacts with eachother but there doesn't seem to be any internal conflicts at all. Everyone is on the same page here, everything works efficiently.

Contrasts between us are..."Although things run smoothly at the UCSD Center for Human Development, I've sat in on enough meetings that there is conflict and communication issues with UCSD and the other sites participating in the PING study." This is something we do not share in common. At parks&rec there are 3-5 subdivisions, each has a boss and then at least 5+ workers in that division(I use 5 as minimum beause that is the ammount there is in our division; Resource Management. The others have many many more.) All of the subdivisions are in charge of different things such as Resource Management or Marketing. I've been to plenty of meetings and pretty much everything runs smoothly. Everyone here is very close knit, they communicate effectively, and the way things go almost seems effortless. The only conflict they have is with partnering companies such as Caltrans..I went to a meeting with DPR to Caltrans, who seemed to have not a clue what the laws and guidelines are. My mentor, shes great I love how calm she is, but at the meeting she had to repeat herself about seven times because Caltrans just didn't get it. Thats something I admire her for, if I was in her position I probably would've just gotten irritated. But I think thats something maybe the DPR needs to work on, if their 'partners' are being lazy and you-know-whatty- someone has got to step up and not play Mr. Nice Guy anymore. Gotta keep them on their toes.

Questions I have are... If I had a question for Noah I guess I'd just ask what he learned. The blog posts mostly talk about the environment and what goes on around him, but I'd rather like to know what he is taking away from the experience and the content he is learning/how it is affecting him.

Internship Week 3; Blog 1 out of 2

You are half-way through your project. How is it going? What challenges have you faced? What have you learned? What are you doing to ensure a successful completion of your internship project.

My internship is going very well. I've faced a technical challenge with excel involving the creation of charts because excel decides how it will display the information for me and I can't do anything about it, that gets frustrating. Another challenge I faced was recording my interview. The first time I did it, I realized that I didn't press start about halfway into the interview, then when I did press start, it only recorded one minutes worth of our conversation. It was pretty sucky, but now that I have more information about my mentor I can write more insightful questions. I've learned a bunch. Everyone uses jargon so I'm always asking questions, and interacting with all of the different people in my work environment gives me an insight to so many different parts of not only the DPR but the Resources Conservation Division(I work more closely with them). For example when I went out on the field with Maryanne, she told me about all of the conflicting companies such as Otay Water District who owns a patch of grass in Sunnyside where there is no sidewalk for the community to safely walk on, but still the Otay Water District isn't very easy on giving it up. I learned about GIS where they can plan trails using their special devices...everyones main objective is to get communities more involved with the environment and to preserve endangered local species. Lately to ensure the success of my project (designing the skeleton for the MSCP Annual Report2010) I have been sending out reminders to DPR/DPLU employees about the information they are supposed to get to me by the 21st. Everyone is pretty great about that, they follow up with me very quickly and when they do respond with information and I have questions they discuss things with me freely and treat me like an actual person which is great. My dad kept saying they were going to treat me like the hamster and make me go around and do minuscule tasks, but I've actually been doing some pretty intriguing stuff.

Internship Week 2: Blog 2 out of 2

How has or do you see your internship changing the way you consider that paths your future will take?

There is an eclectic amount of things I have done and seen in the duration of my internship. Here is what I've done so far:

• Attended various meetings: addressing internal issues of the Department of Parks and Recreation(DPR); addressing external issues that involve DPR, addressing feral pigs!, addressing Governor Jerry Brown's budget plan
• Reveiwed Governor Jerry Brown's budget plan for anything that may positively or negatively affect DPR, compile most important information & send out to DPR employees
• Participated in a state wide conferene call in place of my mentor, within the first hour of my first day
• Compiled Skeleton of Multiple Species Conservation Program(MSCP) Annual Report for the year of 2010
• Organized a meeting with DPR and Department of Planning and Land Use(DPLU) to assign roles in the MSCP Annual Report
• Created graphs displaying acreage of 2010 reporting year
• Visited trails in sweetwater with the Trails Coordinator

All of these things have helped me gain further insight to the world of Parks and Recreation, and while I'm still a newbie and get a bit confused when they throw their jargon around like its common knowledge, everything is new and interesting! I usually have to ask a lot of questions to understand what they're talking about, but when I get the big picture its like a light bulb goes off in my head and I get so excited because all of these ideas they bounce off of eachother are things I probably wouldn't have ever even thought of if I hadn't been on this internship. For example at sweet water summit, if they were able to connect all of the little individual community trails, the trail at sweet water summit could connect all the way to CUYAMACA! Doesn't that blow your socks off?! Well anyways, everything that I've done so far has only made me more set on my path to major in Natural Resources and Conservation which has little subcategories like Environmental Science, Policy, etc.

I am very happy with my internship.

Internship Week 2: Blog 1 out of 2

Technical Difficulties:

In the MSCP Annual Report, there are figures and tables used to display how many acres were gained/lost, where they were gained/lost, how they were gained/lost, etc. I have made contact with Gary Ross, the Senior GIS Analyst from Land Use & Environment Group (LUEG), and he said he would provide me with the 4-7 tables by the 18^th and the figures 1-3 by the 21^st, but that still leaves tables 1-3; that’s where I come in. It’s my job to make some sort of neat graphics that aren’t boring to the public and would display a lot of information through a visual instead of a text. I have been making these charts in Microsoft Excel, but I’d consider myself a beginner with that program- especially with creating charts. Many times it will tell me that the chart type I want to use doesn’t work with the information I have, which doesn’t make sense because I’ve created the same type of chart with the same information. It gets frustrating using Excel so I often go to their website for troubleshooting tips… Still, creating the charts is only a small portion of my project. Towards the end of January, my involvement with compiling the MSCP should be wrapping up which means I get to work with making it more visual (comparable to the strategic plan: http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/reusable_components/images/parks/doc/DPR_Strat_Plan_2010-2015.pdf ). The thing is, if you look at past MSCP Annual Reports (2009 for example http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/dplu/mscp/docs/SCMSCP/FINAL_MSCP_ANNUAL_REPORT_2009.pdf ) they are completely different. The strategic plan is completely visual and technical, while the MSCP is purely documentation…I think the plan my mentor, Trish Boaz, has of making MSCP more visual like the Strategic Plan is such a fantastic idea, but I have no idea how to use Adobe PDF program! I shouldn’t worry though because I can always talk to other employees here, especially since the guy who worked on the Strategic Plan is just a one minute walk away.

Internship Week 1; Blog 2 out of 2

Describe the 1)project you'll do at internship, 2)including the skills and technology you need to do it and 3)what you hope your project looks like as a final product.

1) During the course of my internship I will be working on the Multiple Species Conservation Program(MSCP) Annual Report.

"On October 22, 1997, the Board adopted the County of San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Program South County Subarea Plan. The associated Implementing Agreement among the County of San Diego, California Department of Fish and Game and United States Fish and Wildlife Service became effective on March 17, 1998. The implementing Agreement requires the County to prepare an annual accounting of 1) all habitat gained through acquisitions or dedications of open space made through the land development process; and 2) all habitat lost as a reult of discretionary land use and certain ministerial actions."

This quote came from the 2009 MSCP Annual Report and it pretty much summarizes the purpose of MSCP annual reports, theres also another paragraph that summarizes the report and what the county needs in means of funds in order to meet its obligations nder the Implementing Agreement.

2) In order for me to complete this project, and complete it to the best of my abilities, I will need to be energized, be able to communicate with everyone who works in Parks and Recreation, ask questions, and my fabulous writing skills! I'll also be using the computer a lot for things like typing the MSCP and there is also graphics that are included which I may take part in producing.

3) For my final project, I would hope that when someone looks at the 2010 MSCP Annual Report they don't question who wrote it. I would hope that has the nth degree of professionalism in means of grammar and layout and things like that, and I am 99.9% sure I am capable of tackling on this project!

Internship Week 1; Blog 1 out of 2

What are you excited about, nervous about and wondering about?

I am nervous and wondering about if I will be able to actually start internship tommorrow because in order for me to intern they had meundergo a background check which was clear and then I moved on to my medical. The thing is the medical people haven't sent my paperwork to my internship site so I don't know if I can start tommorrow. Hopefully I will be able to, but all I can do is hope and pray that my paper gets through ASAP! I've been keeping contact with my mentor and have spoken with her at least once a week since before thanks giving break and we are both looking forward to working with each other. I just hope everything works out as planned.