May Blog

I'm done. I presented my senior project already and felt good about it. I received several compliments on my presentation which was much appreciated. This chapter of my life is coming to a close and it's coming really fast, but I am ready for graduation and cherishing these last few days with my IPoly friends.

Blog 23: Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

• I most proud of being able to have a topic that most people would find boring, and make it interesting. I feel that I got a good response from my audience and I completed my goal of being entertaining.

(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?

• What really worked was the great experience of my mentorship. I was able to witness so many things because people were always around and communication was always there. Seniors talked to me and the employees always helped me brainstorm ideas for everything throughout my project.

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

• I would have probably tried to put in more hours and try to do other things at mentorship. The tasks I did seemed a bit repetitive, but I felt better about that when I did unique tasks for my Independent Components.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors? 

• I personally love audiences and I hope to work with them a lot in my future career whether it be on a stage or through advertising. This project really helped me gain a new appreciation for senior citizens, which helped widen my range in knowledge about different audiences.

• It also has helped me work on different skills I need for my college major of communications. Talking to employees, interviews, and organizing events, etc.

Blog 22: Mentorship

  Literal

• Log of specific hours with a total and a description of your duties updated on the right hand side of your blog ---- Senior Project Hours
• Augustine Alvarado from the West Covina Senior Center

    Interpretive

•  What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?
• The most important thing I learned is how to better communicate with senior citizens. Being around them often and learning by doing allowed me to learn more about their interests and habits. I have gained knowledge on the senior audience and how to better attend to them and talk with them.

   Applied

• How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ?  Please explain.
• I have worked with seniors and on small projects to better serve them, which increases participation due to the seniors having more pleasant experience at the center. I have watched first hand what the seniors like to do most at senior centers. Working on boards and the famous lunch program really got me into the social conversations with the seniors.

Exit Interview

1. What is your essential question, and what are your answers? What is your best answer and why?

• My essential questions is; what is the most effective way to maximize participation at community senior centers?

• My first answer is, senior centers must have activities and services that cater to each senior generation

• My second answer is, senior centers must offer services that cater to all the needs of seniors

• My third answer is, seniors must be informed about their opportunities through proper messed  channels.

• My best answer was my first because senior centers need to keep up with the times and modern seniors trends. Things become trends because they are well liked and in demand. Each generation has unique interests, and these generations will eventually pass and younger ones will come in. Keeping up with each senior generations interests will keep the senior centers in demand.

2. What process did you take to arrive to this answer?

• It took months of observing how my senior center has been adapting to the different likes of the Baby Boomers, the youngest senior generation. Another source for my best answer was an article on the website A Place for Mom, a senior care referral business. The article is called "From the Greatest Generation to the Boomers: Senior Living Evolves" by Jeff Anderson. This article gave me information on how important it is for senior centers to evolve. With the information I learned from the article, I applied it to my senior center and realized how they both must be used, which helped answer my essential question.

3. What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

• A big problem I faced was finding resources that was not repetitive. A lot articles told me the same basis of how senior centers increase social interaction, well being, etc. So I resolved this problem by going into specific topics within my senior project topic. In example, I researched "seasonal affective disorder" which causes a lot of death amongst seniors during the holidays. I also researched senior health and organizing health fairs.

• Another slight problem was my health fair for my second independent component. For a short time, I was overwhelmed and was not sure if it would be a success. It was good that I set the date for it to be held during my spring break. this allowed me more time to organize everything. I resolved it by learning not to doubt myself so much.

4. What are your two most significant sources to answer your essential question, and why?

• My first significant source was my mentorship. I honestly believe that one learns most by doing, and first hand experience. Mentorship was my best source because I learned personally how to deal with problems that senior centers may face. I also had great communication with the senior center employees, and was able to get their point of view on what is needed and what is already being done for seniors. My mentorship is the result of finding most of my answers. I am very grateful to have a great mentorship that allowed me to do that.

• My second best source was the "From the Greatest Generation to the Boomers: Senior Living Evolves" by Jeff Anderson.  I cannot emphasize enough on how important to know who your working with, at any job. At senior centers, employees need to know and understand each generation of seniors. Just like a performer must know their audience to reach them, employees must do that with any customers or people they serve. This article really helped me understand each generation of seniors that I have currently been working with.

April Blog

Basically all of my April was spent doing my Independent Component, as you can see below. I have started preparing my slides of my final senior presentation. I have my activity ready. I have thought of some extra things to include in my presentation just to entertain, and also further inform, my audience. No matter what, I feel confident. In all honesty, I just want to get it over with. I know what I am doing, and I feel ready to graduate.

Independent Component 2

Literal
(a) I, Caroline Salinas, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 31 hours of work.
(b) The "Wellness and Health Fair Planning Guide" from ModaHealth.com really helped me to follow the correct procedures and tasks needed to organize a successful health fair.
(c) My Independent Component 2 Log is updated.
(d) I organized a Health Fair at the West Covina Senior center on April 8, 2015.

Interpretive

• For my Independent Component, I had to work closely with the West Covina Senior Center's director, Adrian Reynosa, to organize the event. I had to gain permission for the use of one of the senior center's buildings. In collaboration with Adrian and my mentor, Augustin Alvarado, I was able to schedule 13 booths. This was the longest portion of my project because I had to research the various organizations that could come, and I had to call them each and wait for responses. Organization is long and tedious, but vital for any successful event. The booths that attended my health fair included local health organizations and businesses. A spread sheet of these contacts is included below.

• Afterwards, it was time to start the advertisement for my event. Through my research, I have found that currently the best forms of communication with seniors is through paper announcements and work of mouth. This is also my third answer for my senior project. 

• As a part of my advertisement, I really emphasized that a raffle would be held during the health fair. I really cannot express how much seniors love free stuff! I asked many of the booths to bring something to raffle off a part form the free trinkets (pens, bags, etc.) that they would be passing out.

• As another form of advertisement, I noticed that mainly seniors attend city council meetings and watch in on tv, this is based off of my personal experience in local politics. Because of that, I decided to announce my event at the city council meeting. I got permission to speak before the council and the audience to tell them a little about my project and invite them to attend my event.

Me speaking before the West Covina City Council

• As you can see in my flyer below, I made the font big and only included the information necessary. This way, seniors can read my flyer quick and easy. I placed several at the Senior Center from desk so many seniors can get a copy.

• As each senior arrived I had them sign in by writing their name on a blank list that I had, and when they signed, they received a free raffle ticket. After counting all the signatures at the end, I concluded that over one hundred seniors had attended my event. I was very proud of my accomplishment. 

• The day started early and it had been a hectic week, even though it was my spring break. The day before, I had to call and confirm with each booth again that they would be attending, and keep in contact with the senior center employees. The morning of I made an announcement on the microphone at the Senior Center reminding them to check out my fair. I also had to help set up tables that morning and bought coffee and donuts for the booth representatives and senior center employees, just as a thank you.

• Below are some pictures from early on in my event.

 Augustine Alvarado and I.

• Right above is me with West Covina Mayor Sykes. It was really cool to have him attend my event. FUN FACT: I had the chance to speak with him briefly a few months ago, and he mentioned to me that his daughter is an IPoly Alumna. The West Covina Community Services Director was also in attendance.

• On April 21st, during a City Council meeting, I had the honor of being recognized for my Health Fair. My whole project has been a cool experience. It is really neat to have people around the city know my name.

Special thanks to my friends Desiree Zarate and Hannah Tran, who came to support me.

• Did I stress out during this project? Heck yes. Was it worth is? Totally! I helped out my community and promoted a healthy lifestyle for seniors. I am very proud of all the hard work I put in for this successful event.

Applied

• This Independent Component really helped me find my third answer for my senior project. I had to find the best forms of advertisement for my event because there would not be one if nobody showed up. That is where the city council announcement and flyers played a role. I learned the best forms of communicating with seniors and adults. Planning an event for the senior citizen audience required me to investigate what attracts them, which helped me answer my EQ. A big example was learning how much they love free stuff, which I followed through with a free raffle.

• It wasn't easy having to make so many phone calls to businesses and organizations, going from contact to contact, to schedule a booth at the fair. I learned various forms of communications through phone, email, and in person. These skills and experience will help me not only in my intended major of Communication, but also in any career I choose to pursue. 

March Blog

• This month has been pretty hectic. I have been working on my Independent Component and my competition pieces for the Fullerton Theatre festival. The festival ended last weekend so now I can fully focus on my Health Fair that I am organizing. 

• With the help of my mentor and the manager of the senior center, I have been able to get some     booths booked for the fair. I already have the date picked and it will take place during my spring break. I plan to be catching up on hours all week anyways. Hopefully everything comes out all right.

• It was hard this month, balancing long theatre rehearsals with mentorship hours. In the end, I was very pleased with the outcome of my hard work in Drama. I was a part of Suessical the Musical and played Mayzie the bird. We had wonderful performances and the cast was a great team. I was very proud of all our effort. even though we did not make it to finals at the competition. We got great scores anyways from the judges.  In honor of that,  I did a Dr. Suess theme drawing this month on the menu board. A picture of that can be found below with another picture of the IPoly Suessical cast.