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.

Fourth Interview Questions

1. What aspects or trends appeal most to seniors? 

2. What is some information that the common should people should

know about senior citizens and the centers? 

3. What are some important things that senior center employees or future employees should know?

4. What is the best advice you could give to someone educating others about senior centers? 

5. For how long have you been working with seniors?

6. What differences have you noticed at the senior center since you first started working there?

7. What forms of communications are best used to reach and advertise to seniors?

8.How has this specific senior center advertise to seniors?

9.  What do you think is in store for the future of senior citizen advertising?

10.Why and how did you end up working at the senior center? 

11. How can senior centers better cater to each generation?

12. What are the most important needs of seniors that the centers could cater to?

13. What have experiences have you learned from working at a senior center?

14. What are some misconceptions about senior centers, and how could they be resolved?

15. Why do you think that most local citizens take advantage of senior centers compared to teen centers?

16. What are some expectations senior citizens would have for a health fair?

17.. What are the biggest health concerns for seniors?

18. What do the seniors enjoy doing most at the senior center?

19. What are some significant differences between local senior centers and this one?

20. What do you predict for the future of senior centers? (10-20 years)

Blog 17: Third Answer

• 1.  What is your EQ?
  • What is the most effective way to maximize participation at community senior centers?
• Answer #3 :
• Seniors must be informed about their opportunities through proper media channels. 
• 3 details to support the answer:
• The Voice is a popular newsletter that seniors can pick up at the Senior Center. It provides them with events, menus, classes, and other opportunities for the upcoming months.
• The West Covina city app and website have  been helpful with finding local senior services.
• Local newspapers, such as the San Gabriel Vally Examiner, often advertise senior citizen opportunities in local cities.
• The research source (s) to support your details and answer:
• An interview on how seniors have been using social media and how to advertise with that knowledge. I also read other articles on this and am basing my answer on personal experience at my mentorship.
• Concluding Sentence:
• The latest in technology is not always the right way to go when marketing to the oldest generations.

February Blog

• This month I brainstormed with my mentors on ideas for my Independent Component 2. I ended up choosing to do the Health Fair which as of now will take place on April 8th. i talked to the main person in charge at the senior center, and got everything approved. No in this upcoming month I will contact companies and organizations to be a part of the senior center. 

• I will try to contact health insurance companies,  health organizations to provide free health screenings, beauty schools or business to possibly give free haircuts, and I also would like to get a dance teacher or some dance students to give a Zumba class.  These are some of the ideas that I have for this project as of now.

Answer 2

1.  What is your EQ?

• What is the most effective way to maximize participation at community senior centers?

2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

• Senior centers must have activities and services that cater to each senior generation

3.  What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

• Senior centers must offer services that cater to all the needs of seniors

4.  List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.

• Most seniors only use businesses that meet their absolute needs
• Senior centers should  be all about seniors and offer the right services they need
• If seniors need these things, then they are most likely to use it

5.  What printed source best supports your answer?

• Several articles on senior marketing from Entrepreneur.com, which is also a magazine

6.  What other source supports your answer?

• My mentorship and first-hand experience with seniors

7.  Tie this together with a  concluding thought.

• The best way to market to seniors is to provide them with their typical needs. This applies to everyone.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2

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

• At the moment I have two ideas on what to do for my Independent Component 2.

• My first idea was to plan this year's "Senior Prom" at the senior center. I would go through the whole process of planning, budgeting, and advertising. I would have to research what the seniors expect to have and how to create a nice event and experience for them. I like this idea most because I am pretty creative and I know that I would enjoy this project very much. 
• The only problem is that the Prom has usually been held in June, and this component is due in April. I'm not sure how the seniors or the staff would feel about an April prom, and it is too soon. 

• I could hold the prom in early May and just turn in my planning work up to the event.

• My second idea was to plan a health fair. I would go through the process of planning, and scheduling. I would contact companies and health experts to further inform the seniors about health. This event could also include eye exams or blood pressure tests. 

• Even though health is not the topic I find most interesting, it might be easier and the event could be done before the component due date.

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

• With both ideas, I plan to show the evidence of my hours by showing some of my paperwork of planning, scheduling, and/or budgeting. I also plan to take pictures of my work. Planning any event takes hours of work, so I am sure i will meet the requirement.

3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.

• With the Prom event, I would research the usual audience at these event too see which generation they're mainly from, and their likes/dislikes.I would learn more on how to cater specifically to seniors, entertainment wise.

• With the health fair, I would research on the main health concerns that seniors have and try to provide access to experts and care having to do with those topics. I would also learn more about senior health.

4.  Post a log in your Senior Project Hours link and label it "Independent Component 2" log.

Independent Component 1

• LITERAL
• " I, Caroline Salinas, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 33 hours of work.”
•  My mentors Augustine Alvarado and Spencer, and also my mentorship experience at the West Covina Senior Center helped me to complete this independent component. They gave me feedback and supported me in throughout the whole process.
• For my independent component, I created a survey and distributed at my senior center. This survey helped me to gain data at the age demographics of the seniors there, what they enjoy at the center, and what they would like to see there int he future. Then I collected the data and spoke to my mentor and employees about my result. I later volunteered at Electronics Day where seniors learned about technology and modern devices. 
• INTERPRETIVE 


• My project helped to introduce a different topic to the senior center. The center had never had an Electronics Day before. It was a big success with many seniors and many volunteers. Seniors were able to get their questions answered and learned new things about modern technology. I think that having high school volunteers also helped to break down the generational barrier between seniors and youth. Having one on one conversations helped us to become closer and relate to one another. 
• The center never really got feedback from the seniors about what they liked and wanted at the center. So my survey was something that was needed and was a good start. I hope that in the future, the center collects more data to better serve the community's seniors.


• Here is an example of a filled out survey I passed out
• Here is an example of some of the data I collected
• Here is a picture of the flyer for the Electronics Day event and of the event
• APPLIED
• My project helped to gain a closer understanding of how seniors interact with modern technology and their desire to learn more about what is new with the younger generations. I got to have one on one conversation with seniors and personally got their opinions on the current status of the seniors center and their hopes for the future.