Blog 11: Lesson 1 Reflection

 -My favorite part about my lesson

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?

     - In my lesson, I was very happy with the way that I was able to take my normal language that I use with my mentor, and break it down to a level my audience could understand. Not once did I see a face that looked lost, and it felt nice when my hook activity was deemed exemplary.

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.

     - We are graded on professionalism (Volume/Enunciation, Body language/Eye contact, and Engaged audience/ Content clarity) and justification of foundation (Clear research, One published source, mentorship or interview referenced, and research shows a 3 month process). For my lesson, I believe I deserve an AE-. I hit all of the points that earn a P and I also did a great job engaging the audience. I've had P presentations, and they're embarrassing to tread through. This presentation had high energy, I went for the high risk slight reward by bringing in my laptop, and I made sure to touch on all subjects I brought up. Countless presentations had the, "Thing 1, thing 2, thing 3, time to learn all three," but the first topic was only spoken about. I didn't leave any of the audience in the dust and I feel that if they were quizzed, they could score well. We were told no digital anything, and my topic deals with nothing physical, even with this obstacle I killed the presentation.

3. If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson?  How can you use that knowledge to give a better Lesson 2?

     - My hook activity was easy, however not obsolete because it set the tone for my lesson and taught the audience at the same time. If I could go back I'd add more examples of Frontend vs Backend for the audience to guess on, however the time constraint wouldn't allow that. I'd also not get nervous and forget to put my EQ under the doc cam, because it was printed and inches away from the viewing range. For lesson two I know that my hook can be harder for the audience, or more comical because that did get a good reaction, and to take a deep breath while I'm rushing to set up my presentation because time was much more lenient than I had imagined it to be. 

Blog 10 - Interview 2 Reflection

I like to think of myself as a James Franco when I interview

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)

      - With my mentor, I learn how to write different areas of code and see what they equate to when programs are run. As practice we make small applications that do one thing, for example give all the traits of a human and differentiate people, and spend hours working on the code.

2.  How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you?  

     - My mom helped me find my mentor Brian, she heard at work that one of her friends has a partner whose job is to program and recommended me right away. I met up with Brian, gave him the rundown on the Senior Project and asked if he would like to take somebody under his wing and he was up for ti.

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person

     - My comfort level is a solid 8/10. I can ask any question and never expect snarky responses on how basic a question is, when I write code on my own Brian will let me try my best before trying to correct me, and we meet at a coffee house so we do our lessons over blended ice coffee. This is completely because I spend a lot of time with Brian and have just gotten comfortable with the way he is, and he to I.

4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?

     - For what went well, I would say how excited my mentor got. He definitely showed me a side that I'm not used to seeing and has pure enthusiasm about what he does. I need to improve on my vocab with the subject because some stuff did go over my head at first listen. But this will be fixed with more experience.

Link to my Interview #2 Here

Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

 

It me, it me.

1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person.

     - Currently I have a mentor, Brian, and together we make small applications. Because I work and have young scholars it is very hard to find time. However, the interview will happen next week.

2. At this point, your research is probably guiding your studies toward more specific areas within your topic.  Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons.  

    - One category is, "Web Application Development," which is what I have been doing with my mentor and I enjoy. Another category is, "Technology Networking," which would require me to find multiple mentors and meet with whichever one is in town to learn how to break down technology talk to a management level.

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth?  Where will you go to get them?

     - In the next month I will gravitate more towards "How to's" on things like SQL and C# because for the most part I've only been looking at how to target and audience and design for web applications. Blogs run by employees at titan companies like Microsoft are abundant, so that will be my first place to look.

4. Write down a possible EQ.  Please don't worry about wording other than ensuring that it provides the option for multiple correct answers.  At this point, the senior team is most interested in understanding your thought process

     - What type of web application is the most useful across all audiences, and how can those audiences be reached?

Blog 8: Independent Component 1 Proposal

- My most recent project with my mentor

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

     - For my allocation of 30 hours, I plan to make a web application that will take the weather for a given area, present the conditions, and suggest outfit plans according to weather conditions. The project is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. Making sure the application works, putting it on a presentable platter, and putting it on a website for other devices to use will take much longer than 30 hours.

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

     - Taking up 30 hours will be no problem. Writing code itself should take about 40 hours if I'm constantly trying to improve. Not only will I have to spend hours writing the program, I'll also need to learn jQuery to put the application on a platform I feel comfortable presenting to other people. I will code during the few free hours I manage between school, work, and college.

3.  Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

     - My topic is application development, this is the perfect way to explore it because it will be what I want it to be from start to finish and if it fails then I will learn why and how to fix it.

4.  Update your Senior Project Hours log.

     - Will do.

Blog 7 - Second Interview Preparation

- From what my mentor has told me it sounds like he had plenty of potential that went unused and could've been a big name in the computer industry.

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?  If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

My mentor is Brian Dlugos and he works at LA County Internal Services Department. The ISD is exactly what is sounds like, anything and everything the county needs will be sourced from there rather than private companies.

2.  What five questions will you ask them about their background? 

      - What influenced you to follow the career path that you did?

      - If you had the chance to go back and change your career path, would you? And what path would you take?

      -Was there a time when you wanted to give up on what you do? How did you deal with it?

      - How long did it take you to get to your position? What were some of the struggles along the way?

      - Could you use your skills for a slightly different job and would you take that path if you had the time?

Blog 6 - Advisory Prep

-Becoming a vampire is how I will cope with the senior project

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project this year?  What has made it a positive experience for you?  

    

  - Finding a mentor and getting to interview somebody in the field that I'm interested in worked very well. The support the senior team offers makes the entire experience positive and make me want to tear my hair out less.

2. What are you finding difficult concerning senior project?  How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you?  How might the senior team help?

   - It is difficult to find time for the senior project on top of young scholars, a job, and regular classes. I can adapt by sleeping less, so I can use time at night. Other than extending deadlines just a tad, I don't know how the senior team can help.

Blog 5: Interview 1 Reflection

- How I feel on computers after my interview with Benjamin Bracero

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?

       - In this interview I learned that only certain questions are useful, and that questions similar to each other can be dropped because it is likely that a good interviewee will talk for minutes and stretch over similar topics. Next time I'd definitely sit and think of all answers that can be brought up so questions don't get repetitive.

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?

      - I got directions to go for contacts, as well as my name passed around one of the corporate offices at Microsoft. The most useful is the recruiter at Cal Poly, whom I will definitely  try my best to get a hold of.

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me? 

      - My interviewee, Benjamin Bracero, is the Senior Dedicated Systems Engineer at Microsoft. His job has him travelling the country setting up applications and software for companies and requires him to be extremely competitive in his craft because of the other software developers that can release a similar product.

Link to Interview 1

- The Interview

The following is the link to the Soundcloud bit:

https://soundcloud.com/j0shua-sanch3z/benjamin-bracero-interview

The following is the link to the transcription:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W0RhVX8S-q4qnquIrEHPWF6dQ6XuaiRihQZLgpf3OhI/edit

Blog 4 - House Advisory Prep 1

To me, the Senior Project is a tool to help me lay foundations in the career path I want to follow. In college I will need to relearn the skills I will gain throughout the year and I want to be sure that it will not be a heavy burden with the quarter system many colleges follow. From my Senior project, I want to learn about the micro-culture that is upheld by programmers, why people decide to master specific languages over the countless others that exist, and also  what the strongest career path to follow with my gained skills is. I feel that the best way to move on is with understanding, and to do that  I need to understand everything I can about my future.

Blog 3 - First Interview preparation

-Interviews to me always feel just as awkward as any jib interview

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  Why?
     - I plan to interview Bejnamin Bracero. Mr. Bracero is the Senior Dedicated Systems Engineer at Microsoft, making him an expert in his field. Mr. Bracero handles all IT work for companies that use his software and is the one to update, train, and architect the use of programs.

2.  Five questions will be assigned to all seniors to ask.  What additional questions do you plan to ask?  
      - Why do you think it is important for developers to be slightly fluent in languages they may never need to use?
      - What influenced you to follow the career path that you did?
      - If you had the chance to go back and change your career path, would you? And what path would you take?
     - What do you find to be the most rewarding at your job?
     - What is something most people forget to touch up on when following the career path that you did?
     - What are similar career choices to specialize in? And in those career choices, how long does it normally take to complete schooling and training?

Blog 2 - Summer Mentorship

      - Have you ever had a small idea but didn't know how to make it happen? With my mentor, I made a small program about 70 lines long that allowed me to generate different messages to accompany months of the year.

1. List the contact name, phone number, and organization of the person with whom you volunteered.
     - Brian Dlugos
     - (626) 483 7808
     - LA County ISD

 2. What qualified this person as an expert in your topic choice?
     - My mentor Brian creates, tests, and troubleshoots his own programs and applications that are used within Los Angeles county. Brian to go by title, is a Software Developer, he works independently of a team and debugs all of his work without help.

      - What a great office to work from, my mentor and I meet up at the Coffee House in Diamond Bar and sit for hours upon hours creating short programs. 

3. List three questions for further exploration now that you've completed your summer hours.  

      - What kind of opportunities lie within scholarship options if I decide to pursue computer science as a major?
          Because majoring in Computer Science is normally something people give up on due to sheer difficulty, I'm curious as to whether or not grants are given to people who say they would like to pursue the long hard path

     - If I were to start my own business based on C#, would I run into trouble collaborating with surrounding businesses on the West Coast?
          From what my mentor has told me, it is incredibly apparent that Java is what dominates West Coast technology, however I prefer C# code and would like to keep my Californian weather.

     - If I have a client who wants an application completely from scratch and in their vision, is it worth the investment of buying server space to accommodate their needs, rather than letting the client hold all of the data? Why?
          My mentor told me that in order to develop an application that people will use and input data into, I will need a server which will eventually get full. Because a server is very expensive, I'm curious about how beneficial it is to keep servers for clients that want to use an application for only themselves. A small example would be a store that would like to keep inventory over all products over a span of years.

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

     - From my mentor, the understanding that writing code is one of the hardest and most time consuming tasks is probably the most important chunk of knowledge. Writing and testing code is one of the hardest tests on patience, without the knowledge that I need to put myself through a lot of frustration and constant headaches, it would be very easy to give up my dream of a career in IT.

5. What is your senior project topic going to be?  How did mentorship help you make your decision?  Please explain.

     - My senior project will be on Application Development, my mentorship with Brian was mainly focused on creating small applications. We plan to develop a fitness and golf application that can be used to track progress, records, and possibly set goals. The idea of creating applications that people around me can use is exciting and creates a desire to pursue Application Development.

Blog 1 – Senior Final Lesson/Interview Reflection

Senior Final Lesson/Interview Reflection

-For my senior project, I wold absolutely love to base my research on computer engineering and possibly pursue a future in the field of Engineering
1. What three lessons were most helpful for you to see, and why?
    -Brandon Le, Film Editing
Brandon's presentation was a great example of how hard work can pay off. Many presentations appeared to have been assembled within hours, while Brandon's could have very well taken weeks. The short clips Brandon prepared not only exemplified the lesson he was trying to teach but also kept the audience completely engaged. Brandon's ability to deliver an expert presentation is one I will need to teach myself if I want to succeed.
    -Matthew Ibarra, Engineering
Matthew's presentation was one of the few presentations that tied itself to a relevance with the audience. Every time an answer to the EQ was proposed, Matthew was sure to go in depth with why his answer could work and how it relates to daily activities. Matthew's ability to explain relevance as well as telling anecdotes about his mentorship kept attention high which is something I will definitely need when explaining the topic I wish to pursue.
    -Emaan Ahmed, Astrophysics
Emaan's presentation on Astrophysics helped me understand just how in depth a good senior presentation should be. Her attention to detail is parallel to none and her activity made me feel like I actually learned something I would have never come across myself unlike many presentations I attended.

-Emaan's presentation on astrophysics made the field of science appear simpler than the name lets off as well as teach lessons in a way anybody can understand which is important in a senior presentation.


2. List one thing that you learned about the senior project in interviews that will help you get off to a good start?
    -In senior project interviews, Iliana taught me the importance of treating all deadlines like they are tomorrow. She mentioned many of her fellow seniors stressing and pulling out hair because of their negligence to get all tasks done as soon as possible, while she on the other-hand finished her tasks in a timely manner and felt no pressure. This is a habit I will need to condition myself towards, however the payoff will be invaluable in the course of my adult life.

3. What topic(s) are you considering, and why?
     - For my topic, I am highly considering computer engineering or computer science. Computer engineering has been an interest of mine for years and because there is much money to be had if a career is pursued, creating a network of contacts who can help me land a job in the future seems like great incentive to pursue my interests.

4. What EQ do you think might be interesting to consider in guiding a project like this? (Please don't worry about any sort of formula...we want this question to come from your genuine interest).
    - What is the most effective way to ensure long-term customer satisfaction of a computer-run product?

-Customer Satisfaction is key in the success of a product and I want to be positive I create the best products in my future career.

5. What are some ideas you have about finding summer mentorship?
    - Currently my uncle works for Microsoft and he has contacted the recruiter for internships to help me land an internship. In case of the internship not working out, I have stayed in contact with a software developer who appears willing to take me under his wing for my senior year.