Blog 5: Mentorship Reflection

1. Mentorship question: Describe your experience in how you found your mentorship?  If you haven't found one yet, describe your experience so far in the search of a mentor.

I actually found my mentor from one of the last years seniors that did the same topic as I am currently doing at the moment. With my mentor is just basically going to different group meetings with various different people and they come and talk about how they feel or just anything they kind of want. I also have another mentor, I actually I found my second mentor thanks to Mrs. Pittman. I haven't done any hours with my second mentor, but we talked about what I will be doing for my mentorship and I'm going to be assigned to a couple of different students and I will have to meet up with them. 

2. Research question: What has been your most important article you have read so far and why?

The most important article I've read so far is an article called "Teens Are Talking About Suicide. Why Aren't Adults?" by Glen Canning. Throughout the whole article it discusses how everyone is so focused on teen suicide, that people are oblivious to the fact that some adults are also silently seeking help. Robin Williams, a famous Hollywood star recently committed suicide and it was an eye opener because it showed society how teens aren't the only ones that need all the attention. In Canning's article he stated, "We can go a long way to preventing suicide if we stop seeing it as something someone does, a crime they commit, and start seeing it as something that happens to them." I realize that this is true; when someone "commits" suicide we view it as something very wrong. In no way do I agree that someone should take their life away, but what I am saying is that just because a person didn't die from natural causes or physical illnesses, it shouldn't be labeled as a crime.

Tri-City Wellness Center

For my summer mentorship I went to Tri-City Wellness Center in Pomona. The first few times that I attended I actually didn't know what to expect. The first day the workers there were very friendly, they gave me a tour around the 2 buildings and explained to me about the groups they have there. They have various types of groups such as depression, suicide, anger management, etc. They also have other monthly workshops and those workshops include money management, cooking and skills building. They accept people from different ages and have different types of groups and activities to do.  

Blog 4: Interview Preparation

1. Who do you plan to interview? Why?

I plan on interviewing my mentor Jose Montenegro because he is specialized as a "Well-Being Specialist." I am interested in his choice of career because in some way it helps me think about my future and whether I want to keep pursuing my career as a psychologist. His motivation and determination in helping others is also quite fascinating to me.

2. Interview Questions

1. Giving the circumstance in which you daily encounter different situations, for example dealing with suicidal teens, how do you have the courage too help everyone of your patients without it having an affect in your personal life?
2. How did you ended up choosing to specialize as a"Well-Being Specialist?"
3. If I decided to pursue my career choice as a psychologist for teens what advice would you give me?
4. If given the chance to choose a different career path, would you change your career or not? Explain why or why not.
5. Throughout your career you must have encounter many different obstacles to get to where you are at now, tell me the most difficult obstacle you faced and how you overcame it?

Blog 3: Topic Choice and Working EQ

1.  List your topic here: 

Suicide Youth

2.  Write a question that helps to focus your research this month.

What can you do to help a teen prevent him/herself from having suicidal thoughts? 

Blog 2: Summer Mentorship

1. Link to hours and description spreadsheet.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zd3MIrPUPNVljtpLon2j8tczyqSWK1waxVvv2aAuW2M/edit

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

Mentor 1 (Suicide Youth)

Jose Montenegro

Telephone Number: (909) 242-7621

Mentor 2 (Teaching)

Dale Reyes

Telephone Number: (626) 933-4200 

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

 Mentor 1 (Suicide Youth)

* What is the most important skill that is needed to be able to ensure to give the patient the help that he/she might need?

* How many hours and days of the week is one suppose to work?

* How do you know when the patient needs more than just someone to talk to?

* What do you do when one of the patients starts to refuse one receiving ones help?

Mentor 2 (Teaching)

* Is there any skill that is recommended to have?

* Do you get paid for the holidays, summer break, etc. or not? 

* What makes one a good teacher?

* What grade and subject is recommend to teach?

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

The most important thing I gained from this experience is how to work/help out others. Yeah, going to Ipoly has taught me how to work with people not taking encounter if you like the person or not, but there was something different with my mentorship. They were both about working with teens, the suicide youth one was from ages 16-25 and the teaching one was from 11-13 years of age. I realized that not everything is about doing it  because its necessary but because its nice to help others. 

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

My senior topic is going to be Suicide Youth, I did my mentorship in two different places and I realized that for my senior project I want to do something that I actually want to do for the rest of my life. I do not specifically want to go into the career of a Well-Being Specialist but I do want to go into the psychology field. Listening to the patients talk about their stories made me realize that at least for these couple of weeks that that is what I want to do.

Blog 1: 2-Hour Presentations

1. What presentations did you watch?

Debora Martinez - Social Work for Abused
Emily Vysma - Cosmetology
Victor Chavoya - Soccer
Paola Rodriguez - Suicial Youth
Symphony Moreno - Photography 
Jeremy Ethridge -EMT (First Aid)
Yesenia Martin - Sales Representative
Devanna Terry - HLE Officer
Daniel Song - Physical Theraphy
Issac Salas - Engineering
Ralph Hernandez- Pharmaceutical
Brianna Sigala- Cancer Advocacy 
Brandon Rodriguez -Coffee Shop Management
Jorge Mancilla - Marriage & Family Therapy 
Luz Cervantes - Cake Decorating  
Marilyn Sambo -Domestic Violence.

2.  What questions do you have that haven't been answered about the senior project? This can be about the senior project in general, any components or about a presentation topic you saw or what they said.

Before watching the presentations I had no idea what I had to do with my mentor this summer, but after seeing them all, I actually got an idea of what it was all about and what is expected. There is just one question I actually have and its if we can change our senior topic even tho we do the 10 hours based on the topic we wanted to do.

3. What has the most important part of the senior project based on what you are seeing in the 2-hour presentations?

I think the most important part is actually liking your topic. I noticed that there were 2 or 3 presenters that didn't look to excited about their topic. I know its very nerve recking being up there and presenting, but they didn't look as nervous as they did bored.

4. What topic are you considering doing and why?

One of the topics that I'm considering to do is Suicide Youth due to the reason that Paola's presentation really got to me. I wanted to do something like Psychologist, Counselor or Therapist but Paola's presentation was just really good. It made me realize that there is people out there that really need someone there with them, I know that if  I do stick to this topic though out the process it might get pretty hard to handle if I actually get to interact with people with suicide minds, but thats something that I want to do.

5. What are you doing for your summer mentorship?

I still don't have a mentor due to the fact that I just decided to change the topic to a different one I had in mind. I emailed a mentor that one of the presenters, had but I'm still waiting for a response.