Internship Readiness

Someone who is deemed internship ready needs certain qualities to portray this charteristic.  First, you need to have your professional skills up to par. Second, you must have expierince, you need the quality or backround knowledge to posses to be "internship ready." Third, being serious, motivated, and commited are qualities someone must have to go into or be placed in an internship. I personally am going to try to be more interpersonal with others, proactive in in-class work/group activites, and am never going to give up, but strive to learn more as I go on day-to-day. I plan to exercise more at home to keep up my energy in the mornings. I plan to pray more to be at peace and reflect positivity in my attitude. As for organizational methods, I plan to use my binder and daily planner to organize my homework and personal thoughts.

"Everyday Hustle"

My first and worst job was when I was working at a Pete's Coffee about 2 years ago. It was inside Montgomery Bart station. I had never worked for a coffee shop so prior to my hire they took me on anyways. I was trained for my first two weeks learning how to work the cash register, how to make the coffee, wash the dishes, set up the pastry goods, and lastly make and serve drinks as a barista. The interaction with the customers was an enjoyable experience for me. A lot of people I knew were actually regulars there. But my coworkers were not cool at all. Since I was fresh to the team, they did not deal well with "new". Since they all drank coffee from sun up to sun down on a regular basis, work other jobs, and probably didn’t get any sleep, I understand maybe why they looked and acted the way they did towards me. I did not receive any companionship whatsoever from these people. I was actually put at the Montgomery station because my boss wanted me to work there, but the manager at the Pete's Coffee in the Embarcadero station wanted me as well. I personally wanted to work at the Embarcadero station, but the position was for the Montgomery station. Although my coworkers and my boss were huge jerks, I did learned how to make a good Frappuccino. I learned that sometimes you cannot help the situation you are in especially the people you have to work with on a day to day basis.

My second job was working for a rental car company called Payless at the SFO airport. I got the job because of three classmates from college had worked there previously and put a good word in for me. I was hired to work the front desk working with customers opening and closing contracts, selling insurance, and bring cars to the front for the customers as well. I also parked and washed cars. I was later asked by my boss to help him with the sales inputting and filling transactions through Microsoft Excel, fixing his computer, updating his iTunes. I, along with my manager, took cars to be sold to auctions. I would say the best part of working there was the pay, although I later quit the job because I found out I was not being paid fairly. All the other employees were being paid five dollars more than what I was making an hour. I was doing the job of all the people in that place, and for the bare minimum wages. The sad part was that I did not even notice. The truth is how could you? I was robbed about five thousand dollar or more. I felt like a slave. I did enjoy what I did though. I love the interaction with the customers; my coworkers were pretty cool people for the most part. I learned how to take credit card information, develop my customer service skills file accident reports, and strategies to getting good tips. The most important thing I learned was to work for me, not for the company. The effort I put in was going to be shown on my resume and on my check at the end of every two weeks.

Freedom of Rights

In the CNN article titled "Jailed Afghan rape victim has sentence reduced, remains in jail", the sources describe the tragedy of an Afghan rape victim who due to her country's law of bearing a child out of wedlock, she is being given the choice of marrying her attacker to stay out jail (http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/23/world/meast/afghan-rape-victim/index.html?hpt=hp_c3). She was given twelve years in jail, but has now received a reduced sentence of three years. She has given birth to the child, and the child is being imprisoned with her her mother at the Badambagh Prison on the outskirts of Kabul. Gulnaz, the twenty-one year old rape victim, at first tried to hide evidence of her pregnancy to avoid bringing shame to her community, but she obviously could not. Gulnaz, four months pregnant, was incarcerated for not reporting the crime on time even though she was raped. The officials say there was not enough time to investigate to prove her innocence. Gulnaz's attacker has denied ever having sex with her, and told CNN that he was in jail because he had been "accused" of rape. Records show that he is in jail for "zina", it's a Dari word that means "adultery." Last wednesday, the head spokesman for the afghan attorney general said her sentence will be reduced by another court hearing to the three years, but the charge remains against Gulnaz for not reporting her attack early enough. Gulnaz's lawyer, Kim Motley, said that her client on Tuesday was not made aware of the reduced sentence, because there had been no official notification of it. The attorney general spokesman, Rahmatullah Nazari, said their investigation is concluded and that there was no rape, but sex outside of wedlock. The laws in Afghanistan are cruel because of their mixture of politics and religion. Gulnaz pliedid innocent. Any who is sane would go to the authorities when a family member has sexuly assualted them. I think the fear of her possiblly being convicted of adultery, delayed her from going to the authorities. I mean, twelve years in jail for adultery sounds idiotic. The people in Afghanistan need to have their freedom from such laws as these. The reason this case was made a scandel is because the fact thaat soeone got raped and is now being incarcerated even though they are innocent. There is no way she could have made money from this. If she did have an affair of some sort she would have never came to the authorities with this because she knew she would have being covicted of adultery. Rahmatullah Nazari needs to check his facts one more time. This is unfair.

Inspiration

Music. Everyone loves music. It is a form of art, an art form. Whether it be classical symphony, to Sergeant Pepper the classic album of the Beetles, or the new Wale CD. Music is poetry illustrated through song and rhythm  People choose to listen to music as a recreational activity. Others, like myself, choose to listen to music as inspiration. I get inspired when I listen to music. My I Pod is full of christian music and I love it. At any given time of the day I can pop in my ear buds and begin to listen to a playlist. The history of music has been amazing, but the development from where it has come and where it is going is a whole other topic. The music I listen to uplifts my Spirit. It brings me up whenever I am feeling down. With music, the possibilities are endless. I consider music as my anti drug. It occupies my time, and inspires me to do better. Music can influence someone for the good, and sadly for the bad. This is why I no longer choose the music I used to listen to, and listen to Christian music which is inspirational music.

Community

When thinking about a certain community you pertain too, it is hard to just choose one. We all have a designated community assigned to us by one means or the other. My community is the Church community. Now just because I said the word Church, do not assume religion.  My church is a community of people that gather to three days a week to give praise to God. I mentioned before not to assume religion, because it is not a religion or a sect. It is a faith. The only reason the community is strong amongst believers is because of our faith in God.  There is all type of people who attend my church community. There are big families, small ones; young adults and all the way down to new born attend church.  Every service we gather together and begin with the first part of the service and that is the praise. The praise consists of complete devotion to God through songs of worship song between the whole congregations. There is a certain group of people thought that come to the alter and play an instrument to add music to the praise.  The instruments can consist of an electric guitar, piano, bass guitar, drums, and any other instrument of choice.  Then after thirty minutes to sometimes an hour of praise, we collect tithes. Tithes are welcome to help the Church grow and are an act of obedience towards God because He asked for his people to give ten percent of their income to bless the church. After this, the Pastor of the church comes to the alter and begins the sermon. The pastor preaches word from the Bible.  The preaching could last from an hour to an hour and thirty minutes.  The service is concluded after the preaching. The church service pleases the church community. We are brothers and sisters of the same faith through belief of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection on the cross of Calvary two thousand years ago. There is no obligation among members that attend church to believe the shard faith. The majority of the congregation attends church because of their personal conviction. So the choice is in the eye of the beholder better said.  There are so many benefits from attending church. The outcome of our life invested in this shared belief is greater than our simple minds can comprehend. For example, I mentioned before the tithes. When someone tithes in church before the eyes of God, that person is later on blessed. For example, the giver can be blessed by receiving a check of money or a donation funded to him at a random time in life as a gift from God because of the persons obedience and consistency of tithing in church. Prayer in the church is another. When we pray for each other in the name of Jesus Christ as a community, great things happen. People are healed. People are liberated from debt, insanity, anxiety, and personal problems someone may be battling within the moment like addiction to drugs and alcohol. As far as dislikes, problems, and disadvantages, there aren’t any. If anything it would be that there is not enough time in the week to meet more than three times during those seven days.

Module 1

One thing I learned about myself in this module is the natural ability I have inside myself to code-switch. For some reason, it was easy to communicate inside of Year Up with my teachers and fellow classmates. I was commented to that I have the professional skills required of for the intern stage, but getting my voice out was my growth area. I acknowledge that sometimes I am a leader in my community. I sometimes indistinctly step back and share the spotlight with others. But I was disappointed that by doing so, it seemed to others that I was furthering myself from the group and not trying to participate during class. This was the getting your voice out part. Learning to talk in class at an appropriate level, tone, and pace is required in a professional setting. I am now working on developing that skill. I am amazed that I have been turning in all my homework this module. Turning in completed assignments was never a skill I had in my earlier years. I was late a couple times, but then again it is better than not coming in at all as I was accustomed in my youth. I am very proud of myself in the fact that I have come to class everyday waking up at six in the morning, getting ready and getting here on time. I still have a long way to go.

My neighborhood(s)...

A person’s neighborhood can be absolutely nothing to someone, or can mean a whole lot. I know that from my experience, my neighborhoods have had a lot of impact on me and my life as well as my families. The neighbors, the people you see every day outside your house or even the people that hangout in your area can be a huge influence to someone. The neighborhood I live in now is very quiet, no traffic what so ever. The neighbors are all simple folk (boring), and come straight from work to rest. You can come to my house at around nine at night and it will be dead quiet. If any influence is going around in my neighborhood now, is because of my family and I. I can recall a moment in time a couple of months ago when we just had moved in where my brother and I were yelling at each other from across the street to decided who was going to park where. Long story short, the police were called because disturbance of the peace and suspicion of malicious crime was going on. I know, completely unnecessary. But that is the case for my family and me in my neighborhood.

If asked whether I am who I am because or despite of my neighborhood, I would have to say it is a mixture of both. The person I used to be was a product of the neighborhoods I lived in or associated myself with. My old neighborhoods influenced me for bad. My neighbors did not want to see me doing better than them. If anything, they benefitted from my wrong doings. But despite my past, I am who I am now because of it. If it were not for my experiences in the street, I would not have the will power I do now. But then again, maybe I am wrong. Perhaps if I had lived in a better community/neighborhood as the one I live in now, I could have had a better chance of having a scholarship and being able to go to the four year college I have always dreamed of. But time has not run out. The players have changed, but it is still the same game. 

"The Poverty Business"

After reading the article titled "The Poverty Business," I can say that the article opened my eyes to a lot of things I did not know before. There are so many companies in America taking advantage of tax payers like myself. Auto loans and mortgage loans are charging so much interest on theirs loans, that by a year’s time the discrepancy has doubled.  I like to quote the phrase in the article;" Innovative and zealous firms have lured unsophisticated shoppers by the hundreds of thousands into a thicket of debt from which many never emerge." Whether we like to admit it or not, many Americans in the United States are not financially savvy. Meaning we know what we want, where we have to go to get it, but we do not know how much it's going to cost us in the long run. My question is, why are these corporations targeting the low-economy worker to achieve their income? I will explain why. They rely on the fact that low-economy citizens do pay their bills on time (late payments), thus giving them the right to increase the interest. Later becoming the reason why many people take longer paying their loans or even stop paying them. Their strategy to get their money does not sound correct, and anyone who reads this article will agree with me. Companies who profit from low-wage earners exacerbate the opportunity divide, because after they have them in debt, ten out of ten times people spend years paying off their bills. In most case, these debts leave people with bad credit scores. Bad credit scores can prevent people from getting a job in a better position. I think the job of alleviating the issue at hand belongs to the government. They allow these companies to profit from other peoples debts. I think they should create/pass a law that late payments should not result in an increase in interest. Especially when in a lot of cases the individual is trying to cooperate. Or the government should create a program for debt forgiveness for those who have been struggling to pay their debt for more than ten years. Giving them that person an opportunity to restore their credit and get a better job, buy a house, buy a car, or focus on saving money in their bank.

"My Life..."

My name is Mario Hanon. The life I have lived has leaded me to where I am now. Now I am going to write a little more about myself. Some of the things in my life I would like to consider hobbies/passions are playing the guitar, restoring cars, and being a friend. I included being a friend because there are few in the real world. I take this saying and apply it to my life," Treat your neighbor as yourself." My new passion (playing the guitar) is something new I started doing and I love it. And ever since I could remember my father and I have always been restoring cars as a means of work and as an opportunity to bond with each other. I grew up in a bad community in San Francisco as a child. My family and I moved around a bit until we finally settled in Daly City (where we live now). It is fairly quiet, but predominately an Asian community. When I was growing up, my family and I were not that close. The only time we would really have a conversation together was in the afternoon during dinner. But now, I would like to say things have changed for the better. I am the first in my family to graduate from high school and the first to commit to get a college degree. I want to honor both of my parents by doing so. After graduating from college I would like to obtain a high position in a corporate office making a lot of money. I would like to pay my parents debts. They have done so much for me, now it is my turn to return the favor. I am a results driven person. My motivation (besides my parents) would have to be my future. I want to be able to provide for both my families. Not only that, but give back to my community. Like for example, I would build a homeless shelter that offers rehabilitation services and has a church. I would also build homes for the poor in Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica where my family is from. I inspire to follow my dreams.

"My High School"

My high school was a private educational school. I transferred there from a public school at the start of my junior year. It was a complete different environment. I was not use to this type of community at all. I did not want to go there. I was forced to attend this school because it was my last opportunity after being expelled from my previous high school. The traditions that I carried from my freshman and sophomore year did not mix with the ones this high school had. Not attending class was no longer an option if I wanted to receive my diploma. The people I now interacted with everyday were completely different then the people I had associated myself with before. The things that I disagreed with the most were having to cut my hair, shaving my mustache, and wearing hideous uniforms that made me look weird. The men could not have hair like women did and could not grow facial hair while being a student. But besides all that the school in general grew on me, as well as my teachers. It became more of a learning community to me. I was given the tools and support to reach my goals of graduating from high school and receiving my diploma.

What influences my speech?

I think the way I talk today has allot to do with my past and where I have been. Not only that but my friends family that I have grown up with. Living with a Hispanic family also has allot to do with the the way I communicate now days. Learning two languages as a child, it was difficult to translate or switch from one to another in schools or while just talking with my friends. There would be times that I still remember when I would try to translate everything I said in Spanish to English just because it was easier for me. But of course the meaning of what I was trying to would not always come out so great.

When hanging out with cousins or friends from school, I would also notice a change in my vocabulary with them as well. And of course it was due to the fact that my folks were not around and I had the freedom to say what ever I wanted at the time.I guess it was just that feeling of having a curse word come out of my mouth and not getting in trouble for it and a follow up five minute speech on why I should not disrespect my peers. But I could not help the feeling that I got every time I let a "ch" or "ck" roll off my tongue.

Another big influence on the way I speak has allot to do with the music I listen to. The songs I play over and over again, stay in my head. So the lyrics that come with them are adapted to my vocabulary because of the simple fact that it is continually being processed in my brain.

In this moment in my life, I try not to have the same speech I did as a juvenile. I sometimes catch myself correcting even others, just because of the fact that I know it is frowned upon. And honestly it makes you look and sound immature. But just as the saying goes," you can take the kid out of the city, but you can not take the city out of him." The way I speak is a reflection of my personality and who I am. Because the more I think about it, the casual speech I use at home with my friends I cannot use with my family or even my boss.