These past two weeks has been a fantastic experience. I learned things I never would have thought I would ever learn in my life. Throughout this photo essay you will see what I experienced and see all the incredible things that I learned; like filing, inputting data in ETO, and making copies.
After walking out of the office the last day of immersion week all I could see was GREEN! The first week of immersion I got to learn about and work with taxes. I had to make sure the client’s paperwork was in the correct order and checking that the W2s were in the folders. The BEST part was the inputting of data in a program called ETO. ETO is a program where all the people’s personal information goes in the computer after getting their taxes done. After inputting their personal information, the client had to fill out a survey, and I had to input their answers in the computer. I had to do approximately 35 folders in two weeks.
Now that immersion is over, all I do at home is answer the phone now. When my mentor wasn’t in the office, my job was to answer the phone and leave her messages. I hate to call people I don’t know on the phone and calling 45 people I didn’t know was a big challenge. At first I would get really nervous, but after a couple of calls I got the hang of it and couldn’t wait for the phone to ring again. The second week of immersion I had to make 45 calls. I had to remind people that we were going to have an orientation for free computers. By having that experience, my fear went away.
Making copies might look easy BUT it isn’t! Making copies for the first time by myself was a disaster. My mentor asked me to go make some copies of some flyers I made. She asked me to make 240 copies and I accidently pressed 540! I tried to stop the machine by pressing all these buttons and I made it so much worse. I went running to my mentor screaming for help and thankfully she stopped it. I was the most embarrassing thing ever. Who ever thought making copies was going to be so hard?
Something I used that High Tech High Media Arts has taught me was my minimal Photoshop skills. A business that I helped, other than my mentor’s, was the YMCA. I helped make flyers for their activities and a March Calendar. Showing my talents that I have in professional places is something professional adults want to see. As much as we learn from out mentors they can do the same by learning from us, as students, by teaching them things they couldn’t learn when they were I high school. I was so proud of myself when I accomplished what they assigned me to do. I never though I could make a calendar in Photoshop without asking Paul or Jake for help and that felt good.
Getting to work with Alejandra was an honor. I learned so much about her and vise versa. She is a very good person. She would do anything to help people to have a better life. She is someone I look up to. We had our fun moments and stressful moments as well. She made me realize that there are so many people that really need help out there. Every person that walked out of her office, walked out with a smile on everyday. It made me think about my future career. Do I want to make a difference in the community? Having this experience made me realize that I might want to help people and make them walk out of my office with a smile on their face as my future career. I can’t wait to learn more and see if I want this for my future.
