Schoolwork

Okay, so it's Monday... and I have a lot of things I've been up to so I'm super busy! I have two film class projects going on- a group project (Memento) and a personal project, which I'm doing a kind of puppet show of the cartoon Avatar the Last Airbender. My group shot all of our footage for Memento last weekend, as I mentioned, and this weekend I shot the Avatar footage with Kyle, who is my partner in this project. We are working on finishing the shooting, and beginning editing.

In addition, I also just completed an assignment for my leadership class, which was an informational interview with a leader. I chose my boss, who told me about how she delegates responsibilities. She reminded me that ultimately the goal of my internship is to learn, so it was a perfect blend of doing my homework and learning at my internship.

Luckily my graphic design class is sort of winding down as I finish up a long term brochure on Zero Skateboards. I got most of it done last week and emailed my teacher, who gave me suggestions for edits so I could get the best grade possible. 

But, it's only a few more weeks of the rush, and so far I believe I have all A's!

Career Center

So last week on Thursday I attended a meeting at the Career Center, and it was sponsored by Project Hope. It was a special meeting intended for their Career and Life Transitions program. Even though I'm 24 and the program is supposed to be for 25+, they said it was fine. My career counselor Cami Vignoe was there, and we  set up an appointment, for today actually, to discuss my career aspirations. I am enrolled in a career planning class, PD 191, and it requires me to take an assessment. I took the Myer Briggs test and Strong Interest Inventory, and will go over the results today with Cami. The assessments, career center and class all help me to better understand myself, which career direction is right for me, and begin to move along that path. I've been me my whole life (lol), but still, sometimes its hard to be honest with yourself about what you really want to do without a little probing. I definitely recommend these tools for students in my position who have an idea of what they want to do but need it more concrete, or even students who have no idea at all. It's like the quote from the other day: "A year from now you will wish you had started today." (Karen Lamb).

Wondering about college admissions?

Getting into college can be kind of confusing. Luckily, enrolling at SBCC is easy. Now when I say easy, I mean to enroll at community college you can come on campus, decide to come here and just do it. Unlike a four-year university, which requires a lot of preparation such as studying for and taking the SATs, writing personal essays and gather letters of recommendation etc. There are important resources for making your college decision. For a while I worked as an advisor at a middle school, helping students learn about college opportunities. These are a few websites that are helpful:

College Confidential
The Princeton Review
Students Review - Our school's review:

•  Excerpts: "This is one of the best schools, its hard to believe that it is a community college. I am an out of state student and was scared that it would be hard to meet people, but i was way off."
• "I love SBCC! The school is gorgeous; right next to the beach with beautiful flowers and tress surrounding the area. I had an excellent experience here. 
  

"A year from now you will wish you had started today"

So after some more thought, I am planning on staying here next semester to intern and take classes. Even though I'm financially itching for full-time work, I feel that I am gaining so much from my present internship that I wish to continue. In addition, I am really excited about the three classes I want to take next semester. Here are the classes:

From SOMA, the school of media arts.

To see my interview with the Dean of SOMA...

Multimedia Department
MAT 103: Introduction To Multimedia
(3) F, S - CSU, UC
Skills Advisories: Eligibility for ENG 100 and ENG 103.

An introduction to multimedia, including production processes, tools, techniques, trends and design principles, and production requirements of interactive multimedia development for the Web, on different devices. Provides a comprehensive look at the concepts and principles of digital media, visual literacy and the influence on business, education, art, science and culture. 

SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW

OMG- you know when you have those days when everything just gels together? I cannot believe how much better my life is now that I am in school than when I was not in school working in retail. OMG. In December Kyle and I are going to Israel with Hillel, and probably spending some time in Spain too (where I studied abroad!!!). In addition, we are looking at moving into a co-op which will provide us with cheaper rent and a way to meet people. Also, Kyle has decided he's going to take some marketing/film/media classes, and I think I will be taking a leadership class with Tina Kistler from the Student's Coalition, and a basic media design class and/or film production class.

Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation

At SBCC, I have access to the SBCC Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. You can find their facebook here. They have classes for students for credit, and for non-students in the community. Their website is awesome! They also are linked to South Coast Biz Connect, which I just created a profile for, and from what I can see it is a way to network. Just by looking on their website for five minutes, I am already finding lots of valuable resources for me. Their are job postings, ways to create a professional profile, and links to other valuable websites such as the National Association of Women Business Owners. I'm checking out those non-credit classes, which are something I can just pick up at a more flexible schedule, here. Want to learn how to sell online? For free? Done.  Want to learn about financial planning? The more time I spend looking at the website, the more impressed I am. Check out their awesome video library!

I am taking Internet marketing, social networking and career planning. However, after discussing it with my professor yesterday, with Professor Kimerly Taylor, it’s probably better that I switch to a self-paced career planning class, which is one unit, versus the three unit class. The difference is the three unit class is kind of a lecture style, whereas the self paced class, which is one unit, is much more independent, which suits me at this time. I was really impressed that Kimberly took so much time after class to discuss my career goals is such a frank manner. Having come from the workforce and back to school gives me a perspective about what I want in a job that gives me a great starting point for career counseling. I should probably explain that my choice to come SBCC was not in pursuing my first degree, but actually in gaining job skills I feel that I am lacking. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from San Diego State University, and have spent the last year in a long job hunt. I decided that returning to school to learn the computer skills for marketing that I see in jobs that interest me will help me go from having a job to having a career. Pursuing my career is the major focus of the semester, which is certainly different from a lot of younger students (I am 23) who are figuring out who they are, and getting used to the college lifestyle, perhaps living independently for the first time. While I feel a little bit different in that respect, when it comes down to it, I am still figuring myself out, and I still feel like I can connect to students around me.

Check out my Social Marketing Class here.

Friendly Staff

I think the best thing so far has been the willingness of people to help me. After coming out of the working world for the last year as a cashier in retail, I was pretty used to having a much more stagnant experience. I feel now that I am going somewhere, and people care about me. The career services center is phenomenal. Yesterday I spent a whole hour with a counselor without even having an appointment. People are busy, but they still take time out to help students, and that’s incredible. The whole vibe of the campus feels like they want students to succeed. I can see it in Karen and Alex’s eyes when students pop their head in while they’re working and they patiently give directions. They really put themselves in the students’ shoes and think about what it takes for them to desire to be here and do well.