Through out this journey, it was very intimidating at first. It seemed as though it was an obstacle course that was impossible to defeat. I am a determined, responsible, and efficient student as it is already, so you can imagine how other students were feeling about the task that was handed to us. As we commenced the project the very first step was to choose a topic/career, I already had one in mind but I was hesitant in the beginning. As I thought about it long and hard, I made up my mind. With out a doubt Marine Biology was going to be my topic. My next step was deciding on a essay topic, that in some way correlated to Marine Biology. My first instinct was to write an expository essay on a Marine Mammal of my choice, but then Mr. Migdail persuaded me other wise. I took a more challenging and risky route, I chose to write about the continuous whaling disputes between the United States and Japan. Yes, there is a lot of information out there that I can use, but not good enough sources that meet my specific standards of a good source. With the help of Ms. Mitchell I successfully completed my essay, with amazing sources and a well thought out thesis statement. Creativity and critical thinking skills were a complete must in being successful during this part of the project. Where collaboration and communication skills came in handy was when I needed help finding a mentor, and actually meeting her for the first time. If you do not have decent communication skills, then most of the time you will not be successful in some tasks. As a student you want to be as professional as you can to give off a good impression to your mentor, and show them that you are dedicated and very serious about the project. If not, how can they take this project and yourself seriously? In order to collaborate with someone else you have to be considerate of their ideas. Working with my mentor was a very smooth process, what made it easy was that we were both considerate of each other. Although she had things in mind for us to do, if I seemed uninterested she would talk about something else that we could do. Yet, if something wasn't simply going to work out then I reassured her that it was fine and we'd do what she originally planned to take less stress off of her. In order to have been successful, you must have had to use these four skills wisely to make it past all those road bumps.
I took this Capstone Project to it's fullest advantage. Either I was going to do a half a** job, or do the best I could and get some type of reward out of it. Generally speaking, I definitely enhanced my time management skills, communication skills, and choosing my priorities. I had a lot of deadlines, and that helped me want to get my work done earlier than asked to in order to keep up with other school work as well. I also had to break out of my shell and talk to a stranger (my mentor) and just go for it, I had be a driven and responsible student who wants to succeed in life and start some where. More education wise, I learned a lot about the college related side and it's after math. Taylor gave me some super helpful tips that I probably would have never received, only if I would have talked to a current biology major at SFSU because they were biology major tips. But, in a over view I learned that you have to be very driven in this career in order to be successful on a daily basis because there is a lot of information to obtain in college that is necessary to know. Secondly, you could do what ever you'd like with in this field. There is so much you can do, so many things you can try just in order to get your feet wet and see what you like and dislike. So right after college if you are still not sure in what you'd like to do, it's okay! There's plenty of options, so that is definitely reassuring. What is definitely reassuring is that this project gave me the closure that I needed, Marine Biology is the career for me.
Thankfully, I didn't face as many problems as my peers did. I had minor issues, but nothing that I couldn't over come or fix myself. One of the major problems was transportation, the FMSA office and our monthly surveys being so far away, and my parents not being able to drive me anywhere was frustrating. Thank God with the help of Ms. Milani, Taylor, and public transportation, everything worked out for the better. Not only did I have to become responsible and find a way to get there on my own, it made me feel proud that I figured things out all on my own when I had to step up to the plate. Another minor issue was at the beginning of this project, trying to get in contact with Taylor. The FMSA being a government run association, there was no way in getting in contact with her by her work email, since the government at the time was shut down. I had no control over the situation what so ever, all I could do was wait patiently and hope that she would respond immediately when she had the chance. In the end it paid off, and she did what I had hoped for. Although there were some ups and downs, without the downs I wouldn't have gotten much from it because they made me work harder and develop problem solving skills for my every day life. Sincerely, this project gave me the boost and confidence I needed in order to start college off with an optimistic outlook on life and my future career. Thank you SSFHS and teachers.
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