August Blog: I Changed My Topic. Just Kidding.

For someone who told herself she's really considering to change her senior topic to guitar repairs, I haven't really done anything about it.

It's August 29 now. Any topic change is due tomorrow. So, you know. Too late.

I mean, my current topic, Music Store Operations, isn't bad. Not at all. I absolutely love my mentorship place (the Music Store), and I genuinely did like learning about instruments even if it's just for cleaning them. But to be absolutely honest, I got lucky. It's fortunate that I've been around the music store for some years now and they know me well enough that they allowed me to do my mentorship there.

But knowing guitar repairs would've been cool. It's somewhat a primary instrument of mine.

Moral of the story? Future IPoly seniors: HUSTLE. When they say you better get on with your topic, they mean it. There isn't as much time as you think there is because days pass quicker than people tend to think they do. Grab any opportunity you see, hunt for them, and don't take them for granted at all, especially when it's a chance of mentorship in a topic you're fond of. You will have time to change your topic after your summer mentorship, but it is not much time. Get that mentorship secured as soon as possible.

But don't be anxious; as long as you keep moving, keeping up with everything and doing them early at any chance to do so, you're good.

[Basically don't be like the procastinator me. It's barely a month into the school year and I'm already feeling it. Listen to your (recently) upperclassmen when they try to warn you about things because most of them truly means what they say and really meant well. I really should've listened to Genevieve when she said I should hurry...]

Blog 4: Interview Preparation

1. Who do you plan to interview? Why?

I plan to interview the owner of the Music Store I had my summer mentorship in, Gene Iacono. We have a good relationship between us, and he has extensive knowledge in music related fields and is very involved with his store. He knows a lot about how his store works and was very happy to teach the inner workings to me. I think he would be a great interviewee for my topic and could also recommend to me other people to interview.

2. You have to ask 5 questions.  What additional questions do you plan to ask?

• How did you become interested in opening a music store?
• Over my mentorship, I've learned that you have been in the music industry for a very long time. What musical occupations have you had? Do having previous experience in other music-related positions help with operating a music store? If yes, how so?

Blog Assignment 3: Topic Choice and Semester 1 ESLR Goals

1. List your topic here: Music Store Operations, or Guitar Repairs

2. What do you plan to do this year to show growth in each of the ESLRs?

• Effective Learner:
  I didn't do the best I could in school during my junior year, due to some reasons. I'll be aiming for straight AE's this year, and I think that I could at least improve this situation slightly by finding ways to either solve or work around my personal problems while doing schoolwork.
• Effective Communicator:
  I've been thinking of starting a discussion club since the end of last year. I think that a discussion club can promote the effectiveness of listening and knowing the views of people who believe differently than you, of how this could help in solving problems that affect the entire group.
• Effective User of Technology:
  Throughout my life, I've fiddled a lot with Office and Photo/Video editing software. I plan to learn new techniques and easier ways to do things as I create articles during the school year, such as finding a better way to add text into a footage, etc.
• Effective IPoly Citizen:
  I've been tardy a lot my junior year, so I aim to fix that by waking up earlier. In addition, I've also became a bit cynical on team projects. I need to perk up a bit; team projects are complicated in how there's a lot of organization and responsibility going around, and me being 'jaded' and lazy about it won't really help any bad situations. So I aim to work harder and be more involved in team projects.

Blog 2: Summer Mentorship

1) My Summer Mentorship Log: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0At3QKup-j6vHdC1yel9RQkNPdFJTLWNJSk5CMkY2UXc&output=html
(Notes taken during the mentorship and pictures of the store: https://plus.google.com/photos/100057649066833535168/albums/5910688707107408657)

2) Contact Number: Gene Iacono - (909)-598-1921

3) Questions that were raised in the 10 hours of mentorship:

• How does the store handle rentals? (the owner has told me that rentals are lacking during the summer but booms during the school year)
• Where does the store find their music teachers? Do they put a listing in a newspaper? Perhaps ask a current teacher for suggestions?
• How does the store handle a student that hasn't paid tuition in a while?
• In the event of a rental instrument being returned absolutely broken, how do we talk to the student about it?

4) What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?
Through this mentorship, I've learned that there are many aspects to operating a music store or a business, such as bookkeeping, accounting, inventory orders, product care, and customer handling. By themselves, each of these seems like small chores. But these are all key to the running the store. As the store's owner frequently said to me, the employees there make cupcakes out of crumbs, and nothing there runs by itself.

5) How did what you did help you choose a topic? Please explain.
I've decided to choose 'operating a music store' as my topic due to me finding out that there are a lot of things I can learn about instruments in this store. This opportunity to learn furthermore about instruments and how they work is appealing to me. Despite me not being a trumpet player, I found that learning about its parts, even through just cleaning it, is pretty neat. The fact that I also got to learn some guitar care as well is also very cool. Music is not a life passion of mine, but I definitely love it. I want to be near it in any way and this is one way to do that.
In addition, the store also gave me a glimpse into running a business. My mother has been interested in starting a business for a while. While it would sell different products than what the music store has, I feel that my experience in a store would still help out a bit in her venture.