Jimmy's Blog

“Write about how you can apply the concepts of financial literacy and decision making to a choice you are currently facing (for example, college, career, what to do over the weekend…). And any questions you have for Jess A. that may not have been covered at PD.“

Financial literary is very important. In a world that currency and value has been standardized, we all need to understand the same language and be on the same page. To a certain, it is a way of communicating. And, like all ways of communicating, certain things work and certain things don’t. Understanding the basics can can make the communication for natural.

When it comes to loans and bank things, we are all asking for something. And, the idea that there isn’t a such thing as a free lunch comes up. As you already know what you want from them, they are looking to see what you can provide them. Because you know this already, you can make yourself look like you are able to compensate. Simple guidelines can help you in getting what you want. Like, having a good history with paying people back. This is what your credit score is. Having good credit score for smaller purchases can show how prepared you are to pay back for a bigger purchases.

Another thing to keep in mind in banking. Understand that a bank is a business. They make a living off of investing with the promise of interest but also holding money. They save your money at a small interest rate in your favor and then lend your money out with much higher interest rate in their favor to get money. So it’s not weird to get a really small interest rate. Even with inflation, the bank helps to stop that. It only cancels out a little. That is why investing in stocks is such a appealing option. But, there finicky. So it all comes down to to finding the right balance and not having all your eggs in the same basket.

“Reflect upon what you’ve learned at Professional development series so far. Discuss how the skills that you’ve learned at Professional Development connect to each other and how they will help in preparing you for college/job. Why are strong, distinct resume and cover letter important in school/job search? Why is it important to create an honest, distinct and personal brand in your college/job application? What steps are you taking to improve your personal brand and social media presence?”

Through these Professional Development series, I have been taught the positive steps to take in my professional life. While most of these steps were about first impressions in writing and in person, our actual work experience gives light to the steps we can take in the job. As an internship not paid by the work site, we can learn what works and what doesn’t. The professional development series help the students with the questions they had about their seventeen hours a week on the work site. Simultaneously, it gave the students tips about a generalized work environment.

For me, it was nothing extremely novel. From last years less formal professional development, we also touched on strengths and cover letters. Even though we did not focus on body language and first impressions as heavily, we also did the 30 seconds on the elevator activity. Overall, the messages are the same: it’s all about finding the right balance of confidence and cooperativeness. This might be a little too big of a generalization, but I see it hold true for more and more aspects that naturally come with working. I think that this is most embodied by that phrase that almost seem like an hackneyed platitude to us by now: every job is a learning opportunity that we capitalize on.

But, the emphasis is not a bad thing. Whether it’s because this year’s professional developments has gotten to me or because I’m a different person from last year, I have come to understand this more and more. Jobs are different from school. The assessments in school evaluate, not always accurate though, how much you take away from a class. This is simple and efficient and does not require any social evaluation. In jobs, what you take away from previous experiences is measured through the first impressions. That isn’t to say that you should tell bald faced lies no matter how much psychology tells you that lies are socially beneficial. It means that you should always be looking for opportunities. Or, as some people would say, see it as an opportunity. In the Chinese language, the words for crisis and opportunity are the same. I think this really speaks to the importance of context. When you are giving a first impression, you need to realize when you are hurting yourself or aiding yourself.

“Which of your Signature Themes describe you best? Were you surprised by anything in the report? Did your opinions changed after the activities. What did you learn about yourself as a result of this activity. Were there some students who had themes that you could benefit from? In a work setting how can people with different Signature Themes successfully work together?”

My signature themes are Analytical, Consistency, Harmony, Individualization, and Deliberative. At first glance, I would felt like Individualization would describe me best. But I quickly realized that it was probably confirmation bias. That isn’t to say that this theme does not describe me at all; most of my friends (and since one of my theme is Deliberative, I choose my friends very carefully) are interested in visual art, performing art, and writing, all skills that I think that focus on originality and on the individual. The thing is, individualization is something our society values as a whole. I think that, while I appreciate individualization, it is a product of where I grew up. Analytical would probably be the next thing that describes me best. I appreciate concepts more when I can logically get from point A to point B.

Overall, I wasn’t surprised by what was reported. Considering everything I put, I can see how they made these conclusions. Although I know that people can’t really be impartial to themselves and the reason behind these quizzes is not to be precise but to promote teamwork, I feel like I tried to be as honest as possible. So hopefully, this does have some merit. If i had to pick, harmony is the theme that surprised me most. It’s not even just the word itself; reading the description, I can’t recall any moment where I’ve done this. Sure, I would like to say that I love conflict resolution and sound like a good person, but I also like being entertained by petty arguments. Maybe these descriptions are exclusively talking about the workplace or any projects that includes cooperation.

After the activities, I started to think that the themes lower on my list weren’t as true, possibly the last three. I explained already why Harmony and Individualization aren’t really me. Deliberative’s description sounds like things I do, they do, but I disagree with the fact that I do these things because I am deliberative. Yeah, I do not give out too much praise and I do enjoy privacy. But the conclusion it draws about the deliberative theme is not really me. The conclusion is that I draw problems out into the open, assess the outcome and then make my move. And I just really can’t think of a time that I really did do that.

My Analytical theme can benefit from all of these themes: Ideation, Learner, Input, Maximizer, Strategic, and Significance. All of these themes have to do with ideas and information and bring all of that together. My Consistency and Harmony theme complements each other well. Those two included with my Individualization and Deliberative themes all give a set of unique people skills.

“Describe the challenges and rewards of your worksite. What skills did you learn in PD#1, and how can you apply the skills explored in PD#1 to your life or work environment? Share a specific instance, whether from your current worksite, past work experience, or school, where the skill could be applied.“

When reflecting on job experiences, the rewards and challenges turn out to be cut from the same clothe. Working in a lab, I found myself thinking about the blurred borders a lot. It was what my mind naturally clinged to this week as I pipette, made solutions, cleaned dishes, recorded inventory, and checked off each of the 96 wells as we completed each one. When doing these tedious tasks at work, I questioned how selfless and moral I really am. Knowing the big picture and possibility of what diseases this research could prevent, I thought I would have been constantly self conscious, have full situational awareness and have been as steadfast as possible. Well, it’s the second week and I know that there has been multiple setbacks due to human error and carelessness of any of the three interns. Even after these consecutive setbacks, I wasn’t even really thinking about how we’ve slowed the process. I only thought of myself. “I would never do this for a living,” I concluded, out of annoyance. I knew those words weren’t true, but that said, I also knew that the technical work was challenging to me. My inclination to get lost in thought was getting the best of me. Finally, we successfully finished the technical work, and there was instant gratification and payoff. Seeing the results that our boss predicted and hoped for was very rewarding. It made our work obviously matter. Of course, the expected results is not always the case. But, there is solace in that as well: like your science teacher always said, sound data the refutes your hypothesis is just as good as data that supports it. At the end of the day, we cannot expect everything to fit together nicely. That’s asking too much of the universe; it’s like begging for Columbus’s exploration to find a new route to the West Indies. While I hope it to be as profitable and see it as promising as Spice trade, I do not see it as pointless if it’s not because the universe will hold one less secret.

"Introduce yourself, and prepare one question you want answered about work, career, workplace behavior, problems you anticipate.

Interview family members about workplace experiences. What problems have they faced, and what advice do they have for resolving it"

My name is Jimmy. No, not James. My birth certificate has “Jimmy” on it. I’m 18 and just graduated high school. I’m going to uPitt in the in the fall. Admittedly, I’m not quite sure what I want to do, occupation wise. But, I know I’m generally interested in the sciences. Anyway, I have a really relaxed personality, although you probably couldn’t tell from this introduction. I want to say I like humor, but who doesn’t. The question is usually do we share a type of humor. Anyway, my goal in this program is learn a little more about bioengineering. Last year, I was placed into the same work site and dealt with nano particles, specifically concerning drug delivery. This year, I am working on other nano particles that can potentially be used as a imagining devices. Dealing with both of these, I can state that I am interested in bioengineering. Not enough to say want a job in the field, though. I think the problem with my view on bioengineering is that so far, it has just been learning. I’ve just been trying to wrap my mind around the concepts and really have not had the time to see if i like it or not. As you can tell by now, I’m very indecisive. This leads me to my question that I’m not sure if it was what you were looking for, how does someone deal with indecisiveness in the workplace. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and I’m sure the methodology to deal with it is different depending on your work site.

"Discuss who and what has positively affected your SYCEP experience. Be as creative as you like."

You said be creative and, since we won at the expo, and they did not allow us to give an acceptance speech, I have decided to write one:

We all started our internship about six weeks ago. Some of us did not know what to expect. Some of us did; they have done this before. But, in the end, it is an experience that we will remember. This was my first work experience and interning experience. It seems like I’ve haven’t grown that much. But, maybe that’s a part of it: realizing that we have big shoes to fill. And, that we have taken a very important step to obtain the career we want. And, for that, I am thankful for everyone who has made this experience what is was.[wait for applause]

I would like to first thank Omar Fisher.[wait for applause] For his willingness to let us participate in his laboratory, he was the one who made this possible. Simply put, he really did not really need the extra six hands, but he still took us on as employees. Next I would like to thank the SYCEP team,Jonathan, Denis, and Kimberly. They have worked relentlessly so that every work site could reach it’s full potential as a learning experience. And finally, but the least, BoatPeopleSOS and PYN, in general, for their funding, support, and sponsorship.[wait for applause]

Next, I would like to thank the people who made the daily routine more enjoyable. Megan Tabler and Jerry Pawlish tried to make the work as riveting as possible by singing songs from Frozen, talking about Pokemon, and giving us cookies.[wait for laughter] And, I would like to thank everyone else in the laboratory for trying to make the the music more diverse. No joke, I was so happy when we were not listening to Frozen songs.[wait for laughter]

I also would like to thank Helen, who did not directly work with us. But, she did walk us through all the necessary training before working in the laboratory.

Let me also thank my coworkers, Brendan and Thatayana. They were always dedicated to the job and always had a smile on their faces.

"Discuss how has your internship at the specific work site shape your future academic, personal, and professional goals."

The last five weeks have probably majorly influence my decision making without me even knowing. Only when I think about it does it make me realize that this job alone has sparked many interests for me. For one, I’ve learned that becoming an engineer or a biologist is actually an interest of mine. I often confused myself when it comes to what I like and what I’m good at. It’s good to see that, even though I was placed in an unfamiliar environment, I still enjoyed it. My internship has also gave me a better understanding of engineering, in the aspect what is the daily routine of an engineer.

Academically, I will probably take advantage of classes that will further my understanding of these to broad fields. And even other subjects, like chemistry and math, I will appreciate more because I see the relevance it has to biology or engineering. It also made me realize that things must be taking one at a time. In the laboratory, we often have a daily goal in one shape or form. We can’t get to ahead of ourselves or we would mess up. So, when it comes to school work, I will try to not be overwhelmed by the impending doom and try to take it as it comes.

This kind of both personal and professionally but, I’ve realized that I am not singularly a science and math person. I realize that I will probably not be completely happy with just a research job. I understand now that I like both. So this is the reason why I decided to minor or get an associate’s degree in something like writing or art. It’s something that I hope will never fade out of my life. But, I also realize that I do intend on having a research job as my main occupation. If anything else, I would like to become a teacher that has a good pay.

"Describe your dream job and why."

My ideal job is constituted by the many things. My idea job isn't just a profession in a field; it needs to have the right hours and a good pay. I would ideally have a pay of $75,000 to $95,000 annually. I wouldn't mind if I was paid $65,000 to $85,000 annually with benefits. I feel as if I could live comfortably with this pay. Of course, with inflation, economic stability, and how large my family would be, this can be subjected to change. I would like to be able to support is a family of three or four (but, probably three) with a pet dog. I know people usually don't say that they want a dog; they usually picture the dog with the house. But, I always thought of the dog to be part of the family. So, I bring this up because I think I would give up a nicer house in the place of dog. I plan on maybe leaving Philadelphia for college and further education. But, I do plan on living in Philadelphia, or at least in a city similar to this one. I would like to live in Northern Liberties, University City, or City Avenue, a place in the city that is pretty secure, but also not too expensive per square foot. I'll probably live there for a few years, then move to a place with a better school system. I never imagined living in a suburban setting, which is probably the next most expensive after living in center city. But, I probably will move there eventually for the schools.

I do not mind a job with demanding hours. I would like to work eight hours a day, forty hours a week. But, I would not mind working up to fifty hours a week or bringing some of the work home. Of course, I am hoping that these two thing will not be permanent and will not be for each week. I would not want the hours of a doctor, around sixty hours a week and having unpredictable hours when one would need to stay up all night at the hospital. I do not want to have inconsistent hours. And, I also would want most weekends to myself. And, I would like to have flexible hours for family emergencies and family vacations. Also, not too inconsistent values of the day's work. I would not like some slow days, when nothing is done, nor some important day, when I cannot leave no matter the circumstances and would be force to stay longer. While I understand this is probably every profession, I would just like for this to not happen so often. I prefer not to be paid by the hour because that would make it a more stable job, in my opinion.

I know this is kind of a given but, I would also need to be interested in work I do. I've thought about multiple jobs: teaching, healthcare administrator, education administrator or head of a school (a private school that I would create), an aide to a political office, and the most recent job I've thought about was a laboratory researcher. For teaching, I would prefer to be a professor at a University. But, that would take more years of school. So, I think I would just end up teaching math or science at a private school. Both would give me some benefits when it comes to the education of my kids, making education less of a financial burden. But if I become a professor, it will allow me to conduct research, depending on the place I teach at. This might satisfied two thing that I would be enjoying. Of course, I would probably have less time to just work in the lab. Next is being the founder of my own school. To be quiet honest, at one point I've thought about this type of career a lot. I've decided that I would not like to deal with that type of nitty-gritty. If I were a healthcare administrator, I know I would be making a difference, like in all the other jobs. But, I'm not sure if I would like the actual work in it. I know filing and being a receptionist is a part of it; those are just mind-numbing task that comes with the job. But, I wonder if there is other task with it. And, what skills would I need? While I am not taking this job out of the running, I'm a little cautious of it because I don't know much about it. Next job on the list is the aide to a political office or figure. This is an alluring job because it deals with politics, which is very important to me. The reason why I would not like to just hold an office myself is because I do not like to be the center of attention. I"ll help but, my privacy will not be invaded. The problem with this job is that it is competitive, in some respects. Also, with each political office, the income I would be earning will differ and I'm not sure it will meet my ideal pay.

"Discuss how you can develop your StrengthsQuest strengths, within and outside your work site. Your response should contain a minimum of 4 paragraphs."

First off, I would like to point out that calling them "strengths" is misleading. When one calls a quality someone has a "strength," that is implying that it makes one stronger and better than others. That cannot be true for two reasons: (1) everyone have these "strengths" or "signature themes," as The Gullup Organization would call them. (2) these signature themes can work for or against the person. This is why honing and developing one's signature themes is so important.

One way to develop one's signature themes is quite simple: be aware of the second reasoning; that it can also work against you. For example, one of my signature theme is analysis. My mind wanders and it often leaves me over thinking. Sure, analysis may seem like a strength; it has often made me a stellar student in my English class. But, in my work environment, which is a laboratory, it can get the best of me. Surely, analysis is a defining part in science. But, being too analytical will lead to wrong findings because the sciences are contextual subjects; they need experiments and the data collected from it, or the context, to make true scientific momentum. By understanding that analysis is not always helpful or needed, I am honing one of my signature theme into a "strength."

Another way one can develop their skills is to realize that one is not cohesive. What I mean by "cohesive" is "to be well-round, complete, or comprehensive." And, I believe that everyone wants to be cohesive; I think it's human nature. Why are we attracted to our opposite? Because, we are seeking for cohesion. I, like most people, am not cohesive. And, that became clear to me as I read two of my signature themes, consistency and individualization. While these, at first glance, do not seem like polar opposites, the more I read them, the more I realize that I was a walking paradox. "You are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same, no matter, what their station in life" is their reasoning for why one of my signature theme is consistency. When it says "the need to treat people the same," it is clear that it contradicts the idea of individualization. Later on, the writing even mentions that I fear individualism because I think it will lead to selfishness. But, I argue that there must be some truth to this. They couldn't have gotten it completely wrong. Maybe, I am both. Maybe, in certain situations, the situations that are not completely black or white, I need both. To hone one's signature themes, one needs to realize that, in modern times, one theme is often not enough.

"Accountability: Talk about how you keep yourself accountable especially when you are continuing to adapt to your work site."

My job had somewhat picked up the pace. Last week, we on learned through presentations. This week, we worked through hands-on experience. We helped our supervisor with titrations. We were accountable for the setup, tracking of, and the clean up of the titrations. We also had to our lab training by ourselves in a timely fashion.

While we were accountable for the titrations, our supervisor still helped us through it. She made us realize how easy it is to mess up the proportion when we are doing work that doesn’t require too much thought. Individually, we all messed up at least once. While our supervisor was very understanding about it, she also conveyed the importance of getting everything to be as similar as possible to avoid a large percentage of error. We are testing the nano-gels to see which has the most suitable pKa for the human body. And, to correctly arrive to the right answer, we have to make the percent error as low as possible.

Most of the error would come from the setup. We were accountable for making the nano-gels into a 1:1 ratio with deionized distilled water. To keep it as precise as possible, we needed to pipette only 5 ml of water at a time to get to around 30 ml each time. Sometimes, we forgot to count and we would either need to start over or just look at it really closely and figure out which one it was at. Clean up was easier. I did not need to pay attention to do the dishes. In the laboratory setting, there is not much blame. We are accountable for the titrations, but, if we mess up, our supervisor’s goal isn’t to find who messed up, but it’s to find the fastest and easiest way to solve the problem.

This week after work, we were all accountable for finishing all the safety training online. It was hard because all three of us considered the workload overwhelming. Seeing the amount of information they wanted us to learn was daunting. But, we also needed to rush these training course a little because we wanted to be helpful as soon as possible. We were accountable to find a balance between just getting the training over with and taking something away from the training courses.

“Describe the challenges, obstacles, and rewards of beginning work as a new employee of your work-site. How important is adaptability in transitioning into your work-site?.”

My first week, or first two days, interning at Temple University’s Department of Bioengineering (BioE) has been, in one sense, monotonous and, in another sense, completely new. Walking in and having every part of the laboratory explained to us felt like a field trip that we have been over-familiarized with in grade school. And, like in school, the first two days were lecture based. They told us a lot of information, even some that were not completely relevant to our topic. Those other topics seemed very interesting,though. They even gave us one of Dr. Fisher’s paper to read as homework. It was definitely at least a college level text and was one of the biggest challenge of those two days. But, I am sure it was a necessary step for us to understand the our goals of this project and to ensure the safety of everyone and everything in the laboratory.

It was new in the sense that I never worked in a laboratory researching before. While we cannot research until we have clearance, we saw our supervisor do lab work. All three of us said that it was nothing like what we have done in the classroom. Hearing about the equipment they use, we thought that it would be similar to that of our science classrooms. But even down to the scales and pipettes, it was different, and we need to continually adapt. A lot of the concepts they talked about seemed to be a review of the concepts we learned in basic Chemistry and Biology Courses. This was difficult because it revealed to us that we actually retained really little information from those courses. The answers were always on the tips of our tongues.

Adaptability was definitely an important quality to have during any job. We were all on our tiptoes ready to change and be useful at a moment’s notice. Luckily, we did not have to adapt to much. Maybe in other business settings we would need to be more adaptable, but our supervisor and everyone else in the laboratory were aware of our learning curve and very understanding. They understood that we come from high school, and most high schools do not prepare us for a laboratory setting. One way that we did have to adapt is to not be too serious. We all came in on July 1st, expecting to be straight to work. That was not the case. Their laboratory had a very social environment. While every individual steadily completely their work, they call talked and socialized. That is one thing we need to learn: to talk to and socialize with the people in the laboratory as equals. While they are obviously our superiors, we cannot just treat everything like business. Because, in one sense, whenever they help us, it is a favor not business. It will make our work there much easier and more enjoyable.