Internship Readiness

The qualities of someone who is internship ready is someone who has good professionalism, takes the initiative, and who is striving to learn more. The way I plan to demonstrate my internship readiness is to not procrastinate, which is very important. Procrastination will definitely slow me down and will show that I am not a responsible person. Being on time and being punctual is another important factor. I can also demonstrate on my public speaking skills because I've always had stage fright. The changes I am willing to make is to speak up more often because I tend to be very quiet. It's usually a good and sometimes not so good to be quiet as often as I am which I've been told. I am going to show a lot more energy than I used to in the last two modules. I am also going to stop doubting myself because it will get in the way of my success.

Two Best Jobs I Ever Had

The best jobs that I ever had was working at Century Movie Theaters at the Westfield Mall in San Francisco and Starbucks in the Financial District. I worked at the movie theater when I was around 18. I was there for over a year. My responsibilities working at Century Theaters were preparing and serving food at the concessions, cleaning the theater after a show was finished and bathrooms, selling tickets at the box office and displaying good customer service. What made this job enjoyable were my co-workers. I developed a good friendship with my co-workers and I still keep in touch with most of them till this day. The skills that I developed were good teamwork, professional skills and good customer service. I don’t really recall any lessons that I had learned working at Century Theaters. The second job that I enjoyed the most also was Starbucks. Working at Starbucks was a great experience for me because I loved working with my co-workers and my manager. I started working there when I was 21 and worked there for a year just before starting Year Up. My responsibilities working at Starbucks was preparing and serving coffee beverages to customers. Starbucks had shown me to developed my customer service skills more efficiently because my boss was very serious on satisfying the customers. I had to learn how to develop good relationships with my customers because they were regulars. I also enjoyed the benefits I had working at Starbucks were my health benefits and discounts. I was allowed one pound of coffee to keep every week as well as teas, we all had free beverages we had to mark out also. The lesson that I have learned working at Starbucks is learning to hide your personal problems away from the workplace. There was one incident where I was not having a good day due to a personal problem I was having at home which lead to my manager having a conversation with me on how that can intervene with my work and also bad for business.  

Pulling Another Winona Ryder

The article I have chosen is on the SFgate.com website. The article is “Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi on Neiman Marcus radar” by Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross, Chronicle Columnist (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/27/BA9T1M3IAH.DTL). The article is about the assembly woman; Mary Hayashi was arrested for shoplifting in a Niemen Marcus store in the Union Square area, Downtown San Francisco. It was reported that Hayashi had stole more the $2,450 worth of merchandise. The sales clerk of Neiman Marcus had thought to have seen Hayashi before and had alerted officials to keep radar on her in case she had returned to the store to steal more merchandise. The authors also include how the surveillance tapes showed Hayashi walking into a dressing room carrying several items with her and about 20 minutes later comes out of the dressing room carrying a shopping bag. When she tried to leave the store, security had stopped her before she escaped. The article also says that prior to Hayashi’s arrest, her attorney who is Douglas Rappaport, refuses to comment on the report of her arrest and a PR man for Mary Hayashi said “it was all a big mistake, that the assemblywoman was distracted by phone calls and text messages and was just about to return to the store when she was stopped.” This results to her pleading not guilty to grand theft and is free on bail. After reading this article, I think that it is ridiculous that Mary Hayashi is found not guilty for shoplifting. I don’t see how you can be pleaded not guilty when you have hard evidence that  this woman has clearly been stealing merchandise from Neiman Marcus.

Inspiration

Everyone has an inspiration or motivation. My inspiration comes from music and dancing. Listening to music inspires me to be a different person sometimes, especially depending in what mood I am in. if I am in the worst mood listening to uplifting and feel-good kind of music that can make my horrible mood go away. I know some people who listen to depressing music when they are sad, and it always would baffle me as to why they would do that. To me that’s digging yourself into a bigger hole and you won’t get any inspiration listening to music that’s sets along with your bad mood.  When I am working out at the gym music can make me get to my adrenaline going and workout even harder. When it comes to dancing, it’s even more of an inspiration to me. When I see other people performing a dance routine, it inspires me to want to dance in front of an audience. My family is also my inspiration because they have always been there for me since the day I was born. In particular I would say my mother is inspiration because she is the hardest working woman I have even known. She shows me and my two other sister unconditional love and she would take a bullet for us in a heartbeat. My mother is from the Philippines and came to the United States when she was 19 and has been independent ever since. She is someone I would want to be like because I myself want to be very independent. My Dad is also my inspiration because he has always taught me to never give up on anything I have started which he always tells me quitters never win. He also inspires me to excel in education because education is always the key to success.

Community Pre-Write

The community I was apart of for a while was this student organization called PCN, which stood for Pilipino Cultural Night. The organization was held at Skyline Community College in San Bruno, CA. The group was formed by Filipino American students who hosted events like Filipino food festivals, talent shows, and Pilipino Cultural Night. The way we interacted was having meetings after classes to discuss what events would be held throughout the school year or even hanging out with one another outside of school. The members choose to be a part of PCN because they want to feel closer within their communities, the Filipino community. The benefits about this community was that everyone had a tremendous amount of teamwork and dedication towards this organization, hence it has been around since 2004. What I enjoyed about this community was that almost everyone was friendly and very welcoming. The members all knew how to have a good time and knew how to demonstrate how teamwork was all about.

Reflection on Module 1

During Module 1, some of the things I learned about myself as a professional student was that I am a good listener, a great note taker, and I was always on time to class. I have also been told that I am a little too quiet most times and I need to participate in class more often. I don't think I really surprised myself in any way because I already knew I am quiet person when it comes to being in class as well as participating. The reason why I feel that way is because I choose to listen carefully what is being taught to me than to actively listen and I tend to be very shy. I think I am a little disappointed in myself because of my fear of speaking up in class and its something I should always work on . I am proud of coming to class on time which is always important. I feel like I can always maintain a professional behavior. Academic work is something I also need to work on constantly because I have a little bit of a bad habit of procrastinating.

Neighborhood

The neighborhood I grew up in was very suburban. The city I loved in was West Covina, CA in the Los Angeles County. My neighborhood was very boring and quiet. I was within in gated community also. Nothing really much happened much except activities being held at the community pool. I also moved around a lot in California. After 13 years of living in southern California I moved to Northern California. I lived in a small town one hour away from San Francisco, which was Fairfield. Living in Fairfield was also very boring and a culture shock for me compared to me living in L.A. Fairfield was a very small town, there were hills and cows everywhere. The cultural difference between the two areas where as different as night and day.  In Southern California the majority of the people I grew up with where of a Hispanic and Samoan.  In Northern California, the majority of the people where Filipino and African-American. After about a year, I moved to Daly City for the rest of my high school years. I also lived in a suburban area as well. The majority of the people that lived in Daly City were Filipino. I think I am who I am because the neighborhoods I grew up in were very quiet and secluded. The fact that I grew up in these neighborhoods to me makes me a quiet person most times. Moving around a lot has also exposed me to different types of cultures, nationalities and personalities.

Poverty Business

  Companies who profit from low-wage earners are exacerbating the opportunity divide by making it very impossible for low-wage earners to obtain upward mobility. Having good credit is the key to upward mobility and the businesses who practice providing high interest loans to individuals prevent them from saving money. Most individuals ultimately neglect their loans because of high interest. Payments made on cars, needed to get to work or homes are lost which makes it difficult to continue working without transportation or worse they can become homeless.

  As for who is responsible for alleviating this issue, I think the answer is everyone; corporations, the government, and individuals. The Government on a national level needs to create laws that address this high interest loan practice that are carried out by businesses. The rules on interest should be strictly enforced and businesses should be made to carefully explain to customers what they're agreeing to. The Government should also make it a crime to provide misleading information.

  The Corporation must learn to establish a set of rules that would abolish them from making  loans available to individuals with poor credit history or don't have the financial means to access the loans. Businesses also need to have moral standards;  It may be legal, but it doesn't mean businesses should enlist in practices  that will harm or hurt other people.

  Individuals need to take responsibility for their actions by making sure if they can afford the monthly payments on loans before hand. The need to determine what their monthly expenses are first such as rent, food, clothes, utilities etc and checking how much they would have left before taking out a loan. Individuals need to read what they sign also, if it takes you an hour to read the full details of what a business is asking you to agree to, so be it!

My name is Catherine Bakari, I'm 22 years old. I am a San Francisco native but raised in the Los Angeles and Long Beach area in Southern California. I moved back to the Bay Area about 8 years ago with my parents and 2 sisters. I spent my teenage years in Fairfield, Ca and in Daly City. My personal interest is spending time with my extended family and dancing but sometimes I feel like I have no time for myself because I tend to be a workaholic. I am also a very big movie buff, watching Independent films is a favorite for me. I'm very big on music, I grew up listening to music from the 70's and the 80's.

High School

The high school I attended was Jefferson High School in Daly City, CA. My personal experiences and memories unfortunately weren't that great. I didn't enjoy high school at all because I felt I didn't fit in. I wasn't very fond of my teachers except for my English, Government and Algebra teacher. The students at my high school made my experiences even worse because most of them were really catty, condescending and extremely immature. There were times where I had some good memories like going to some of the dances that were held, and the small circle of friends that I had. The facilities were ok at my high school it wasn't looking building in its area, and the bathrooms were horrible. Even though I felt like high school was a big waste of time for me, I'm still proud of myself for graduating and getting my diploma

Speech

I think that my speech is influenced by my peers more than my own parents or teachers. Of course your speech is influenced a lot by parents because those are the people that raise and take care of you.  I think speech is influenced by your peers because being around your friends,  you would want to speak and understand the type of English language they use, especially growing up as a teenager. Some people feel like they are being peer pressured to speak the same way with who they hang out with, being peer pressured so others would consider them "cool" or fitting in. Our speech is influenced a lot by music, television and other cities we come from. Most teenagers or young adults speak completely different when they are around their parents than around their own friends. You speak in a respectable manner when it comes to your parents because those are the people who brought you into the world. When it comes to speaking around your friends, you can speak as freely and comfortably around them as much as you want because those are the people you can have conversations with you wouldn't normally have with your families.