Indecisiveness, Deadlines, and Korean! Oh my!

Before summer break started, I was set on revolving my senior project around the topic of pediatrics. I thought that since I plan on becoming a pediatrician in the future, it would benefit me to build a project around it so I would have a good idea as to what I would be getting myself into. However, I wasn't able to find a mentor within that field and in my area. All the pediatricians I contacted were all too busy to have some teenage girl shadow them... or they just didn't want to get in contact with me (my bet is the latter).

Thus, with my plan A shot down to the ground, I moved on to something that I have recently become interested, fitness and nutrition. I was able to find a mentor at Gold's Gym in West Covina and I worked with her for 5 days. My mentor, Maria Vilchis, is a personal trainer and received the title as the "Top Personal Trainer of July", so she knows exactly what she's doing. I had the honor to work side by side with her in training other people to live a healthier lifestyle. It was interesting to see the different types of clients walk in and hear a variety of goals. Maria and I also grew to become really close friends. However, after working with her, I realized that I couldn't see myself building a project around it. Shadowing Maria has certainly sparked a growth in my interest for fitness and nutrition, but it just wasn't the topic for me.

Then comes the first day of school and I still haven't had a senior topic set and stoned! We had to finalize our topic by Friday and I still had no idea on what to do. I decided to stray away from pediatrics since two other students have decided to choose that as their senior topic. I wanted to do something different, but what? Video Game Production was a certain option of mine, but it would be difficult to find a mentor. I had no leads and it could take months for me to find one so I shut that down. Baking was another option, but I can't even melt chocolate so that was a no.

On Thursday, I was sitting outside on the benches with a couple of my friends. I had an SAT Subject Test Review booklet with me and I just happened to skim through the pages. I stopped at the Korean practice test which had the foreign, boxy Korean characters. "I can read this!" I proclaimed proudly. I taught myself how to read Korean a couple of months back. Surprisingly, I forgot. When I stared at the circles and corners of the characters, I couldn't comprehend any of it. That's when the idea of Language Acquisition dawned upon me. Languages have always intrigued me; I've tried to teach myself a numerous amount of languages in the past. Perhaps revolving my senior project around it would be a great idea. When I went home that night to do my Blog #3, I changed my header from Pediatrics to Language Acquisition.

No regrets.

...But I'm still indecisive.

Blog 4: Interview Preparation

1. Who do you plan on interviewing? Why?

• I plan on interviewing Florence Erturk because she teaches Elementary French at Mt. Sac to many non-French speakers so I feel like she would know a lot about learning languages and what are the most important factors to consider when learning them.

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

• What inspired you to teach French?
• What is the most important factor when it comes to learning a new language?
• Learning a new language can be difficult. How can someone facilitate their own learning process?
• What inspired you to learn English? How long did it take you to become fluent and what helped you in doing so?
• What are some tips you would give to someone who is trying to learn a language?

Blog 3: Topic Choice and Working EQ

1. List your topic here: Language Acquisition

2. Write a question that helps to focus your research this month: What is the most effective way to learn a language?

3. If you look to the right of this page, you will see my working bibliography under the Links list.

Summer Mentorship Component

L I T E R A L

1. Summer Mentorship Log
2. Maria Vilchis, Personal Trainer at Gold's Gym West Covina 502 Plaza Drive. 
Phone Number: (626)-480-7717
3.  Questions raised from mentorship:

• What has to be achieved when becoming a Personal Trainer?
• What do you have to do to tone up instead of building bulky muscle?
• Do I want to become a Personal Trainer?
• How do you motivate someone to push themselves when they aren't willing to?
• What effects do certain types foods have on our bodies?
• What exercises are most effective when building lean muscle?

I N T E R P E R A T I V E

4. The most important thing I have gained from this experience is that people have different goals when it comes to fitness. Every client Maria and I have worked with all have different body types, meaning that they have different objectives so it was imperative to know what type of training would fit the client's needs. We worked with overweight women who wanted to shed their fat and gain a healthier lifestyle, average clients whose goals were to build muscle, and underweight clients who wanted to gain weight. Before this mentorship, I thought only those with a heavier build make appointments with personal trainers because they want someone to help and motivate them to lose weight, but throughout the 10 hours I have spent working with Maria, I saw that people with different body types choose to work with personal trainers as well. They seek for the same help and motivation, but just for different things.

A P P L I E D

5. I am teeter-tottering between Pediatrics and Fitness and Nutrition. I was not able to find a mentor for Pediatrics during the summer, but it is still something I really want to pursue a career in because when I was little, my pediatrician impacted my childhood and she is someone I will remember for the rest of my life. I would like to have that impact on children as well. However, after working with Maria, I'm interested on doing Fitness and Nutrition as a topic as well because it felt amazing to motivate people on their journey of fitness. I was impacting their lives by helping them change their lifestyle and it was just a great feeling.