A-TERM 2017

For my A-Term 2017, I participated in the Managua Field School course and travelled to Nicaragua, for the purpose of volunteering and helping its communities. I decided to come to Nicaragua for the sake of understanding the real meaning of poverty and experiencing what the impoverished go through on a daily basis. I thought that this was the perfect opportunity for me to interact with them, work with them, maybe build relationships, and most importantly comprehend how poverty affects their lives and makes them less privileged. This was an amazing experience, as it challenged my perspectives and taught me new things.

We, first, spent a couple days in Managua working in construction: we partnered with the Jubilee House Community and helped them build a second building for their clinic. This project means a lot to the habitants for the community because this location would benefit them daily, as it will be offering yoga classes for relaxation, instructive health classes to teach them how to take care of their bodies, and other great options. Helping in construction was definitely not an easy job, especially that the temperature was very hot and the conditions of living weren't as great as we are used to. But, it was an experience worth the time and effort because it opened my eyes on how poorly the quality of life of some can be. Afterwards, we headed to Ometepe Island and taught english at the Ometepe Bilingual School.  This task was really fun because I got to interact with many kids and was able to teach them some english vocabularies and help them with their homework. Honestly, it ended up being a learning experience for both the student and us, as we had to use spanish in order for the kids to understand  us. Lastly, we went to Granada for the sake of visiting the city and relaxing. 

Nicaragua has been a thought provoking and life changing trip, as it exposed me to a world where poverty reigns. Not only it made me feel guilty for having a luxurious life knowing that others are suffering, but it also made me grateful for everything I have.

For more informations, visit our official blog and read from everyone's perspective: http://managuafieldschool2017.blogspot.com 

INTERSHIP 2: Malacology

A month ago, I started an internship at the archives of the HMNS (at Marconi), which consists of documenting new and old species, cleaning them, writing tags for each specie, and other tasks. 

I spend 4hours a week there (sometimes more, sometimes less) and do different tasks each day. So far, they taught me how to tag a specie and document it (Eventually, I would be working on other projects). My longest project was to go through 20books  (where they used to document old species) and mark all the species that have been deaccessioned. Moreover, while looking through them, I had to make sure that all the informations noted are accurate. This task definitely require a lot of patience and focus, because one mistake can have many bad consequences.

INTERNSHIP 1

             HMNS History Project


    Since November, I have been working with a group of people on a history project for the HMNS (Houston Museum of Natural Science). This project consists of finding out more about the history of the museum and documenting it.

    We spend three hours a week at the libraries (Rice University, University of Houston, Downtown Houston Public Library...) looking through the newspaper articles, to find relevant information about the history of the museum. We also has access to the documents at the museum's archives, once. In addition, we interview multiple people who worked or who are currently working for the museum/volunteering in order to collect more informations. I interviewed Ms. Donna Meadows on December and I asked her about her work at the museum and the changes that occurred since she first started working there. Other people are also conducting other interviews, and we hope that by the end of the spring season we would have enough informations to present our findings to the public.

     This project is one of the most challenging projects I've worked on so far because it require a lot of patience and work. I've went many times to the library, looked through newspapers and online databases in vain. We don't know whether the newspapers we pick would have informations or not, as we don't know whether the people who we interview would have different informations to share with us from what we already have. I had so many unsuccessful weeks, where I go to the library, look through the documents, and find nothing. But, we all hope that our efforts would be worth it.

J-TERM 2017

              CAC J-Term 

          For my J-Term 2017, I was part of compute a computer group: we built our own computers within a budjet of $300. YES, ONLY $300!!!

          During a three week period, we had the opportunity to learn about gaming computers and their main components. During the first days, we read a book called "Build your own gaming PC", that talked briefly about all the components a gaming PC has to have, as well as its principle functions. 

Furthermore, we did our own researches to get even more familiar and comfortable with the component. I always thought building a computer was a complicated process, but it's actually easy to learn (if you read a lot about it). However, the hardest thing is to choose components that are efficient and compatible with the rest, and that sum up to $300.

          Our next task was to create a part list, as you can see down here:

             -- We had to order our components from either Amazon or Micro Center.



       Then, after receiving all the necessary material, we built our computers, and mine looked like        this: 

SERVICE PALOOZA 2016

                   POST OAK ANNUAL SERVICE "TO MAKE THE FUTURE BRIGHTER..."


        This year, I had the opportunity to participate at my school's annual service "Service Palooza". For an entire week in the month of October, we volunteer with different organisations for two hours. The purpose is for us to get involved in our community and help create a brighter future.

        I had the chance to volunteer at different locations, of my choice, every single day. On the first day, I volunteered at the Houston Food Bank and helped to sort products out and place them in their appropriate boxes (liquids, school supplies, vegetables, soups, pasta..). On the next day, I went to the Hermann Park and pulled weeds: it was a hard task, but I was really glad to do it because passengers and drivers, who were passing by, thanked us and were happy that somebody is actually doing something to conserve our environment. The following day, I went to help clean an isolated building that will eventually become a school for low income students. This project was the most challenging things I have ever done in my life, because it was dusty (I am allergic to dust) and there was no electricity. We were only four people cleaning the floors, taking old furnitures out (it used to be a clubnight), and throwing used clothings (apparently a homeless man was living there, but he passed away and left his clothes). However, no matter how hard the experience was, I am thankful that I contributed in facilitating the construction process. Lastly, I volunteered with Project Raw Houses, an organization that helps young African American mothers. We went there and helped decorating the outdoor: a group planted flowers, and another one (mainly our artists) painted drawings on the walls.

       

READING ACES

At the beginning of the school year, I signed up to volunteer at an African American center, known as Reading Aces. Reading Aces is an organization that provides low income children all the necessary help and support to improve and succeed in their academic life. They recruit volunteers of different ages to tutor the students and encourage them to study harder.

I always believed that making a change in the world should start with reducing the rate of illiterates and promoting education. This is the reason why I chose to volunteer as a tutor and teach these future leaders the basic academic skills.

Every Thursday after school, I go to Reading Aces for an hour, on average. My task is to read books to younger kids, help primary students with their homework, and if needed, teach them a couple of basic skills that they seem to lack.

I look forward to every Thursday because I love interacting with children, especially if my presence would have a positive impact on their life. I enjoy teaching each of them, even if it gets frustrating sometimes: I worked with many 4th graders who didn’t know how to add and subtract numbers, or how to form a proper sentence. This shows me how poor the education, in some public schools, can be and how some teachers don’t devote themselves for the success of these kids. This is why, every time I go there, I feel satisfied knowing that I am contributing to the integrity, and, hopefully, success of these kids.

This experience also makes me feel grateful towards all my teachers for devoting themselves and their time to help me build my character and further my motivation in life, but also for being so patient. I never realised how hard it was to explain things to students, especially when they are younger. I always struggled teaching them how to add numbers together, because it is such a simple and basic step that it is very hard to explain.

Overall, it is a very good learning experience that I will hope to continue in the future.

VOLLEY BALL

During the fall season, I joined my school's volleyball team although I am an athletic person. Unfortunately, I have always been bad at playing most of the sports. But, this year I decided to challenge myself and become part of the Bearkats.

For two months, I had practice three times a week at my school, but since I wasn't skilled, my sister trained me during the weekends. I though that the more I practice, the better I will get. In fact, I definitely improved a lot and saw a huge progress, along with my sister, my coaches, and my team mates. 

My biggest challenge was "serving" because it is a step that requires a lot of force and precision: I remember spending most of my time at the park serving. For some reason, I couldn't serve for over a month, and therefore told my coach that I didn't want to serve during games. This step made me want to give up and quit, but also continue and prove myself that I can do it. Thankfully, I was determined to get that ball over the neck, therefore during our last volleyball game, I asked my coach to let me serve so I wouldn't have regrets later on. It was a really scary moment to be honest, but I am so glad that I challenged myself. 

Now that the season is over, I am only practicing with my sister times to times, to further improve and have a better outcome next season!

Our first game.

                                   

Our first game. Our first victory!