December 2, 2004

• Topic: Internship

  
  

  Well…it’s put up or shut-up time.  I can talk all I want, but these 3-months are my chance to do something.  So far, I can see the potential for something positive to come out of this, but so far, it seems this might be more of an educational and networking experience that may only lead to something big further down the road…which I know, is ok.

  
  

  So, what are my jobs here?

  
  

  1) I’m supposed to read and do a book review of Robert Putnam’s book, “Better Together.”  No cliff notes for this one, but, not only will reading this book better align me with a lot of educators who cite Putnam often, but, my review will be sent out to all 192 institutions associated with the American Democracy Project, so that’s a good experience.

  
  

  2) I’m also doing research on what’s called “civic skills.”  The way I see it, research is only good if it aids something practical, but hopefully it will.  Civic skills, as I understand it now, are the skills necessary to be effective in civic activities.  Civic activities can be divided into community activities (volunteer, community groups) and political (boycotting, voting, etc.)  Now, if you ask me, is there really any reason that we need to do research to establish things like, “communication, teamwork, and critical thinking, are necessary civic skills in order to be effective in civic activities?”  I’ll naturally say, “NO!”  But, after doing this little task, we move onto a second category that is necessary to be effective in civic activities, “knowledge.”  You can tell already, I’m not loving this abstract stuff, but, this could be used to promote one project I had in mind.  The project is to create fun experiential activities, such as doing an Outward Bound course, that provide students with both the skills and the knowledge to be civically and politicall engaged.  So…the way I look at it, I go along with the abstract stuff, maybe even learn a thing or two in this research, as well as get to learn and meet some of the key players in the field who are doing this research.  Then, I hopefully put myself in a better position of credibility for promoting some of my own educational ideas.

  
  

  Oh…and yesturday, I applied for a job at WholeFoods supermarkets, and had not one, but two employees (one was a manager) come up to me and rave about how they loved working there.  The manager even said to put her name down as a reference.  Strange, but, made me realize that there’s something to be gained from all experiences, and that I shouldn’t universally write off any experiences as, “a waste of time.”  For example, say I enjoyed the supermarket business so much that I decided to stick with it and move my way up.  Could meet great people, make a comfortable amount of money, learn new things.  But…while there is something to be gained from all experiences, I believe a person, (or at least, myself) needs to evaluate personal drives and desires, and to determine whether they are putting themselves in experiences that are moving them towards those goals.

  
  

  Cheers,

  
  

  -dan

  • 11:56 am
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