Week of January 9

Interview with my mentor

Q: What about the environmental field of studies, enticed you to become a part of it?

A: I ended up at an Adopt a Stream Workshop by accident and was exposed to citizen     science and an educational outreach program in which my love for the environment and the combination of both aspects was perfect for me.

R: The love that you have for any career path will turn a career into a passion in the blink of an eye.

Q: What would you say to people who are thinking about having a career in a field like yours?

A: Expose yourself to real citizen sciences in every way possible. This will guarantee whether you like this line of work and can even consider it for a career.

R: You had better make sure you like something before you do it for the rest of your life. Not only does this apply to a career but also other things, like sports and hobbies.

Q: What does a “normal day at the job” mean to you, and what does that look like?

A: On any given day, I will deal with many different projects that include elementary school presentations to students in an intimate setting talking about environmental issues in a fun way and getting out and monitoring water quality in streams or organizing cleanups.

R: He deals with a lot of different people and activities in just one day, which is what I want to do. I what to be able to make choices and not become settled into any one activity at any given day.

Q: What about this job makes you want to come to work every day?

A: The freedom and the flexibility to do whatever I want to do, as long as it’s within my boundaries and also the limited negatives aspects of any part of this job.

R: Any job that is flexible and gives you choices to make is a job that I could see myself doing, no doubt. As long as my career has little negative aspects, like his, I feel that I can fit right in and get to work with little hindrance.

Q: Describe for me your favorite project that you have ever tackled?

A: I get to be around students and other people and teach them about all the things that I love to do.

R: He gets to do what he loves to do and that is crucial to have success in any career.

Q: What it is like working for the county where you call home knowing that you are bringing to sight the environmental sustainability principles that we all should be readily aware of?

A: It was initially burden, and it was very personal. Then, it turned into a privilege, a part of my identity. Everywhere I go, people know me by the job that I do, and that means a lot. Overall, I feel like I am a public servant above all.

Q: What skills do you use every day that you developed before you started this job, either in school or in your other jobs?

A: Since I was a teacher before I started this job, my classroom skills and management allowed me to thrive when I am in the classroom setting. My social skills also allow me to bond with the community in way that I cannot survive without.

R: Skills that you build before you start a new job can often be as important as the skills you build during your career.

Q: How many different projects, on average, do you work on in any given week? Do the different times of the year affect how many jobs you have? Are there any times where there is no work to be found?

A: I would say that there are three constant jobs at a time: educating students, stream monitoring, and frog monitoring. Then, at any time, there may be some special events like mass cleanups that require planning. As for the seasonal aspect, it used to be. When I first started and was beginning to get my feet wet, I did not have all the summer camps and large groups of students to keep me busy all year round that I do now. The only times that I am down is during school breaks, including testing and holiday breaks.

R: He is a very busy man, but that means high job security. I want to be able to say that I always have work to do because that means that I will, hopefully, never be out of a job in my career field.

Q: Have you specifically work, in conjunction with other businesses or not, on any environmentally sustainable landscapes or buildings?

A: In fact, a couple of years ago, I was involved, on the biological side, with the major stream renovation behind Midway Park. I made sure that what they were doing would not hinder the growth of the wild, native species in the area.

R: This type of work is specifically what I would love to do. I love to get my hands dirty and work alongside Mother Nature to make her more beautiful and better to look at every single day.

Q:  How does your business interact with others and on what projects?

A: I work with the corporate world, since they are our sponsors. I work, very rarely and only on severe issue, with the EPA. The major other businesses that I work with are the other affiliate groups to Keep America Beautiful, and more specifically Keep Georgia Beautiful, since we are also an affiliate with major river cleanups or projects as mentioned above.

R: Working well with other businesses is crucial for the future success of any business. If you want your business to continue to be successful, and keep the business of others.

Week of December 5 and 12

Essential Question

     How does the Sawnee Mountain Preserve Visitors Center embody an environmentally sustainable building, and what else can be done to obtain a Green Building certification?

     I selected this question because it fits perfectly into the environmental engineering field. I want to be the engineer that puts something back into the earth instead of other engineers who take away from the earth. Since I have been working with Forsyth County Parks and Recreation within my internship, a lot of great ideas have surfaced regarding an essential question. This one, by far, has been the one that I have been most interested in, so I will pursue the answer relentlessly. This question excites me so much because this is definitely something that I see myself doing as a career later on in life. This question fulfills my desires to pursue making something more environmentally sustainable, so generations to come have some earth that they can use as readily as we do. My goal is to use this question and apply it to many others buildings and visions that I can take part in, later in my career endeavors. 

Week of November 28

  A guaranteed way to get the job of your dreams   

http://growingleaders.com/blog/first-soft-skill-develop-students/

     This article goes into detail in the discussion of youth and how they can find themselves in trouble when applying and maintaining a job. Employers state that they find youth too loud, too forward, too self-absorbed, and lacking self-awareness. This all boils down to not having any social intelligence. As defined, social intelligence is defined as the capacity to effectively negotiate complex social relationships and environments. Social intelligence is knowing when or when not to speak up. It it also knowing when to talk about yourself. It is not however, taking advantage of your new job and acting like you are the best employee that the company has ever had. Remember, your first priority is doing the job you were assigned. If there is ever a time when youth should reign in their emotions and get to work is during this learning period of your first job. 

     This article made me realize that social skills are probably the most important part of every job. Knowing how to have a successful conversation with your boss and other coworkers is the key to having a long career with a single company. If every at the job likes you because you are easy-going and well versed, then you have just practically hired yourself. According to the article, this is want employers want. They want somebody that will fit into their company with no hiccups and who will not overstep their boundaries.

Week of November 14, 21

https://1drv.ms/p/s!Ah-arZ30T3i0gSBI2bJKg4BwdvMT

Week of November 7

     Keep Forsyth Beautiful is very much a partner in my education because they foster my development into the field that I want to find a career in. In my opinion, they provide greater education than any class that I take in school because I am actually interested in the stuff that I am learning in my internship, compared to the stuff that I learn in school.

     I have learned about several careers in my internship, including Storm Water Runoff Maintenance, Land water runoff stakesmen, and drinking water facility manager. All of these jobs pertain, in some form or fashion, to the Environmental Engineering field. All of these jobs I see myself possibly going into. My mentor has done a superb job making sure that I obtain as much exposure to any, and every, career that falls into the Environmental Engineering field.

    I have met several goals so far. The first on being, exposure to many different fields so that I can come up with my Essential Question to display at my presentation later in the year. Some goals however have changed. Initially my mentor and I thought that we would have more time to explore possible careers in the environmental engineering field, but as time went by our goals changed to really being this essential question project. This project has really taken off in the last week due to my discovering of this question after some talk with some folks at Sawnee Mountain Preserve.

Week of October 31

     My name is Phillip, and I am a senior at Forsyth Central High School. I have been raised to love and understand the benefits that the environment offers us. That being said, I am fully aware that the environment is in the worst shape that it has been in. I chose to pursue a career in environmental engineering because of this. I want to be able to say that I helped the environment when most other people were doing the exact opposite. With this in mind, I believe that Keep Forsyth Beautiful believes like I believe and also wants to help the environment in ways that will prolong its existence.

     At Keep Forsyth Beautiful, I take part in numerous activities. I started out the year touring a recycling facility belonging to Advanced Disposal. Then I moved to visiting waste water facilities across the county, where I saw the different methods of water filtration, including biological and chemical. Then, I got to understand the flip side of that coin when I visited a drinking water facility where I got to see how they take the water out of the environment and transform it, chemically, into the tap water that comes out of our sinks. I have also taken part in many other activities, including Code Enforcement and Storm Water Management. With Forsyth County Engineering, I partook in the latter of the last two, along with the task of correcting and accepting runoff water plans on newly designed housing lots. With my mentor at Keep Forsyth Beautiful, we have began scheduled maintenance of methane flares at the old landfill in North Forsyth, as well as collecting waste that people have dumped on the side of the road and in creeks.

     Next year, I will be starting at Kennesaw State University Marietta Campus, to begin my journey to a degree in Environmental Engineering. My mentorship will help me tremendously in that I will be able to have a decent grasp several of the possible career fields that I could go into, after I earn a college degree.

     Below are some of the activities that I have taken part of.

Above is my mentor and I.

Week of October 24

What I have learned about my internship

     To be honest, I thought that Keep Forsyth Beautiful was just an organization that went around planting trees at various schools and picking up trash on the side of the road. But, upon diving into my internship I have discovered that Keeping Forsyth beautiful involves much more. This includes actions like monitoring methane levels in a local landfill and monitoring oxygen levels in local streams. Now, I am really enjoying my internship and all of the various activities and people that I get to interact with every week.

     This internship surprised me with all of the different jobs that I get to take part in once a week. I have done everything from touring a Advanced Disposal recycling facility and viewing a water filtration facility to monitoring the water coming out of dams throughout the county. I have really enjoyed getting to experience, however quick, the different careers that I may go into.

    From the routine parts of this internship, I have learned what goes on behind the scenes to make the job run smoothly, from all the phone calls to the paper work that I have seen take place over this internship. Now, credit to my mentor for making my 3 hours a week as action-packed as possible with as little as the day to day work as possible. But, the little "boring" stuff that I see is important to witness because that is what happens at every job. There is always the fun, but the less fun usually happens more often. To sum it up, I now know why the common saying is that you have to love what you do, or you will not work very long there.