Senior Projects

In just one week I’ve learned quite a bit especially through hands-on experiences at the partnership. In addition to projects I mentioned earlier, I’ve also began researching past clients of STLVW and compiling a database of all past clients. In doing this I’ve learned what details can cause companies to fail after leaving the
incubator these include, uncontrolled growth, poor market appeal and a weak round of funding It is inevitable that most startups will fail and even in a the best markets, meaning least competive, the majority will fail, but if there was no risk involved there would be less reward. The partnership being partly government agency is heavily affected by local, state and national politics and so it is the job of the leadership to stay informed on such matters. In my I&E meeting we were discussing the possibility of the CDA (community development agency) having its funding cut by a new federal budget, this would greatly affect the partnership as a portion of the I&E budget comes from there. What has been most enjoyable is that a lot of what I get to do has less to do with monotonous work but I actually get to do tasks that involve critical thinking and require a vast knowledge of the St. Louis metropolitan area, and most importantly I feel like th work the partnership does meaningful fulfilling work. Another area I will be researching is inclusion and diversity. As of now the start up community is majority white and male, disproportionately so. The partnership would like St. Louis to change that. The one thing I love most about working at the partnership is the broad impact it has. It is not a charity trying to help the poor, nor is it an investment group trying to get rich an make their clients rich. Its primary goal is boost St.Louis’s economy both city and county.

This is 80% (NOT including Monday and sewing snappers to a blanket) of stuffs I made within this week. Follow the order I made them…

Forget the flower name, feel free to guess…

Cherry blooms

A dozen of tulips.

Black and white school map scratch

Finished the lion mask from the interim week’s art. a picture with the model wearing it.

Trying to use stamps on cloth. Upper body with the stamp, lower body with the die. [Won’t work if the stamp is too big. stars=showed  half of the body = won’t really. Next steps, tried to find a ink work on cloth so I can use stamps on cloth.]

Lovely week! Can’t wait for next week!!

 

It has been a week since I worked for here. I spent a meaningful week that I like to live and work here. The only thing I don’t like is the weather is never perfect sunny in Los Angeles this week. Besides collect data and customers contact informations now I can help to calculate the benefit of the cars and which insurance company had better price/service. Billy is the manager of the office, he went out today afternoon to visit couples of insurance companies to talk about those new cars just came today. While he was gone I was still sit there and do my calculate work. Before he went out we went to the McDonald’s near us for lunch, not only me and Billy but also with to other employees. Tomorrow we plan to go to Billy’s house and have a bbq party during lunch time.

 

My senior project is remodeling a vacation cabin out in the Innsbrook resort area. It is a small cabin that can hold about 8-10 people. The cabin is on the edge of one of many lakes in Innsbroook.

For the most part so far, I have been either cleaning loose scraps from any other work that was previously done before I even got there or I have been carrying large amounts of wood planks into the cabin.

This week was not so much one whole week. I only got to work for two days, Monday and Tuesday because on Wednesday the cabin owners came by and Thursday I had a doctors appointment.

In terms of what hours do I work out at the cabin, I have to get up at 5:00 am where I drive to a nearby house of a co-worker to get picked up by 6:00 am. It takes an hour to get to the cabin. From then we work until about 12:00 or 12:30 when lunch is. We eat frozen lunches. After our brief lunch of 15 min, we get back to work. 2:30 pm is the time we end the day.

Here are some of the things we have been working on in my first week:
– Laying new tile in the bathrooms
– changing light bulbs in the kitchen
– installing a heated flooring pad underneath the tile
– Installing new fans in the bathrooms

Overall, I am really looking forward to what is to come of the remodeling. I am excited to what it looks like when completed.

My post shall be in the format of a list (because I’m sure you know I love lists). Here are a few things I’ve learned in my week of shadowing in the Firm Analytics department at Edward Jones:

1) Finance is actually super interesting if you give it a chance (contrary to what actually everyone says).

2) Edward Jones manages over one trillion dollars in assets per year. For reference, that’s six percent of the GDP of the United States and larger than the GDP of most countries.

3) Adults are really impressed by teenagers who do basic things correctly, like showing up on time and asking questions.

4) Almost every country in the world is affected by currency fluctuations, but Edward Jones is not. They are an unusual company in that a) they do not sell a physical product that requires materials sourced from another company (i.e., and iPhone) and b) they are not a multinational company that generates revenue in other currencies and must exchange them for US dollars.

5) Graduating high school doesn’t magically make you follow dress codes. Probably 20% of people here definitely do not dress “business”.

6) A good career move would be to join a growing company after college. This way, you can advance by filling newly created positions. If you join a stagnant company, you have to wait for someone to retire (which literally takes a lifetime).

7) There is so much overhead at a large company. There are 79 people here who work in Firm Analytics–so their job is just to answer questions that Treasury, Sourcing, Marketing, or anyone else might have about the company’s profits, etc.

8) Mr. Rawlins handles over $10 billion of cash every day.

Anyway, I’m excited for next week in Treasury. This has been a much more interesting week than I expected, since I’m mostly reading reports and listening to meetings.

 

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have shadowed Mr. Sharma’s assistant, Kayla. I continued doing this and I help her out with little things, like continuing to work on those forms I mentioned earlier that I put into the new format. I have learned a lot about the application process and then what Kayla and Mr. Sharma do in relation to the applicants that they’re interested in. I’ve also learned about the different parts of the company and what they do and need in their workers through shadowing Kayla. More generally, I’ve witnessed just how monotonous reviewing applications can be and what the more appealing applicants look like. I wouldn’t trust myself to pick someone out, but I am getting more used to recognizing what Kayla looks at and for.
I also sat in on an orientation today for a new worker. He went through and signed a bunch of paperwork in relation to financial stuff and contracts with the company. After that, another one of the women came in and introduced ADB “culture.” This included a lot of talk about safety, which they take very seriously, and also about communication and their intent to do all of their work “all in.” They took that from a speaker who inspired the Giants late in their season in 2011 so tremendously that it eventually led them to win the Super Bowl. It basically talks about commitment to the team or whatever it is that you’re a part of. ADB has taken that too and it was super neat to hear about in the orientation.
I’m getting to know the people in the office more and more and everyone is super interesting and nice. It’s strange to think that I only have one more week after this. The days have gone by so quickly.
Tomorrow, I will do a little more work with Kayla and then I’ll sit in on an interview with a potential new hire. I’ll also go to a weekly collaborating meeting with Kayla and some other people. Then, there’s a presentation/lesson about workplace violence. I’m not sure what that means but I’ll learn tomorrow. I’ll be done for the day after that.

Global Sage:

http://www.globalsage.com/

Project Description:

As an intern, the student[I] will support all of the firm’s activities in the New York office Global Sage, Hong Kong headquartered executive search firm focused on Financial Services. She[I] will support the consultants in the New York office.

Responsibilities include and not be limited to the following:

• Performing research on hedge funds (both US-based and international)
• Identifying high-potential target clients
• Administrative tasks such as formatting resumes
• Performing research on potential candidates (Linkedln, industry associations, bloomberg, company websites) employed at hedge funds
• Preparing marketing materials for clients
• Entering client and candidate data into the firm’s proprietary database

Goals of project:

The student[I] will gain familiarity and fluency in the workings of hedge funds and basic finance, including investment strategies, top hedge fund leadership and an overview of the skills employed by personnel in the hedge fund space. In addition to gaining familiarity with a sophisticated database, she[I] will hone essential Microsoft office skills including Word, Powerpoint and Excel. By the end of the project, she[I] will grasp the hiring practices of hedge funds.  She[I] will gain an ability to work independently and without supervision.

Today is a nice and warm day. But I felt really tired this morning because I didn’t sleep well last night. I’m doing the same work as yesterday now. Using Excel to collect data of cars and costumers. I just started work about 2 hours. Billy told me there is a new car coming this afternoon or maybe tomorrow. I’ll try to post pics about that car later today or tomorrow when it comes. I’m so glad that they are so patient and kind. I learned a lot form all employees here. The help I can offer to them are very limited but I’ll try to improve my self. The only thing can make me excited is lunch time. I’m going out for lunch with some guys who works here for a while. I didn’t eat anything this morning.

My first two days at Shaw nature reserve were spent at the Dana Brown Overnight Center (DBOC). My main focus was shadowing the class leaders. Unfortunately, due to the rain, we had to change our original lesson plan to one that had an indoor aspect. It was supposed to be a series of classes about living off the land and forest ecology. The themes were still there, but it was dry. We had a class on cordage, which was the making of cords from plant fibers. We also had a wagon packing class. This was an idea where the students were given a sheet of paper with a list of supplies, and they then had to limit their “wagon” to 400 pounds of stuff. This class was to show the students how easy they have it today, and how the settlers had to know how to do everything they needed to in order to survive.

The second day consisted of the original outdoor classes. These included woodworking and candle making. I spent the day at the woodworking station where the students split rails, smoothed shingles and used a two-handed saw. My main job was to make sure that no one hurt themselves. In the afternoon, we (the staff and interns) split up with separate groups and helped lead them on a GPS scavenger hunt. I greatly enjoyed my first two days and I can’t wait to continue this project more.