Homework #11

Exercise 1:
One of my steps in my planning wall was to apply for internships at forensic science labs. This part of the planning wall didn't take long to complete so i choose to do another step in my planning wall and that was to research different labs and find out the addresses for these labs.
To much of my surprise I found out that there is a crime processing lab right across the street from the school on west campus.This was great news to me because I have an actual address and I have a starting point. Since it's so close I can easily walk in and ask to speak to someone and I can get another contact this way. Applying for another internship was slightly harder to do this week than last week because I was trying to find one I qualify for based on my major. I found a couple that accepted math major applicants and I applied for a small internship in New York. Now I'm waiting to hear back from them and I will apply to yet another one next week.

Exercise 2:
My buddy was Georgia and we began our meeting talking about what it is that we wanted to do and we each talked about what we've done so far. Georgia wants to go into public relations and so far she's been applying to internships and she has heard back from two so far. The next step in our meeting was a problem/solution session in which we found out that we have the same sort of problems. We both are feeling a bit frustrated with the fact that we can't easily find contacts in our field. We both know what we want to do but we just can't seem to find the right people to get us going on the right track. Georgia gave me some advice on how I might be able to get better contacts. She helped me to realize that I can get better contacts from the contacts that I already have and that I should ask if my contacts from law enforcement might know someone who is more closely related to my field of interest. I gave her some suggestions as well and gave her the name of one of my previous professors that might be able to point her in the right direction. Our hard times session rolled into the third step of the buddy system meeting which was networking. Georgia knows of some people who might be willing to talk to me and I have a couple of friends who are connected in that field and I'm going to talk to them to see if I can help her find more people for her interviews.
This was a really helpful meeting because we both ended up helping each other out with our similar problems

Assignment #10

Exercise 1:
One of my first steps on my planning wall was to research internships and apply to at least one. I thought that the process would be very tedious and boring but to my surprise it was very exciting. Now I know I have found something I really want to do! For the first time in all my success as a student, friend, employee etc., I found myself actually getting excited to take the neccesary steps to move forward. To much of my surprise as well I realized that I don't have to change my major as I was repeatedly told. Although I realize now that additional schooling is necessary, I am glad to know that I don't have to take a completely different path, which was what I was trying to avoid. At the beginning of the semester my goal was how to become a forensic scientist without changing my major. I have figured out that I will have to go back to school, but the good news is I can work in the field while I'm working on the appropriate master's degree! Now I will apply to more than one internship and continue to build my network. My path seems to be unfolding right before my eyes and becoming more clear as I move forward.

Exercise 2:
This is the first time in my college career that I am beginning to make active steps towards completing my goal and sure enough, I did a lot of shaking. I've actually realized that I've been shaking for four years and my fear of success is the reason why I haven't made any moves up until this point. Examlple, Fear is the reason why I have been falling behind on all my classes this semester. What sense does it make for me to suddenly not care about school when I'm so close to being done? This was a powerful exercise for me because I had no idea how much fear was taking hold on my everyday decisions. I noticed it right away when I continued to put off contacting my interviews and researching interships. I would become immediatly and urgently busy and continued to tell myself "I'll have to do it tomorrow." When I got online to research interships I conveniently got distracted with e-mails and "let me check my myspace real quick" that turned into hours of chating and youtube videos. The amazing thing is I recognized it this time and I was able to stop, realize what was really going on , laugh about how funny it was that I was actually feeling resistance, remind myself of my goal and get back on task. When I actually started doing what I was supposed to be doing I found that it wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be and I actually had a little fun doing it.

Homework #9

One of the things I commited myself to doing this week was to contact the chief of police. I had his contact information but I was too nervous to contact him right away so I made a promise to myself that I would contact him this week. After many failed attempts I finally got in contact with him and to my disappointment I did not get much help from him mainly due to the fact that our conversation was cut short due to his busy schedule. However I did feel good about the fact that I made a commitment and followed through. I still plan on contacting him again this week in hopes that we may be able to talk a bit longer. A second commitment I made was to contact an actual forensic scientist. This task was not completed for some of the same reasons but with a little more persistance I know I can overcome this small hurdle.



Role Model Interview
This week I interviewed Cheif Ernest Brown. The conversation started out by me asking him about the path he took to get to his current career and it ended up being a converstation about careers in forensic science. Our conversation was abruptly ended because he was so busy but he did give me a few helpful hints about the field. Most of his advice was a "what not to do" list which was really helpful for me because I was doing most of those things so I actually learned something. We do have to finish our conversation sometime this week so I'm anxious to learn a little more about the field and how I can get into it.