Job Shadow Report- State Capitol My career interest has always been to work with people and improve their well-being. I have considered things in the medical field and business, but I found that helping people become better does not always have to be in the case of health or medical related fields. I started to show interest in politics and making better laws for people and their rights. When I had the chance to be a page at the Kansas State Capitol, I was very excited to receive some insight on a day in the life of a politician. Throughout the day, I was able to sit in on a house session, learn the process of a bill, meet the Lt. Governor, go to the very top of the capitol’s dome, and eat with Representative Bill Rhiley. Although I had a very eventful and educational day, I found that my interest in politics probably would not be enough to maintain a full-time career in it. With that said, this is what brought me to my next job shadow.
Job Shadow Report- Hilton Grand Vacations As I mentioned before, I have desire to improve the well-being of society, but I decided politics was not for me. I did some research on human resources and talked to a few people who work in this field and immediately I wanted to learn more. Over my spring break, I had the opportunity to shadow at Hilton Grand Vacations in Orlando, Florida. This experience was very helpful to me in that I was able to talk to multiple people who have careers in the human resources field, such as benefits, compensation, and talent acquisition. The most intriguing area for me was the managing and advertising of benefits. This also included some use of creative technology on a computer as they were creating a new part of a website specifically for the benefits department. Overall, this was an awesome experience!
Career Report The career path that I am interested in working towards is human resources management. As a human resources specialist or manager, most are required to hire, fire, train, and make sure a company’s employees are happy. My aunt pursued a career in human resources management and is now working for a large corporation. She is who somewhat inspired my interest in this field, along with my love of people. I consider myself to be very outgoing, and I have natural people skills so I think working with people day after day would keep me excited to be working. This career will require many business, economic, and communication courses. I plan to begin taking some of these courses during the first semester of my senior year and maybe one during the summer. I also plan on continuing to take foreign language classes in college since I have taken almost four years of spanish. I think this will be helpful and will make me more versatile in the workforce. In college, I hope to obtain a bachelor’s degree which will take about four years. The annual in state tuition amount is around $13,125, bringing a four year degree cost to about $52,500. This seems quite pricey to me so I plan to apply for as many scholarships and student loans as I can and hopefully will be able to work some throughout the years to help pay for some of my education. I could not find any exact numbers on the demand for human resource workers, but I did find that the need for these workers, on average, is higher than the national job growth average for many, if not all, other professionals. Some also say that the basis of great corporations begins with human resources workers. Taking this into consideration, I predict that there will be a need for this career all across the nation continuing for many years. After doing this report and research, I feel more assured in my interest of human resources and more motivated to begin working towards this chapter of my life.
Reflective Essay
Certified Leukemia Butt Kickers “Mom, Dad, I’m going to Aunt Nay Nay’s house to get a movie,” was a common phrase my three brothers and I used throughout our years in Ardmore, Oklahoma, it was where we were all born and raised. We knew the town like the back of our hands, especially the way to our Aunt Renee’s, mostly known as Nay Nay’s, house about two blocks from ours. She was a single mother working three jobs and raising four kids on her own, but we were all so close and worked together to help her out all we could. I always had a special place for her in my heart. I felt like I had to considering I was her favorite and only red-headed niece. She had the best jokes and rhymes and could bring a smile to anyone’s face, no matter the situation. Her heart was kind and compassionate, but she was brutally honest and had no problem putting people into their place. She was fearless, scared of nothing. I remember one day she asked my mom to take her to a doctor’s appointment, so they dropped me off at a camp and headed off. I thought nothing of it, just that they would be back to pick me up later. The camp was over, and everyone’s parents were picking them up; finally my mom came in and got me. We walked outside, and I remember Nay Nay’s passenger door was open and she was bent over throwing up. My mom told me it was just some of the medicine she had to take because she was sick. We took her home and my mom walked her inside, but when my mom got back in the car, I could tell something wasn’t right. She began to tear up, so I immediately began asking questions. “Mom, are you okay? What’s wrong? Don’t cry.” She looked at me with a kind of pain in her eyes that I had never really seen before and said,“ Nay Nay has cancer.” I can never forget the way my stomach dropped when I heard those words no matter how hard I try. I remember I couldn’t even cry until later that night, I was stuck and unable to move. At the age of 11, what do you really know about cancer? It’s a disease. It kills people. It’s bad. Those were the only things running through my head, but I was also trying to contradict those thoughts with the thought of how fearless she was and how she wouldn’t go down without a fight. We decided to design orange and black bracelets to sell to help with some of her hospital and treatment fees. She came up with the motto “Certified Leukemia Butt Kickers” for her bracelets. If you knew her, you would know that she tried to use slightly more colorful language, but she took what she could get. Aunt Nay Nay had leukemia in her bone marrow. I don’t recall much of the 18 months she was fighting it. It now seems like such a blur of hospital visits, bringing her home, taking her back to the hospital, and so on. I remember watching this fireball of an aunt that I had wither into a tired, sick cancer patient. It was terrible to watch her gorgeous, long black hair turn into a pile on the floor. The life just seemed to be sucked from her eyes treatment after treatment and her inner light began to fade day by day. I could always tell that she was putting on an act trying to be happy when we were around, but we all knew deep down she was flat out exhausted and her body probably couldn’t take much more. October 17, 2013, I was at Lake Murray State Park with my friend and her family. I was supposed to hang out with them at the lake until later that night, but my parents showed up to see if I wanted to go to my brother’s football game. I said that I wanted to stay at the lake, and they kept asking if I was sure. Of course I was sure, I was having loads and loads of fun. I got home pretty late that night, but only my brothers were home so I went to bed. When I woke up the next morning, my mom called me into their bedroom. “Aunt Nay Nay passed away last night,” she said with tears in her eyes. I fell apart. One of the people who was closest to my heart was not even sick anymore; she was just gone. Fifty-seven years old might not seem extremely young to some people, but to me losing my aunt at this age, I felt she was gone way too soon. I remember I cried and cried and just tried to keep my mind off of it. I wanted to wake up from this nightmare I was living and be back at that same horrid hospital room I had been to a million times, I knew it wasn’t possible though. Something inside of me changed, but it was for the better. After a while, I started to notice a change in my mindset. I realized that it was awful what had happened and that my aunt was gone too soon, but I also realized that everything happens for a reason and this tragedy was challenging me. I took it as an opportunity to grow. As time passed, my family and I were going through pictures and sharing all the amazing memories we had with Nay Nay. Somehow everything was starting to seem okay again. I felt so lucky and blessed to have had the time with her that I did. I began using the things she taught me in my life to honor her and all she had done for not only me, but everyone she met. I had a new found love for the small, and what usually seem to be insignificant, moments in life, for these are what make life so beautiful. Now, you can always find me laughing at the smallest of things and trying to make the best of any situation. This challenge and change started off as a mess. It felt like the end of the world and like I wouldn’t be able to move forward, but in the end, it has made me fearless.