March 12 - 43 minutes
March 13 - 31 minutes, 55 seconds
March 15 - 33 minutes, 16 seconds
March 18 - 44 minutes, 15 seconds
March 19 - 1 hour, 4 minutes, 51 seconds
March 23 - 49 minutes
March 25 - 33 minutes, 42 seconds
April 1 - 1 hour, 11 minutes, 9 seconds
April 4 - 57 minutes, 23 seconds
April 6 - 36 minutes, 59 seconds
April 7 - 1 hour, 8 minutes, 12 seconds
April 10 - 28 minutes, 51 minutes
April 12 - 39 minutes, 37 seconds
April 17 - 1 hour, 34 minutes, 6 seconds
April 18 - 44 minutes, 28 seconds
April 19 - 36 minutes, 42 seconds
April 24 - 1 hour, 14 minutes, 2 seconds
April 25 - 41 minutes, 15 seconds
April 27 - 26 minutes, 24 seconds
April 30 - 1 hour, 9 minutes, 7 seconds
May 3 - 52 minutes, 47 seconds
May 4 - 58 minutes, 2 seconds
May 7 - 40 minutes
May 11 - 34 minutes, 30 seconds
May 12 - 46 minutes, 52 seconds
May 17 - 1 hour, 2 minutes, 31 seconds
May 20 - 57 minutes
May 21 - 41 minutes
Total: 23 Hours, 3 minutes, 23 seconds
Hours:
My Internship
The Alameda Sun began publishing in 2001 as Alameda’s only independently owned and operated newspaper (its first in more than a decade). The newspaper is majority owned by Alameda residents. Home-delivered free of charge every Thursday with a current circulation of 23,000, the Alameda Sun prides itself on focusing solely on Alameda news, events, people and causes.
Journal Entries:
Journal Entry (3/12/14)
Gotta say my first day at the Alameda Sun was an awesome first experience. Although all I did was transfer some files and get some stored for editing, I was able to talk to Dennis for a good half of the time. I had no idea he ran marathons! I wish I had the same endurance XP. Anyway we're talking about moving some of the files that I've compiled into a folder for me to edit later. I think it's for a tribute book, or assorted picture book commemorating specific people who are buried in one of the cemetaries here. I'll get more information on it next time I drop by, but I guess I'll leave it at this for now. Thumbs up for the start of a great internship :).
Journal Entry (3/23/14)
I think I'll just do these whenever I go to the Alameda Sun to volunteer since all I do at home is work on editing the texts I was sent. Did I mention I'm working on a book for the Alameda Sun? (Checks text above) I guess I did. Well it is a tribute for, I believe, Mountain View Cementary's 150th anniversary. Anyway I have a good 20 pieces of documents I have to edit and cut into 3 paragraphs each in order to fit with the illustrations in the book. It's tough considering that some of the entries are two pages long and contain a lot of essential information of the interned person. Anyway, today I was introduced to the Alameda Sun's website and was able to update some of the articles all the way from last year. It's kind of tedious copying and pasting over and over again, but I guess I'm good with that kind of thing since I didn't seem to lose focus throughout the ordeal. Dennis, and Eric were glad it was done so that's all that matters.
Journal Entry (4/24/14)
Yikes! Been a while since I've written a journel entry for the internship. So over the last month I've continued working on the book on my spare time and I've managed to finish the first drafts and I'm almost done with the second one. Hopefully I'll be on the third one by the end of the month and onto the final editing by summer. Dennis recommended at least three edits, but I thought that five would be a better number. Anyway, not much happened today except more updating. I'll say one thing though; the Adobe format they use for the paper is a bit confusing. Especially sicne you have to jump to different Adobe documents tab to copy the continuations of the stories when they're too long for one page :/. Well I think this is enough for one entry so until next time.
Journal Entry (4/30/14)
Well I'm falling behind schedule. My week was a little busier than I thought it would be and I wasn't able to get to draft three :(. Dennis said there wasn't any hurry since it wasn't due until the beginning of the next year, but I'd like to donate as much time as I can since I'm going to be miles away from Alameda by September. Nothing much happened today either. Just more updating the Alameda Sun website again.
Journal Entry (5/7/14)
Times winding down! I really need to get these hours fast :(. Well I finally made it to the thrid draft so a little pat on the back for me. Uhhhh....did more updating again. What am I really supposed to say on these journal entries? Well I guess I'll push through draft 3 and onto draft 4 later next week. I have to study for my psychology final at COA so no time to work on this I'm afraid. I really hope I'll have enough hours by the end of the month :(.
Journal Entry (5/20/14)
Finally something different! I did filing today instead of updating the site :). Well I'm still on Draft 3 so no progress there, but I'm soooo glad that my psychology class is over and done. It was ridiculous, we got our final exam exam and our final exam on the same day at the same time. The only difference is that we were given two hours instead of one since there were two tests..... that makes sense -.- Well I wasn't able to finish putting away the papers, but I guess I'll do it tomorrow. Gotta make sure I pass my driving test next week so I booked extra classes.
Journal Entry (5/21/14)
Nooooooooooo!!!!! Some girls finished the filing just becuase I was a little late X(. So you know what that meant. More updating! Not that I have a problem with updating, it's just that it's very easy to mess up along the way with catalouging and marking each article, and then there's creating specific sections for the police reports, housing, etc. Well, I hope I have enough hours logged. I haven't counted them yet so I hope I have enough. Fingers crossed, my graduation depends on this. (Of course I wish I had more heads up about it before I transferred back XP)
Brandon Kimura
May 20, 2014
Alameda Community Learning Center
Closing Report:
My time at the Alameda Sun was an incredible experience and I have learned a number of different skills that I hope to use in the coming future. With the appointed drop ins, management, and time frames I’ve amassed quite a bit of people’s skills. From what I’ve been able to compile it’s all about flexibility. Being able to lighten the load for someone else in your line of work, or immediately shift to another job can go a long way in improving relations with an otherwise anonymous coworker and increase your worth in the business. Updating the sites, the filing, and the documents I was given to edit on my free time have taught me embrace the necessary and tedious tasks as well as manage my available time to suit the job at hand.
By holding responsibility over what times I was to drop by I was given complete control over how I would spend my time at the Alameda Sun. From that I was given a leadership type role by being the sole manager of my hours and responsibility of editing a book I would have to compensate my time for each week. While not technically a skill I was shown I have an amazing patience for menial and tedious tasks, much to the appreciation of my supervisors. From what Eric, one of my supervisors, told me I’m a quick learner and was able to work my way around the documents and websites quite easily after my first try.
The biggest obstacle to my internship was definitely the time. By the time I had started working at the Alameda Sun I was juggling a night college class, driving (around 2-3 times a week), and a YouTube channel that I updated every single day. Finding spare time to edit or write when I wasn’t studying, working on assignments for my Psychology class, or recording footage for a new video was practically impossible. I can’t remember most of my time logs, but I’m fairly certain that none of the time frames went beyond one hour. Time constraint shouldn’t be underestimated, especially regarding juggling assignments.
Over the course of the two months I’ve been going to the Alameda Sun I’ve gradually painted different image of what I assumed back in March. What I had in mind was a very stern and strict environment of quiet workers typing away at computers. What I’ve been exposed to has been a complete parallel of this image. Eric, Dennis, and Ekene have been very open and friendly to me these past months and I appreciate their company. They’ve made my internship experience both productive and enjoyable by providing the means for me to work and socializing the entire way. I’m glad that the Alameda Sun was my first internship and I can’t thank them enough for the opportunity they’ve given me.
The past few months I’ve working at the Alameda Sun I’ve met some amazing people and have gained equally amazing qualities as well. I’ve learned the necessary qualities of a job owner and how one should operate in such an environment. By managing my own work hours I’ve gained a measure of responsibility and leadership in how I run my life while compensating for a job. However, this internship wasn’t without its problems and by far time was the biggest obstacle I endured. Thankfully though this experience has given me a new vision in the working world and I now understand that our impressions of “the real world” can sometimes be an overstatement of what they actually are.