Monthly September Extra Post

September, a real month of work within our project, and one that has already seen the impending absence of two senior teachers. To summarize my efforts for this month, I've been involved in attempting to acquire more contacts than just  just my primary mentor. The reason for this renewed interest rests in my proposal for my independent component which is an online graphic organizer of the mentors I've been talking to linked to several similar questions which I have asked them. (See possible designs below evidence) The impetus for this proposal rests in a particular subset of my research unrelated to my main topic, the applicability of political skill to every day life, . For my research, I'm using the psychological definition of political skill (i.e. networking, genuine sincerity, communication skills ,etc...). It is a vested interest of mine to have my research be useful beyond an academic capacity, and it is for this reason that I particularly want to place an emphasis upon what prompted my mentors into pursuing their careers. By understanding what prompted their ambition, the results may be used to engineer programs designed to push others into this career path or help those already on this path. Looking at the body of research, I would like to utilize this year as a sort of prototype for the type of research I would like to further pursue in my college career in Political Science. Although the specific design of this proposal are relatively simplistic for a research opportunity, they should suffice as a graphic representation of the data collected.

What I've accomplished

•  Attended my first meeting/interview with primary mentor Victoria Martinez
• Observed the firsthand local political process and observed multiple proposals be submitted
• Collected a body of research to support my senior question
• Collected more contacts than before (see business cards below).
• Completed blog entries 5-6
• Modified Mentorship Hours
• Currently in the middle of contacting several other sources

Things I'm looking into

• Contacting former associates and other connections for this topic
• Attempting to get a variety of political types in order to have better diversity of sources (Concerned citizens active in political process, business leaders involved with politics, active politicians, aides to politicians, other government workers, etc...)  
• Continue to refine research and begin to selectively select for subjects closer to my independent component
• Independent component proposal needs to be refined. Visual design for graphic organizer, array of questions to be questioned on, and number of sources to be surveyed all need to be solidified before proposal can  be approved.

 

 

Business Cards of Contacts/ Potential designs of Graphic Organizers