Week 6

Weekly Project Journal

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?

My project was really rather boring this week: essentially all I did was file. Every time someone is re-certified, or joins the program, they have to fill out a form. This form then has to be processed by the people working there, and then all these forms make a really big pile. A volunteer (this week me) comes in and organizes them according to program (MACS or NAPS) and then by last name into huge folders. So yeah, fairly boring, but it needs to be done.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?

Apparently they have a volunteer who regularly files, but they had back surgery so they hadn't been there in awhile - so they were behind; hence it felt like an endless job and I was nowhere near completion.

I really didn't learn much about the project itself this week, but I did learn something about myself: I don't ever want to file for hours on end. Ever. I like volunteering how I normally volunteer (because that's interaction with people) and it's a really good start into things, but I'm definitely capable of more than that and I learned that about myself; I want to help, yes, but I want to do more than just small tasks that help (kinda what we were talking about in class with Callings: I don't want to put on one bolt on the whole machine - I want to be designing the machine).

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?

I'd give myself a B this week. I was pretty wiped out after chapter 2, so I wasn't really that focused on-site (however, how much focus does it really take to file?). But I was kinda tired and probably didn't work as quickly or as cheerfully as I should have. This week, I really don't feel like I accomplished to much regarding the objectives of the project or my personal goals (nothing I could really do though, I just work where they tell me to work), but I did learn some important things about myself.