This is a little late but I will give you guys a quick run down the past week.
At work, I was able to play around with the media computer and come up with a first draft of the physical copy of data that I am creating. Its actually been pretty refreshing working with Adobe indesign, even though I google half of the things I do. Hopefully I will finish those things by this week. Unfortunately, I am only allowed access to the media computer on tuesdays and thursdays, so wednesdays and fridays have been a little less productive than I would like, although it does give me time to learn certain indesign techniques ahead of time.
As far as my secondary project, I have been in contact with the person in charge, and its a person getting his masters in urban planning(?) at UMich. So we plan to have our first meeting the week after july 4th weekend. It will be interesting to transition out of computer work for the most part and dive into planning focus group questions and such, and being able to help out with the data. This is also something that is much more practical for me to work on at this point, since it lets me interact with the community and get a better feel of what community based research is like. For those who dont remember what this second project of mine is, its to assess the needs of pedestrian islands on Davidson St. within the focus hope campus area. They have not been effective in providing safer roads, so our project is about working with the community in order to decide the best way to make use of them (besides taking them out, since there are not enough funds for that)
I also had the chance to visit Hau’s organization with one of my supervisors. It was fun getting to learn permaculture and their urban farming thing. They talked about how our two organizations might benefit from one another and such. Since my sponsor was intrigued by the urban farming done by Chiwara, I might also be doing research for Focus:HOPE on the effectiveness of permaculture and urban farming in urban demographics…and seeing the feasibility of such structures within the Focus Hope area.
So basically, within a week, i went from 1 project to pretty much 3. Which is exciting, and will probably keep me on task, so as to not get bored by my one project.
Will update soon again!
Jerry
Seems like you have a good grasp and are enjoying your work with Focus Hope. Your work will greatly impact the community, because the conditions of roads are a major problem. Also, i do see the challenges you may be facing by your supervisor being away most of the time. I went through that similar struggle, but it all worked out for the best and I am sure it will for you as well.
Busy. Busy. Busy. I think the more task the better because I noticed that when i didn’t have much to do I worked a lot slower. Also great for your resume! Good luck!