Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Post Volunteer Hours

As I finished my volunteer hours, I will continue to work with my mentor throughout the summer so that I am able to maintain a relationship before I head to college. Since I am much interested in the type of work she does, this would be helpful as I begin my first step of networking. Doing this will also keep me occupied during the summer with something that will help me in my future. As I study Health and Exercise Science, this will be a line of work right up my ally after I finish my undergraduate degree. I will be able to establish connections as I finish work. Since my mentor works for Specific Chiropractic, they also have a practice near where I am going to school so it will be helpful to work with that practice as well so that I am able to broaden my network base and continue my learning on a line of work that I am interested in.

Office Work and Errands: 4/4/2016

I've been super busy the past month. As hours are coming to be due, my mentor thought it would be a good idea for me to complete the last five hours in bulk rather than coming in random days to do one to two hours each day. My mentor made me continue office work as I put away binders or reorganized them. I also reset most of the diffusers in her office so that they are cleaned and functioning well. I drive so I was able to run some small errands for her. Since she offers most of her clients tea and water, I was able to buy some of this stuff with money from her work so that she was able to restock on some supplies. I was also able to be a proper intern/ volunteer and run other non- driving errands for her around the building like deliver essential oils and packets to people interested in joining her program.

I also finished restocking her bookshelf while she recommended some books for me to take. I did take some that allowed me to inform myself on what happens within the nervous system and why my mentor does what she does. These books also helped me edit my essay to comply with my research question/ topic.

6 hours

Ladies' Night: 3/31/2016

Ladies' Night was a sold out event where women were able to get together and get pampered. Vendors from nail salons, hair salons, and other beauty salons came to donate their time to allow other women to benefit from such and event. This event was promoted by my mentors work and a lot of her sponsors and clients helped sell tickets to this event.

Volunteering at this event allowed me to gain more volunteer hours and allowed me to work with my mentor closely as I helped her sell tickets and work her booth at her event. I was able to explain to a lot of people what her line of work does and the background behind. It was helpful since I was able to use what I learned to my advantage informing others on what I learned so that they are educated as well.

6 hours

Dealing with Emotions Class: 3/9/2016

When she got back from her conference, my mentor had invited me to attend a class with her. She said that it would be helpful to how the nervous system could affect our emotions. The person leading this class was someone who had attended the conference so it was helpful that someone was able to contribute back to the community around my mentor since she had to travel to Dublin to participate in her conference. This class allowed me to gain knowledge about how a dysfunctional nervous system could affect how we view our world and how we could view the world around us. Also, the people who attended learned how to control their emotions in order to be a better person.

3 hours

Office Work: 2/24/2016

My mentor had called me in to do some office work before she leaves on another conference. I did some last minute filing of papers and putting together binders and papers for her conference. I helped her type up and print some of the papers that had background on what she was presenting and including in her binder. I also helped her pack the items she needed from her office like her trifold and etc. She was getting ready for a conference that was within the next week where she was the main presenter so she was putting together a whole agenda for the day to talk about how they can improve their work and what benefits they can do towards their community.

After filing papers and putting together binders, I helped her clean up around the office like vacuum, water plants, and store away all books so that she came back to a clean office and did not have to worry about people messing things up. Although most of it was busy work, it was still helpful to her as some of the stuff was last minute and she needed the extra help in order for her to be fully ready for her one day conference that she was leading.


3 hours

Sit In Doctors Report: 1/19/2016

Today I got the opportunity to sit in a doctors report by my mentor to one of her clients with consent by the client. This report was the report back from the place where a client gets the x-rays of their upper spinal chord and head. This x-ray allows my mentor to find the right place to adjust her clients so that she is able to adjust the nervous system correctly. The x-ray is also able to show the different positions in which the head lies so that my mentor is able to know what she can correct while being in a neutral position.

The doctors report included the summary about the line of work my mentor does and how it will benefit the client's position in the relationship. Comparing a lot of the benefits to everyday life, the client was able to understand the importance of a properly functioning nervous system. Then as my mentor continued to explain how this type of chiropractic will help, she began talking about how the nervous system make each person function throughout everyday life. The nervous system is very important as it sends signals from your mind to your body in order for it to move and systematically function everyday. This sit in doctor report allowed me to gain information about a topic that was helpful to my research. It gave me new and primary source information to help guide my essay topic and essay.

3 hours

Office Work/ Sit- in Appointments: 1/18/2016

Today, I did a lot of work around the office. I filed papers, tidied up, and typed up reports. Although it was busy work, it was fun working for my mentor. I felt like I was one of her secretaries or interns doing work for her. Doing this work allowed for my mentor to finish most of the work she needed to get done before her workshop that was out of town. This work made me feel as if I was a part of her office.

I also sat in some client appointments with the consent of the client. A lot of the talks were friendly and they were helpful with my research as every one has a different functioning nervous system. It made me realize that everyone needs different things in order to have a properly functioning nervous system. Each nervous system reacts differently with different people so it was interesting to see what the thermo-graph read as it was being tested on their upper spinal cord.

4 hours

Big Ideas Class: November 25, 2015

Today, I attended a class at the office called "The Big Ideas Talk". This class began with a presentation full of information on chiropractic, upper cervical chiropractic, what it means to be healthy, and what you can do to be healthy. A bulk of this talk was directed to clients of my mentor, but the information portion of what she does and how it relates to the body was very helpful in what I am researching. It helped direct my research towards a path where I focus more on the importance of the nervous system to the body rather than the affects that a dysfunctional nervous system has on your body. This was a big difference since I was able to focus on a more broad subject rather than something that it more specific.

This class was able to help me learn more about the field that my mentor is in. Being highly interested in upper cervical chiropractic, it was helpful to know the why behind this type of chiropractic. It also made it more knowledgeable to how the nervous system should really be functioning. A lot of people can mistake their pain for something else, but with a properly functioning nervous system, your body will be able to be more adept to healing faster and properly.

2 hours

Monday, April 11, 2016

Initial Meeting: November 23, 2015

In this first meeting, my mentor and I talked about what the Senior Capstone Project was and how she can help with it. We continued to talk about subject I could research using Gale and other websites. While on the topic of research, we began to converse about what documents she has and how it could help my research. She gave me a couple of books with basics on the nervous system so that I would not get into too much detail talking about her line of work. My mentor pointed out some pages that had extensive sections that would greatly help me on learning on the basics of my project. 

After we talked about my research, we began to talk about my volunteer hours and how they would work. We mainly spoke about the types of things I could do around the office and meeting that I could help her run or attend with her. Her work does not do big events so I would mostly be helping her and her office partner with things around the office. Continuing on the topic of work, I kept asking questions about the future and how I could offer my help to her work during the summer before I head off to college. We'll see where I end up after all of my volunteer hours. 

Time logged: 1 hour