Mulch Delivery

In March, a number of my classmates and I delivered the mulch that was sold in the fundraiser for the All Night Grad Party.  Originally, I was suppose to work from 7:30 to 8:30 and then from 10:00 to 2:00.  However, when we showed up, we were missing a number of people who were signed up to help.  So, I ended up working from 7:30 to 2:00 lifting over a hundred more bags of mulch than I had planned on.  My classmates and I worked well together to get the mulch delivered both time and labor efficiently.  We had to load the mulch bags into Uhaul trucks, and the follow the trucks so that we could unload them at each of the destinations.  We also had to load mulch into the cars of people who hadn't ordered many bags and could pick them up by themselves.  I also worked to recruit many other people throughout the day since we were lacking people who had originally signed up.  In the beginning of the day, lifting the bag of mulch was very difficult and I had to try to find a more efficient way of carrying them.  Throughout the day, it seemed to become easier as I learned easier ways to carry them. 

Mulch Flyers

In the beginning of March, me and a couple of my fellow seniors, woke up early on a Saturday morning to go out in the freezing cold and walk around the Lake Barcroft community handing out fliers for the mulch sale.  Even though my fingers began to go numb, we continued to hand out fliers for around three hours.  Judging by the insane amount of bags of mulch sold this year, we helped a significant amount in the fundraising for the All Night Grad Party. 

JEB Stuart Writing Center

I think that the JEB Stuart Writing Center is a good idea, except we may have been the wrong group to start it with.  I think that if we were actually going to have had a chance to run it, instead of just planning it, we would have gotten much more into it.  That would have made it easier to wake up on the PLC mornings.  I do think that the Writing Center has the potential of helping the writing abilities of many students at JEB Stuart.  I think the main task will be convincing kids that they should go.  I think that the different groups we were split into, like scheduling, can help with this issue, though.  In scheduling, we worked on different plans for how to distribute times that tutors would work at the writing center, and students would go to the writing center for help.  We also had to think of ways to convince teachers that the writing center was a good place to send their students.  We came up with a plan to have passes for students to go to the writing center, and for tutors to go work at the writing centers.  We also planned on how to set up a schedule, with a group of people alternating through the different Raider Times to work at the writing centers and make it equal.  I think that this helped me developed good planning skills because we had to anticipate different possible outcomes and problems with the scheduling and try to prevent them. 

Training Mickey

At the stables that I work at, I give horseback riding lessons to children of all ages.  We are constantly getting new horses to try and improve the programs.  However, not all of the horses are always trained perfectly for kids.  Because of the economy, a majority of the horses that we get are green(inexperienced) when we first get them.  One example is a gelding we got, Mickey.  He was fairly young, and while kids could ride him, he was not very responsive and did not know how to jump.  I know this sounds dumb, obviously he could get over obstacles if he needed to, but he needed to be trained to make it "pretty".  In my spare time(haha) I took up this challenge.  I worked with him for hours to make him more responsive.  Along the way, I learned ways in which training him worked, and ways in which they did not.  I think that my knowledge of horse training was greatly improved by learning from my mistakes and finding the ways in which Mickey responded best.  There were many times along the way where I wanted to scream and give up, working with a 1,5000 lb animal with a mind of his own can be frustrating and painful at times.  However, along the road, I was able to see a vast improvement in Mickey and myself.  I am very proud of the progress that he has made and he is now a much better horse for the kids. 

Planning for Relay for Life

Relay for Life is an all night fundraising event at Thomas Jefferson High School.  This year, it is on May 21, and I plan to go.  For the relay, you assemble a team and throughout the night, someone from each team has to be constantly walking around the track.  This all night event raises money for cancer.  Since cancer is an issue that is close to me, I plan to rally as many teammates as possible to attend this event and help fight for the cure for cancer.

Working With Aboriginal Art

In my IB Visual Arts class, we have to create concepts behind our art that is suppose to have a unique style.  Throughout the two years, we are suppose to come up with a theme so that our IB Art Shows have something that connects the different pieces in the show.  Since I have worked with horses since I was very young, I have developed a love for them and I have also drawn them for a while.  My drawings were never very realistic.  In the fall of my junior year, when IB Visual Arts started, I started working on improving my drawing skills and working on the horses.  Since my dad is Australian and all of his family lives in Australia, we travel there every other year.  In my traveling, I have developed an interest in Aboriginal Dot Paintings.  I think that the techniques are very interesting, especially with all of the symbolism.  When I began thinking about what kind of theme that I wanted for my IB Art Show, I thought that I wanted something that represented me and things that I was interested in.  I decided to try and create a new form of art and combine my love of horses with my interest in Aboriginal Art.  In doing this, I came up with a unique theme.  I spent two years trying to improve my skills in this new, unique form of art, and I am happy with the way my IB Art Show turned out, even though it was incredibly exhausting to put together. 

Piano Recital in Australia

My dad is Australian and his family lives in Australia.  So we go visit every other year.  The last time we went was for the holidays in 2009.  My grandma lives in a senior citizen center there, so I decided to give a recital for her and her friends. Since it was in Australia, I learned new, Australian pieces like: Waltzing Matilda, I Still Call Australia Home, and I Am Australian.  These were a bit of a challenge because they had a different melody than what I was use to playing.  However, I practiced my usual hour a day to prepare for this recital, and I think that it turned out well. I was really happy to do this recital, especially since I do not get to see my grandma very often.  I know that it made her very happy and her friends said that they liked it, as well.