Letter from the Director, Mr. Hector Zambrana

Dear Friends:

As the year comes to a close, we are faced with new challenges. Change is an inevitable aspect of life, and as we face these new challenges we must adapt to their demands of us.

John F. Kennedy once said, "Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future."

I am assured that all of you - our participants, our staff, and our friends and partners - will make the transitions necessary to adapt and succeed in your new and continued endeavors. We have worked hard to build the skills and gather the resources necessary to ease us into whichever transitions we may each face.

As we move forward, I am certain that we will all succeed in our respective new and continued exciting adventures. Each of you has inspired me uniquely. Thank you for teaching me as I have taught you.

To the future!
Hector Zambrana

Computer Literacy--Using Microsoft Publisher 2000

Sure, your Blogger page may look good, but have you ever tried to put something together from scratch that is visually pleasing to behold?

Today's topic is desktop publishing (DTP). Desktop publishing has to do with the creation of documents like fliers, newsletters, and webpages on a personal computer. There are many programs that will allow you to do desktop publishing; today, we will be using one of these to create a document.

The Assignment
Today, we will be using Microsoft Publisher 2000 to create a short newsletter from scratch. We will not be focusing on doing much with the words in our newsletters unless we have time at the end of our lesson, but even just with the design, there is still a lot to cover in only a short amount of time.

Here are a list of web resources we can reference as we create our documents today.

• http://www.bcschools.net/staff/PublisherHelp.htm#CreateWizard
• http://www.btrd.ab.ca/tutorials/publisher/

Today’s Computer Literacy Lesson

Objectives: (1) To re-familiarize ourselves with blogging. (2) To create an appealing ad that shows off our best, most work-appropriate face!

Terms: Blogging, Font Style, Picture Format

Getting Started: Advertisements are everywhere. You probably passed ten on your way to First Work today. Some you noticed, others you may have power-walked past without batting an eye. Here are some questions to help us focus on what today will be about:

1. Think about one of the ads you can remember seeing today or in the recent past. (If one doesn't readily come to mind, choose one of the two provided below.) What was it about the ad that made you notice it?
2. Did it appeal to your interests? If so, which ones? Why are these appealing for you?
   Did the ad you picked advertise something you were looking to buy? Did this have an impact on the ad’s effectiveness on you?
3. How would you describe the ad's presentation? (Think about use of lines, colors, pictures, etc.) What is the role of presentation in the ad’s overall impact?
   
   Examples of Ads:
   
   

How you advertise yourself
In the same way as we see only the ads that appeal to us, interviewers and job recruiters will pass up all the candidates that don't show them an image that they want to see. This doesn't mean that if you're not a certain type of person from birth that you have zero chances of ever getting a job you want. What this means is that, instead, we must do a few things when we are serious about work.

1. (Interpret) First, we need to think about your potential employer and think from his/her perspective. (Who are you trying to work for, and what are they looking for? Read into the want ad or the company and make your best guess as to what they really want.)
2. (Reflect) Next, find the things inside you that match the image of what your potential employer wants to see--and bring that to the surface; focus on all the things that prove that you are an exact match. (Does your employer want someone who is responsible? Then focus on all the times you showed this and bring this aspect to the foreground. Does your employer want someone who is good with math? Focus on the times where you have proven that this, indeed, is you!)
3. (Apply) Most importantly, learn to recognize where you cannot match the image of what an employer wants and act on it. (Maybe you are thinking of applying to a challenging job in public relations and don’t feel that you have enough experience in speaking to do the public speaking part well. This might mean that you decide to get some more experience before you seriously try for the job, that you decide to practice speaking with strangers, or it may mean that you need to try to find a job that better matches your needs. It’s not about being pessimistic here; it’s about being realistic!)

Today's Assignment
Moving onto today's assignment, read over these three job descriptions listed below.

*******************************
Seeking F/T security guard for high vol
clothing store in Mid- town Manhttn.
Benefits incl. Call Steve 917 XXX XXXX
*******************************
Wanted: P/T sales rep for a small internet
company. No exp req'd, but must be willing
to travel. 212 XXX XXXX.
*******************************
Seeking PT/FT wait staff for small family diner
on Upper West Side. Prev exp prefrd. Call Maria
212 XXX XXXX.
*******************************

Pick one of these three to try to "apply to" follow the following procedure.

A) Go through the three steps (Interpret-Reflect-Apply) listed above for your chosen ad, and make a list of things your employer would want, things that you can show in your experience, and things that you may need to work on for that particular job. Discuss your lists in groups. Is everyone in agreement? Did you perhaps miss anything that would be a necessary skill for your job? Did someone suggest something that you hadn't thought about? Add that to your list.

(This is the fun part:)

B) Brainstorm a posed picture of yourself that shows all those aspects that you just discussed in your group. This picture should convey something, not just show your pearliest smile. Be creative!

C) Log onto your First Work blogs and import your picture into a "sales ad" entry selling yourself! I will be around to explain how to go about this, during session, but don't be afraid to use each other as resources, too!

Links to Student “Self-Ads”:

MIYB 4 (2 Week Countdown)

Today's MIYB Project will focus on a few links to get us thinking, and rethinking about our fundraiser scheduled in 2 weeks.

Here are the links:

Xingbake (Scroll down to the entry made on Jan 04, 2006)

Kieron1 (From the artist)
Kieron2 (News story)

Marvin's Internet Scavenging Puzzle

Scenario:
My best friend managed to get me tickets for a Broadway musical. (I love Broadway musicals!) I, however, am a complete Forgetful Jones when it comes to details and I cannot--for the life of me--remember the name of the theater or even the musical. The show starts in 45 minutes, and all I can remember is that it's supposed to be like the prequel to "The Wizard of Oz." Can you find the theater, AND transportation directions from the Harbor? (1 East 104th Street, New York, NY 10029)

(Workshop) Searching the Internet

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The internet is a remarkable tool that you can readily use to sort through and retrieve information from around the globe. Websites today come with all sizes and types of files, and many of the more popular sites--like YouTube and MySpace--are updated hundreds of times daily. These means that when you logon to these sites, you are likely to find up-to-date information; however, when you don't know exactly where to go, the fact that these sites are updated so regularly can be a problem for someone trying to search through what's out there right now.

*************************************

Here are some questions we will ask ourselves today:

1. How do we search the internet for information?
2. When we look online, do we rely only on one site like Yahoo! or Google to find information on the web?
3. Do we use special functions or symbols to help with our searching? What are the special functions/symbols we can use?
4. What other tools are out there?
   

Completing the Cover Letter

Today, at First Work, we will be working to complete the cover letters that we began last week. Linked to this blog entry are two worksheets that we will use to check over our cover letters as we ready them for sending.

Students who have completed and blogged their cover letters as of 02/06/07: Krystal, John, and Tiffany.

(NOTE: Students wrote these, their first cover letters, as a future version of themselves, post training. As part of their First Work internships, however, students will need to complete a cover letter that is written from their current experience and speaks to their immediate goal of acquiring an internship position.)