Blog 11: Lesson 1 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?

• I'm proud that I came across as energetic and entertaining to my audience while presenting, I made what could have been a boring generic presentation into 9 minutes of enjoyment. I had anxiety throughout the duration of my waiting period, when I went up to present I immediately kicked into presentation mode and overcame that anxiety, that was a relief for me. 

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.

• I'd give myself a solid P, reason why is that I believe I fit all the necessary requirements. I had multiple sources to back up my claims and provide insight into my topic, I also gave a real life scenario for almost every point I made to show validity. Eye contact was fair along with voice projection, everyone told me they heard me loud and clear after the presentation, so I believe voice projection was met to an acceptable standard. Lastly I did demonstrate quite a bit of research in my content, it was clear that what I had learned was the culmination of 3 months of research.   

3. If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson?  How can you use that knowledge to give a better Lesson 2?

• Additions I would make would be going more into depth about my mentor, also elaborating more on what not to do in business rather then spending a huge chunk focusing on real life scenarios, that's my opinion. Next lesson I plan to go more into depth on my topic itself, business entrepreneurship, instead of talking about business failure I want to address the importance of business in the United States.

Blog 10 - Interview 2 Reflection

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)

• I spend my mentor-ship volunteering at the very restaurant my mentor owns and works at. My tasks involve typical employee duties such as washing dishes, preparing food, and loading up storage. The tasks performed are meaningful in giving me hands on experience in the workforce. In contemporary to my work I receive lessons and lectures from my mentor explaining why each task is done and then going on to explain the business from an anecdotal fashion. 

2.  How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you? 

•  My mentor is a family friend and someone I've known my entire life. It didn't take much convincing to get him to be my mentor, he was glad to help me with my project and since he has spent a great deal of his life as a business man he felt he had a lot of knowledge to share with me. 

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person? 

• My comfort level is fine, as I stated before I've known my mentor all my life and he is like family to me, getting along or just being in his presence is as normal and comfortable than that with my brother or father. 

4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?

• The interview went very well, my mentor was well prepared and gave explicit answers on his background and experience. The message was clear, captivating at that where I didn't feel bored hearing his knowledge. I probably need to improve on time consumption, often my mentor would get a bit carried away and go off on a longer than expected anecdote which would eat up a significant portion of the interview time frame. I had originally intended for the interview to be 10 minutes but instead ended up being 14 minutes. I plan to deal with this by perhaps interrupting in a polite manner and moving on the the next question. 

Link to interview: https://soundcloud.com/dawson-khoury/interview-2-0

Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person (I have completed the interview, I have scheduled the interview, I have not scheduled the interview, etc).

• Currently I do have a mentor, the same one I've had since the summer. At the current moment I have not scheduled an interview with my mentor nor have I even contacted him about it. I do however plan in the next day or two to contact him and schedule an appropriate date. 

2. At this point, your research is probably guiding your studies toward more specific areas within your topic.  Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons. 

• Two areas come to mind, the restaurant business is one of them in the sense of owning/managing a restaurant. The second area is less specific but a field that offers a lot of promising material to work with, entrepreneurship. This sounds broad at first glance but I have researched and found out that entrepreneurship is not exclusive to any business and is its own practice in of itself.  

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth?  Where will you go to get them?

• The internet has been my reliable source over the last month and a half, I don't see myself shifting from it in the foreseeable future. Experience will be my source in the next month, I plan to engage more in hands on activities from multiple different businesses (i.e. public events, advertising campaigns, and staff duty) and actually learn something that isn't from a computer screen. 

4. Write down a possible EQ.  Please don't worry about wording other than ensuring that it provides the option for multiple correct answers.  At this point, the senior team is most interested in understanding your thought process.

• What is the biggest risk an entrepreneur must take and what they do to overcome it. 

Blog 8: Independent Component 1 Proposal

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

• I plan on looking to different types of businesses to gain hands on experience in. The overall goal is to participate in events involving these different business. I want to help set up events, advertise products, and just have the opportunity to explore something I haven't done before. 

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

• To log my hours I will create a simple spreadsheet similar to that of the mentor ship hours and detail what I've done for my independent component. 

3.  Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

• I will be able to work with experts who understand the field of entrepreneurship better than I do. This gives me the opportunity to interact with experienced businessmen and understand how they got to where they are and why. Hands on experience will also be its own in depth learning, I will participate in social events for car dealerships and possibly even a magazine; I want to not just know what it takes to have/work for a business but also how to sell that business as well.  

Blog 7 - Second Interview Preparation

Blog 7

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?  If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

• My mentor is Saab Shamas. He works as a restaurant owner of the Cantina Express. With 20 years of previous hands on experience as an entrepreneur in the restaurant business i firmly believe my mentor is a qualified expert.

2.  What five questions will you ask them about their background?

1. What prompted you to go into the restaurant business and why did you choose it as a career?
2. In your experience as an entrepreneur, do you have any stories of challenged you've faced? 
3. In your opinion, what makes your line of work a good career path?
4. What businesses have you owned and what can you tell me about them?
5. Do you enjoy your job?

Blog 6 - Advisory Prep

Blog 6

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project this year?  What has made it a positive experience for you?  

• The surplus of information regarding entrepreneurship of all subjects is vast. I have no issue finding information that is not the generic mundane article about "what entrepreneurship is." What's worked well for me is there are many tools at my disposal to use. However I haven't had much of an "experience" yet working on this project since we are only in the early stages. I have no negative nor positive experience to report about and feel this question is best suited to answer perhaps in the middle of the year or towards the end. 

2. What are you finding difficult concerning senior project?  How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you?  How might the senior team help?

• What I find difficult about this project is how indecisive I am about what exactly I want to pursue. While I plan to do my topic on entrepreneurship I don't know what field I want to focus on. Corporate? Restaurant? Shop owner? I honestly have no clue, my only solution to this issue would be to do my topic on entrepreneurship as a whole covering all subject matters and fields. Even this though I feel uncertain about. 
• Insight from the senior team providing advice and alternative routes would be of great assistance. I'm definitely looking for suggestions, such an addition from the senior team would be welcomed. 

Blog 5 - Interview 1 Reflection

Interview 1 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?

• I would say the most resourceful material I obtained from this interview would be information regarding the experiences of an entrepreneur, i.e., the interviewee. I learned how in order to excel in the field one must be witty and be able to expand their business. Despite the fact that the interviewee did not give examples of successful entrepreneurs the personal input about his own experience did prove to be more valuable due to the coherency and in depth analysis of his experience.
• One thing I would want to do differently in other interviews is keep the interviewee more on task with the question itself rather than their own self. There were a number of incidents when my question was given a 10-15 second direct answer then escalated to something less related. I would have preferred direct answers over superficial ones.

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?

• To my dismay I received no specific contacts. The interviewee listed no names or numbers to go after, however I was given a thorough explanation on how to find additional contacts via visiting businesses and conversing with the staff including the manager in the hopes of either volunteering there or doing an interview. 
• Considering the circumstance that I was given no specific contact nor given more than one example on how to find contacts the most useful information was of course the only one I received, how to find contacts....

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me? 

• My interviewee also my father is a highly experienced businessman who engaged in the practice of entrepreneurship for over 35 years. Owning 5 hair salons in total in 4 different cities for 3 decades, I saw fit that Isaiah (the interviewee) was a suitable and more than qualified individual to interview. I was initially looking for someone with vast experience so I may learn how a business works in the real world, Isaiah had that experience which is why he was qualified to help me. 

Link to audio recording of the interview:

https://soundcloud.com/dawson-khoury/interview-2

Blog 4 House Advisory Prep

Blog 4 House Advisory Prep

 

The goal  hope to reach with this senior topic is to gain valuable work experience. I have never held a job before and I'm not sure if I will in the next year. However since I do volunteer at a restaurant performing tasks not too far off from that of actual employees I can say that I am gaining good work experience. This brings me to my main point, experience; I hope to accomplish developing work skills that I can use further on in my life whether it be at a restaurant or in a office, regardless of which I can still say I have held up a "job." Concisely put, I want to gain experience out of well......my experience volunteering for my senior project. This is the primary and for now only goal I am seeking to accomplish.

Blog 3 - First Interview Preparation

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  Why?

• I plan on interviewing my father, Isaiah Khoury. The nature of my choice is is based on who my dad is, a self made business man with 30+ years of experience as an entrepreneur. He has owned and managed several businesses successfully over the years granting him experience I find relevant to my senior topic, entrepreneurship. I know he has a lot to offer in advice, past experiences, and educated opinions in the field of business regardless of what specific field.

2.  Five questions will be assigned to all seniors to ask.  What additional questions do you plan to ask?  Ask open-ended questions. 

• How do you feel about raising minimum wage to $15 an hour?
• What are your thoughts on young people going into the entrepreneurship field?
• Do you think a college education is important to managing a successful business?
• Are you content with how your businesses turned out in the end?

Blog 2 - Summer Mentorship

1. List the contact name, phone number, and organization of the person with whom you volunteered.

• Contact name: Saab Shamas
• Phone number: (323) 365-1444
• Organization: Cantina Express Restaurant 

2. What qualified this person as an expert in your topic choice?    

• My mentor is the owner of the Cantina Express restaurant. He has been in the restaurant business for over 20 years, owning multiple restaurants in the process. One of the restaurants include one situated in Hollywood Blvd.  

3. List three questions for further exploration now that you've completed your summer hours.    

• How can one get ahead of the competition in the restaurant business?
• What actions can be taken to ensure employee service is top notch and exceptional?
• Where are the best areas to open a restaurant in?

4. What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

• On a personal level the most important thing I have gotten from my experience is in fact experience itself. Working in the kitchen preparing food, cleaning tables, washing dishes, ect. has given me valuable work experience which can and likely will be put to use in the near future. This experience is the first and closest position to a job I have ever held. I believe I am better prepared to enter the work force i.e. the restaurant business. 

5. What is your senior project topic going to be?  How did mentor ship help you make your decision?  Please explain.

• The senior topic is likely to be "How does one ensure their restaurant survives and thrives." My mentor assisted me in making this decision by providing me valuable input on how the food, environment, and containers must be clean and safe for the customers. Customer safety was at the highest priority for my mentor, many times did he make that clear to me. This was primary demonstrated to me in how my mentor washed dishes, making it clear that a sanitary environment can not be a half finished job.

Link to mentor-ship log down below

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xuJ7C4uc5NE8aspcKTXR7KL8NmlYp4pj_9k9n9k8480/edit

Blog 1 – Senior Final Lesson/Interview Reflection

1.  What three lessons were most helpful for you to see, and why?

Business was helpful for me because it taught me how to manage my work environment, whether that be employees or just myself. It's helpful because business is such a broad field and I would most likely attempt to be apart of one some time in the future.

Business administration was extremely helpful, it showed me how one needs to be a strong leader when doing administrative work. Being motivated and determined to be productive in your work environment, it's a skill that is useful in almost all fields of work which is why I found it helpful.

Language Acquisition was very interesting, I have always wanted to speak more than 2 languages and what this class did was explain the science behind learning these languages and how to do it in the most efficient manner. It gave me insight on how I should go about learning a new language.

2. List one thing that you learned about the senior project in interviews that will help you get off to a good start?

I learned that I NEED to be on top of my work, you can't slack off when it comes to this project because if you do it will become very stressful. Also find a mentor as quickly as I can so I can get my mentor ship hours out of the way, that gives me time to focus of other components and activities throughout the year.

3. What topic(s) are you considering, and why?

i'm considering law, it's a field I have always been interested in and that i see myself doing sometime in my life. I'm a good public speaker and that is an important skill needed in practicing law especially when becoming an attorney.

4. What EQ do you think might be interesting to consider in guiding a project like this? (Please don't worry about any sort of formula...we want this question to come from your genuine interest).

Essential question: What is the most effective method to proving an attorneys client innocent in a court of law?

5. What are some ideas you have about finding summer mentor ship?

I think what I will do is stop by a court house and explain my situation, maybe I can find someone to volunteer under or maybe even a lawyer to help mentor me and explain how his/her career is carried out.