Senior Projects

This weekend has been extremely busy! I just got done touring Mizzou so that I can make my decision by next Monday. I’m still quite lost when it comes to deciding between university of Illinois and mizzou. I like both the campuses. Mizzou seems a bit cleaner/put together, but it’s also more hilly than Illinois. As far as rankings, Illinois has a better psych program and club offerings, but I don’t know if that difference is really going to have a big impact on the quality of the education, and what resources are available to me. If anybody has any insight as to ways I could make that decision, that would be very helpful. 

Last week, at Continuum, I did some observing, but I also did a lot more work in the office with the administration. I spent one day pretty much cutting out and laminating pictures for different activities (they call them learning centers). I also got to learn a little bit more about some of the kids there. 

One day last week, I got to sit in and observe as one child had a feeding session. They are eight, the oldest kid I’ve seen at continuum, but they have a lot of sensory issues and OCD tendencies/problems with change. They refused to eat solid food for a long time, so continuum had been working with this child for over four years. Today, they only eat graham crackers, belvita crackers, ritz crackers, pediasure (the banana strawberry flavor) and a special protein smoothie. The therapists at continuum are working with the child to desensitize them to new tastes and textures by giving them different flavors of belvita crackers. They are always honest with the kid because if they changed something without telling the child, they would know instantly and refuse to eat anything. This would break the trust and may completely derail treatment. 
I got a little bit more involved towards the end of last week. I helped Kayla by making a patient intake form so that the company can collect data on how long it takes for each step of the intake process takes. Something continuum prides themselves on is being able to get children into therapy quickly within only a few weeks whereas at other practices, it might take two weeks for a response from the company. 

The people at continuum pretty much named me their new IT person, which is funny because I’m not nearly as skilled at computer stuff as people think. I helped Bee (an RBT) use Google docs to create a table with the new schedule on it, and I showed Kayla how to pull text out of a photo on iPhone and copy it into a document. 

One notable thing I did on Friday is that I got to read a book to one of the kids. Kayla explained to me that it was amazing that the child tolerated it and didn’t throw a tantrum or anything. Reading exposure is really important and necessary for good development. I learned that there are several stages of reading development, starting with flipping through the pages and looking at the pictures. Even that task requires fine motor development and visual comprehension. The next step is having someone read the book to the child. Having someone read and point at the pictures reinforces the association of word to object, and can also teach kids stuff that seems natural, like the fact that we read stuff left to right and top to bottom.

Overall things are still going really well at Continuum. I wish I’d planned to go to Continuum for more than just three weeks because I’m having a lot of fun and learning a lot.

The later part of the third week has been significantly less productive in terms of senior project work than the beginning of the week because of Nathan’s chemotherapy. Nathan has been feeling a lot worse because the chemotherapy is starting to really take a toll on his body. This is a good sign because it means that the chemo is working but it also puts him in a lot of pain so we are all trying to be there for him. Because of this my dad and I have not been able to get very much work done over the last few days.

The first few days of this week have been productive, I was able to meet my dad’s partner Todd Rochleua and even sit in on an IT group meeting that STR is a part of. In the meeting, each of the different companies spent 5 minutes sharing information about what their company was doing as well as general problems and things that have gone well as well as things that have gone poorly. My dad’s partner Todd left on Monday for a meetup in Philadelphia with that same IT group. The group meets online every week and in person once a quarter. All the companies in the group are managed service providers in other parts of the country, additionally, one is from England and two are from Canada. My Dad was not able to go because of Nathan’s cancer when he otherwise would’ve gone. I went out to eat lunch with my dad and his partner at a Mexican restaurant. 

On Thursday I did several hours of virtual work with my dad. I learned about variations of business strategies within IT, MSP and Brokefix. STR is an MSP which means it takes a proactive approach to how they manage their clients. I spent the entirety of Friday going to Maryville to help me get set up for the next school year. I met with a life coach at Maryville and talked to other incoming freshmen. Afterwards me and my Dad ran to the hospital to visit my brother. I was glad to see that he was holding up well despite the severity of his situation. 

Day 1 – Today was a pretty simple, hard, and tiring day where I went outside and fixed up the playground after the storm last weekend. I started by sweeping all of the mulch into piles on the patio and then I scooped it up into buckets and started throwing it back on the playground. Then I evenly distributed the mulch to all the bald spots and spread it out so it looked nice. Even when I had so much mulch there was that much more mulch for me to get everywhere on the playground and basically what I mean by that is I didn’t have enough for everything. So over the span of 5 hours I had cleared the patio, put it back on the playground, and then evenly distributed it. And for another hour after that I checked everything and cleaned up a little bit to make it look nice and that was my gruesome day 1.

Day 2 – The first thing I did was I installed a brand new AED box next to the printer room and that took a decent amount of time but, in the end it’s up there and it’s ready to be used. What took the rest of my day was probably messing with a shed right next to the little kids playground. I had to find places for the unwanted stuff to go and after that I had to “dismantle” the shed. The best part about having to do this was I got to choose how I wanted to “dismantle” it. So my method of choice was absolutely obliterating it with a sledgehammer. I can say that the shed didn’t last long, it didn’t have a chance. Something I didn’t think about until after destroying it was the clean up. To be honest I would say I made a huge mess which you can probably see in the pictures but in the end I would say it was totally worth it. After I had absolutely killed that shed I obviously had to clean it up. I had a bunch of pieces laying around from the holes I had made but that didn’t make the clean up too difficult. I managed somehow to only make 1 trip to the recycling thanks to the power of organization skills and pure luck. After I had tossed it out back I had to clean up the leftover dirt and stuff on the patio. I just grabbed some buckets of water and splashed it clean. That was the end of day 2.

Day 3 – Today was pretty low key thankfully because I was tired and I got a break that I needed. I went around turning on the water for different hose bids because winter was over so all the water can be turned back on. One of the hose bids though wasn’t working properly because there was a bunch of leakage and that was because of the o ring. The o ring is supposed to pack on the stem to keep water from leaking. Today was a pretty low key day because we have bigger plans for tomorrow so tomorrow will be another busy day. I can’t forget the highlight of the day setting up a microwave. That’s how day 3 went.

Day 4 – Today was a road trip day. We started off by getting tables, chairs, and bins and putting them in the gym. After that it was time to get on the road and go on a little adventure. I went with Mr. Platz and we rented a u-haul truck to pick up some tables for trivia night on Friday. We started off with Mrs. Hahn taking us to the u-haul building on Manchester road. When we got there they trapped me in the car and I felt unwanted but when they had come out we were on the road in our u-haul truck. It was about 30 minutes to arrive at our location which was called Weinhardt party rentals. We ordered 20 tables and 20 table cloths and we loaded all of the tables in about 5 – 10 minutes thanks to the help of the workers. After that we were back on the road coming back to the Fulton school and we agreed on our way that old country music is the best music for long drives. When we got back we unloaded tables in groups of 6 on our handy dandy kart and finished moving everything inside in about 15-20 minutes. After we had finished loading everything in the gym I had a couple of things to do on my own. I started off by taking this closet that was outside and “dismantling” it so anybody can guess what that meant. I used the sledgehammer and it didn’t even last more than 2 hits before it was completely in pieces. After I had finished recycling the closet I went back and tossed out a wooden pallet into the trash as well. Today involved mostly lifting and pushing heavy objects but it was pretty fun overall.

Day 5 – Today was a pretty strange day because my project entails helping the school I didn’t do too much today. I spent basically the whole day setting up trivia night. The only cool thing I did today was I had changed some light fixtures in the ceiling and here is how we did it. First off we needed to make some holes in some of the ceiling tiles. After that we slid our new lights into it. Then we proceeded to take down and carefully replace the lights. What made it so hard to do was the sprinklers. Had we even so much as made a vibration too much for the sprinkler it would have set them all off. During the process of this I got to use something that I’ve used before in science class.  I had to use a hot wire meter to see if I was going to burn off my fingers or not. Thankfully I didn’t but I was very very close one time. That concludes my time spent with Mr. Platz. I definitely have learned a lot of life lessons and skills these past 2 weeks and I know it is going to help me in the future

Today was a slow day at The Sheldon. I was assigned to sit at the front desk and direct people to where the art galleries were. Since there was no show today it was pretty slow so not many people came through. But when they did I made sure to take the time and explain the exhibits. Definitely one of the most boring days but it helped me learn that not every day is the most exciting.

I finished the week at the ranch by helping clean, take inventory, and set up for the summer day camps they offer. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with all of the volunteers and staff about their experiences, stories at the ranch, and faith. I can confidently say that I was taught much about the organization and management of a non-profit as well as life wisdom that I will apply for the rest of my life. I hope to spend some time out at the ranch this summer to continue the relationships that were created within the last two weeks.

For my last day, Lori, the director, “reserved” Alex for me to ride. I had previously only worked on the ground with him and was very excited to get the chance to ride him. He was very fun to ride although he tested me the entire time. It was challenging and frankly reflected my own attitude in certain situations when I am not in charge. I am very thankful for the self reflection.

For my third week of senior projects I am at the General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville. On my first day I got a tour of the assembly line and stamping department. The assembly line is where they attach all of the components to the vehicle. The stamping department is the area where the body of the vehicle is formed. The machine they use is a 45,000lb press that molds thin sheets of steel into the door panels or any other part of the exterior body. The second day I got a tour of the paint department. Before the car receives the color it is ordered with it has to go through a complicated cleansing process called ELPO. once the body of the vehicle is fully assembled it will go through massive tanks of cleansing chemicals to help ensure that the paint will stick thoroughly.

On Sunday of last week I had my first show at the Factory! I have been so busy with the Factory and The Sheldon that I haven’t had a chance to post about my first show experience at The Factory! The show was a comedy show for Larry the Cable guy. This was super cool because Larry used to make comedy movies in the 2010s, and I used to watch them when I was a kid! I didn’t stay for Larry’s whole set but I got to see some and it was pretty funny! Before the show I helped set up the catering for him and his crew as well as for The Factory crew. I also restocked the dressing rooms with all the toiletries that were missing. Overall a very good day!

My first few days with Greg has been good. I have done a lot more hands on work than at the plaza. I have replaced a toilet, replaced cast iron pipes with pvc, installed mailboxes, replaces toe kicks in home renovation, painted rooms, and installed fire extinguishers for homes.

Greg runs his own business. I’ve learned a lot already about having one. Greg has so many jobs that he has the freedom to make his own hours. It seems really laid back which is what I like but it is also complicated work as well.