Culminating Blog Reflection

Throughout the course of completing my Capstone project I encountered challenges. One of the challenges I faced was trying to figure out what I wanted to do my project on. I have many interests but I had to narrow it down to the things I do on an everyday basis. The one I chose was clothing, clothing is something that is a part of my life eveyday and is an interesting topic to me. Since my topic was on clothing I decided to research my paper on the history of textiles. Doing the research was pretty easy but I think that was because I found the subject interesting and I felt that I needed to know textiles if I were to go into the clothing industry. I learned that if you find something that you like or have interest in its easy to do work for that interest. You start liking doing work on for that interest and it doesn't feel like work at times.

Another challenge I faced during the time I spent on my Capstone Project was finding a mentor. In the beginning I thought it would be easy finding a mentor for clothing since there are a lot of retail clothing stores I could intern for. Though it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I called a couple stores and even went to the stores in person and asked if I could intern for them for my project but when I gave them my contact information to get back to me they never called or emailed me about the internship. I figured that they probably didn't need an intern or they just didn't want me to work for them. It was frustrating trying to find a mentor but I ended up finding one just before it was too late from someone I could have asked in the beginning but never thought of it. My mom saw that I needed a mentor and saw my frustration. She told me that she had a friend that owned a retail store that sold more than clothes. I would have never thought that my mentor would come from a source that was so close to me while I was going around looking for a mentor I could have just asked my mom. Sometimes you don't need to go as far as you think to find the answer to something the answer to your troubles can be found somewhere as close as someone living with you.

After completing my Capstone Project I have learned many things. I have learned to be more organized from my mentor because if your organized, when you have your own store its easy to get things you need and having and organized store is more appealing to the public than one that has things everywhere. Another thing that I gained was confidence in myself. I worked at a store where I helped people and answered their questions and to do that I couldn't be shy and I had to be confident in myself. If I was shy and unconfident I would be able to help them because I wouldn't think I knew the answer to their questions then I would end up freezing up and that would not only make me look bad but it would make the store look bad hiring workers that didn't even know anything. Starting this project I thought that it would be hard to do and I would know what to do it on and thought that it wouldn't benefit me but I gained things that I would have never thought I would gain from doing this project.

Last Day

Yesterday, Saturday, was my last session with my mentor. I was kind of sad knowing that it would be my last time working there. When I got there I asked my mentor what she needed help with. She told me that I could monitor the floor for a while. There were a good amount of people that came to the store that day so I helped a few more people than I did the previous sessions. Most of the questions they asked were the same questions other people had asked before so it was easy to answer. I felt good after I helped someone. Some of the people spoke Tagalog to me I had to tell them that I didn't speak Tagalog and don't really understand what they were saying. I felt bad that I had to tell them that and feel like I should know Tagalog but I don't. That might be a class I might take in college so its easier to communicate with other people and opens up a new group of people I can communicate with later on. If I do plan on making my own store it would probably be better if I did know Tagalog. I monitored the floor most of the time I was there but my mentor told me she needed help in the back every now and then. I helped my mentor carry a couple of things in back to fix and reorganize the inventory. I monitored the floor for the rest of the time I was there. Before I left I said bye to my mentor and thanked her for being my mentor. After working at a store that sells more than clothes, I feel that creating my own clothing brand and having a store to sell my merchandise is definitely one of my options now after high school.

Time logged for this session: 5 hrs

Total time logged: 25 hrs

Fourth Day

April 26, 2014
Saturday I did another session with my mentor and it was a pretty good session overall. When I got there asked my mentor what needed to be done and told me I can fix some of the items that weren't in the right place and to make sure the store was clean. It was the usual cleaning and fixing up that I did every now and then. Putting back clothes back on the right spot and sweeping up the floor. When I finished cleaning the floor I cleaned the counter where the register was and behind the counter. There were a couple of things behind the counter that I put back that people decided not to buy. After I was done cleaning the front of the store I went to back and did some sweeping and dusted off some of the supplies in the back. My mentor came in the back and asked if I could bring some of the new stock that was outside in the back and bring it in. There wasn't a lot to bring in and not that heavy so it didn't take a long time to finish. I went back in when there was no more and organized the new inventory. I also had to make sure that the right items were in the boxes and put some the items that weren't on the in the front and put them in the front. When I was finished I asked my mentor what else she wanted me to do and said I could just monitor the floor for the rest of the time I was going to be there. There weren't a lot of customers on Saturday, maybe it was just the time of day because it was getting kind of late. It a good session either way and when I come back for another session hopefully I can get more done because I feel better when I get things done.

Time logged for this session: 5 hrs
Total time blogged: 20 hrs

Third Day

April 24, 2014

Thursday, I went to see my mentor for the third time. I felt pretty good and confident and not nervous like I was on my first day. I asked my mentor if I could work on the floor again, helping customers and making sure that everything looked fine. Monitoring the floor went pretty good again and was pretty much the same. The only thing that was different was that there was less people coming in. Only a few people came in and when people did come in they didn't really ask for help, which was fine but I was prepared to answer them. One other thing I noticed was that a lot of the people that came in spoke Tagalog and I don't really understand Tagalog so I couldn't help unless they spoke english too. After working the floor for awhile I asked my mentor if she needed help with anything else and told me that she didn't really have much to do so it was fine and I could just organize the stuff in the back to make more room and empty out other boxes and take them to the recycling. It was a pretty easy day even though it seemed like the day was going by slower because I didn't have a lot to do. I guess thats one of the things about having a store, is that there are days where you sell a good amount and days where you don't get many customers and the days are slow. Hopefully next time I come back there are more things to do so its not as do of a day.

Time logged for this session: 5 hrs

Total time blogged: 15 hrs

Second Day

Second Day April 21, 2014
Monday was my second day working with my mentor. My first priority when I got there was to figure out where everything went and remember the layout of everything. I needed to know this because thats what made things a little harder the last time I was there. I asked my mentor if I could look around a little bit and she said yes. When I was done and I thought I pretty much knew where most of the things went I went back to my mentor and asked what i needed to do and told me to make sure we had things in stock. She gave me a list of some of the things in the store and told me to check if we had it out on the floor and to see how much of it we had in the back. It was pretty easy to do because I knew where most of the things were on the floor and in the back. After I was finished with that I cleaned up some of the things in the back because it was a little messy. It wasn't really messy but it was in the way when I moved around back there. After I asked my what else she wanted me to do and told me to monitor the floor and help customers that needed help and at the same time make sure everything looked good and clean. I was kind of nervous that I had to help customers and answer their questions because i'm usually the customer and getting help from an employee and I have never been on the other side helping people. It felt a little weird at first but it was pretty easy because it wasn't complicated questions or anything it was simple like where was something and if it there was a sale. I was scared I wasn't going to be able to answer their question and I would have to ask my mentor and I would feel bad for asking for help to answer a question. For the rest of my time with my mentor I monitored the floor and was pretty cool and easy. I think the next time I come back I might ask if I could monitor the floor again to help with my shyness.

Time logged for this session: 5 hrs
Total time logged: 10 hrs

The First Day

Today, Saturday, was my first day I met with my mentor. When I got to my mentor's store i was pretty excited and nervous at the same time because I have never worked for someone like this before. I thought I would have a hard time since it was my first day there but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Since it was only my first day i think my mentor only assigned easy and simple tasks for me. My first job I got was fixing or arranging the boxes in the back. It was easy because most of the boxes were light. After I was done fixing the boxes I had to take some of the clothes and other products out of the boxes and put them out on the rack and shelves. All of the things I was putting away was light so I was able to carry more than one at a time which made things a lot faster, and because I had put them on hangers it was easy to carry multiple. The only hard part about putting the clothes away was knowing where to put it because it was put in different sections of the store. I didn't know my way around the whole store and where everything goes so that made it a little difficult. After I finished putting away everything that was needed, I asked my mentor what else she needed me to do, and she told me I could take a little break, but afterwards she told me to put the empty boxes in outside in the recycling and to clean up the back of the store a little bit. After I was done sweeping the back it was already time for me to go home, even though it felt like i was only there for a little bit I looked at the time and it was already time for me to go. I think the next when I am going to try to remember where everything is in the store so its easier for me to fix things in the future.

Time logged for this session: 5 hours

Total time logged: 5 hours