Blog 14: Third Interview Preparation

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?
I plan to interview 

I plan to interview my mentors dad, Gustavo Barcena. He is an attorney with more then 20 years of experience. I have interacted with him while at mentor ship, and I think he'd be a great person to interview. He has so much experience and getting to get his perspective of the law would be great.

2.  Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview.  What is the date and time of the interview? 

I have not yet verified a date with Mr.Barcena, yet i see him every week at mentor ship he has not yet confirmed a day in which we can have an uninterrupted session. I plan to interview him this month and if that doesn't happen than the first week of February will be a definite time.

3.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ.

How can I work on expanding my connections, to use as resources? Throughout your early years of experience how did you increase your horizons?

4.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ (IC2, possible experts to talk to, etc).

After I introduce my EQ.....Who can I talk to? Or what can I get involved with that can teach me more? 

5.  Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ. 

1) From your experience is there a difference in the American Justice System from when you first started, to were it is today?

2) Is there a particular law passed over the course of your career that really became a game changer in the world of law?

3) What are some of your court experiences like now vs. how they were in the beginning?

4) Do you think that there are any major events that have influenced our American Justice system,if so how do you think it would be if they hadn't have happened?

Blog 13: 10 Hour Mentorship Check-In

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

I am doing my mentorship at Law Offices of Noreen L. Barcena, located in East LA.

2.   Who is your contact?  What makes this person an expert?

I am doing my mentorship with Noreen Barcena, who is an immigration, family, and criminal justice attorney. She has a practice in East LA, along with her father and some other associates. She has been practicing law for about 2 years and a half, and also has a lot of connections which is very important to have, as an attorney.

3.   How many  hours have you done during the school year? (Summer Mentorship Hours and Mentorship Hours should be reflected separately in your Senior Project Hours log located on the right hand side of your blog).

I have completed 13 hours with my mentor. There's usually times when we can't meet, but the times we do meet they are productive, and my mentor is great at including me as much as she can.

4.   Succinctly summarize what you did, how well you and your mentor worked together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours.

During mentorship depending on whether there is a client to meet that day, I can sit in and observe the process. Other days when she doesn't have clients coming in we sit in her office and discuss some of her past cases, or she lets me ask her any questions I have. She also tells me about her training she has to go through every year. Basically she lets me in on as much as she can, and I find it really interesting and a great learning environment. I plan to start going twice a week for a couple of hours.

Blog 12: Holiday Project Update

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you do over the break with your senior project?

During my break I was having a lot of fun until, I remembered about the senior project. I figured something had to get done. So during my break I looked for some material I could use for research check, and some films I could use for my IC. 

             

 Some movies for my IC:                                       1) Lincoln Lawyer

                 2) To Kill A Mocking Bird

                 3) Fixing the System (VICE)

                 4) The Trials of Darryl Hunt

                 5) The Iceman Tapes

          

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why?  What was the source of what you learned?

The most important piece of information I obtained was about the five components of the criminal justice system. I was reading an article that talked about the importance of these components and how they all work together, 

  

3.  Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?

I plan to interview my mentors well respected father who is an attorney, can really help me because he's so experienced. 

Blog 11: Lesson 1 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?
Before the lesson plan, I thought I was going to get up there and be a boring presenter and forget everything up there. After the presentation a few of my classmates actually told me it was pretty interesting. They told me I made something boring interesting to them. That is something I'm pretty proud of. I went into my presentation thinking I was going to fail, and came out pretty proud of myself. I was also proud of myself because I had a lot to say, and with the nerves I had I seriously thought everything was going to go away.

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.
I would give myself a solid P. From what I been told I didn't leave anything out, and I was able to keep the audiences attention. I had my five points of content, I explained the three life scenarios, and gave at least one piece of my research. Like I said before some of my peers told me I was able to keep them engaged, and made it interesting.  

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?
If i could go back I think I would want to have a better hook. My hook wasn't as thought out as it should have been.  Another thing I can improve on is my conclusion. For my next lesson I want to do something that can take more of the audience attention and maybe make them react. For my next lesson I will definitely give it more thought on both my hook and conclusion.

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...)

For my mentor ship with Noreen, I get to go to her firm. I haven't been able to go frequently, but I will start going every week starting next week. The times I have gone we go into her conference room and converse about whats going on at school and do my interview. She is open to any questions I ask, and always is very helpful. At the firm Noreen works with her father and other associates. I plan to talk to them too, and interview her father.

People trying to help me when I didn't have a mentor.

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

At the beginning of the year It was hard for me to find a mentor, but Mrs.Ortega actually put me in contact with my mentor. I asked her if she would be my mentor and she agreed. I explained to her that I would be working with her all year. She gladly accepted and is always up to help me on anything.

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

I've only gone with my mentor twice and that was to interview her. Each time after the interview I stayed to chat with her, and I can say I feel very comfortable with her. She isn't closed up or uptight at all. She is also young and has a very free personality. She encourages me to ask as many questions as I want, and is very welcoming. I am actually going to see her this Saturday. She invited me to a legal fair so that I can observe what she does, and many of her peers that will be there.

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?

During this interview I was able to get more of a back ground on my mentors life. I'm not exactly sure on what can improve. Like I said my mentor is open to answer any question I ask, and I'm not to shy to hold back. Its going to be different to interview someone who isn't my mentor, but I'm sure that it will go good. I think I can come up with new questions and try to have better transitions on to the questions.

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).

I do have a mentor, her name is Noreen Barcena. She is an attorney, and works in her offices in East LA. I have not yet interviewed my mentor, but will be interviewing her soon. I have scheduled the interview for Friday the 23rd. 

Me everyday of the week.

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.   

The criminal Justice system has always interested me. When we first began the senior project I was sure that I wanted to focus on the defense process. Now that I've thought more about it and started to research more into my topic. I am now starting to like the evolution of crime and punishment. I feel that this specific area of the criminal justice system is promising to me because in the end I'm going to find some sort of result. Also I feel like I can get a lot of feed back from people and what they think about the evolution of the criminal justice system. I'm excited to see what other people think about this particular topic.

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?

I think that I will need to ask people who have experience in the criminal justice system to get a bit more of depth. I want the opinion of professionals and my peers so that I can compare and see what everyone is thinking. I can easily get my peers opinion, and I can also attempt to get in contact with professionals my mentor knows.

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.

How has the criminal justice system evolved over the past one hundred years, and how has society been effected?

Blog 8: Independent Component 1 Proposal

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

For my independent component I plan to watch at least 20 films that have to do with the criminal justice system. The films I will be watching will give me an idea of how the system works and hopefully its faults as well. I will be watching movies that are both based on true events and some that were created by Hollywood's finest. Each movie will range from an hour to three hours, and after I watch each film I will analyze them and write some notes and  a summary. I hope to gain a perspective of each angle of the criminal justice system and evaluate they way each position is done. 

Lincoln Lawyer was recommended to me by my mentor. 

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

I'm not entirely sure how I will prove my hours, but each time I will watch a film I can record the time and date onto a log. I can also have a system, like for example every time I watch a film I can write a summary and have my house teacher check it off.

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

I'm a big fan of film, and this is a great opportunity to combine learning and something I enjoy. By watching the films I can get the chance to explore the different perspectives of the criminal justice system. At the beginning of the year I wanted to focus on just the defense part of the criminal justice system. As the research checks keep going by I'm starting to gain more interest on how each aspect comes together, and the way its changed over the years. Watching the films from different eras will allow me to really see how the criminal justice system has been viewed or interpreted over the years.