Report 4: Various projects happening

I'm finally starting to get into the nitty gritty with the different youth teams at HSTF. For the 8th grade entrepreneurs, I put together a SpongeBob-themed PowerPoint presentation to demonstrate to them what their presentation will be once they've chosen the product or service they want to sell (the program includes a presentation phase where they present to the program directors to get funding for their product). I'll be giving the presentation this Thursday and after that I'll be working with a few of the entrepreneurs and teaching them how to use PowerPoint so they can make their own professional looking presentation.

I'm also working with some of the Youth Community Organizers (whose work I'm finding to be very inspiring). They plan to make a PSO-type video for their campaign to get civics as a required class in Boston Public Schools. They recently organized a hearing at Boston City Hall, you should check this out for highlights if you're interested. I made that page and filmed the video by the way (filming was a bit choppy, it was my first time)!

My only real complaint about work here now is that people still think I'm here for tech support, which is something I'm happy to help out with, but isn't really my main job here. It's just frustrating when people come to me with tech problems and I'm unable to help them because it makes me seem incompetent.

Still trying to think of creative ways to integrate digital media and technology into the other youth programs. Things are getting more fun around here.

Comment from Kevin Palmer on November 27, 2007 - 12:40pm

That article on the hearing was great. I didn't even know that was going down (wish I went!).

It's definitely hard to shake the tech support label as a CTC VISTA. Some of it comes with the territory but it gets frustrating like you said (especially seeming incompetent). Is there anyone else there who can do tech stuff? What'd they do for tech assistance before you got there?

Comment from Wesley Kaplan on November 27, 2007 - 6:44pm

There's a guy who comes in once a week who I chill with and try to learn stuff from. He's definitely been helpful. But anytime he's not here people come to me. It's a problem for him too because he's also our server guy, so any work he could be doing on that often gets interrupted by his having to deal with people's random problems.