Senior Project, The Holiday

Blog 10: Senior Project: The Holiday

Content:

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

The break, and the week before break for the most part weren't necessarily happy times for me in terms of my senior project. As I have stated in my December additional post, the group therapy sessions with my mentor have been stopped and will no longer proceed. It is a bad thing for my senior project and I think it is for the best if I shape my EQ a bit now. During the break I did plenty of research both with and without my mentor. All together I believe it was around 15 hours of research for questions that my mentor (Karla Rodriguez) had assigned us to study. Due to the loss of the groups my mentorship will be more along the lines of helping my mentor prepare for her individual sessions (which I'm not allowed to be a part of). Also my mentor will prepare me and give me glimpses of what it means to be a MFT. During the break as I stated earlier in this paragraph, I researched and created packets based on LGBTQ. The packet was created based off these questions:

  1) understanding attraction towards the opposite sex/ feeling comfortable with your identity2) how to/ support for youth that are thinking about "coming out"3) what is "coming out"?4) common reactions of the person coming out and reactions of loved ones5) how do I compromise between religion (parent's religious beliefs) and my true identity?   

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 thing I learned during my limited amount of mentorship (due to holidays) was that every individual is different. We need to accept and love everyone for who they are. Due to our corrupt and unfair society many individuals are forced to keep their real selves from the world due to the fact that they are scared of how they will be treated. Coming out is the phrase for when an individual "comes out" and tells others the truth about themselves. For example revealing they are gay, bi, queer, lesbian, or a trans. It is tough for youth to come out, but we can support them by giving them confidence with supportive words, and by letting them know that their parents will understand. If the youth is scared of their parents, they should consult an MFT for further specified information based off their situation, because as I stated earlier EVERYONE is unique and has their own different situations which require DIFFERENT assistance. 

3.  If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers of your EQ, who would you talk to and why?

Well the most obvious and deserving answer would be my mentor Karla Rodriguez Vallejo because she is my mentor and has been with me since the summer. She has taken me under her wing and has allowed me to thrive and learn from her vast knowledge on her profession. However another direction I could go is by interviewing Adrian Mancilla. He is a social worker and works with caretakers, troubled youth, and is involved in many organizations that involve family therapy. I have been doing about ALL of my independent component hours with him. Either one of those individuals would be great candidates to interview.