Week 7: 1st Hillcrest Visit

Wow,  week 7. This internship is going by too quickly. While at times difficult to balance school, being a club president, and the internship, this week has shown me people not only support the current Hillcrest project but are willing to help in a variety of ways.

To elaborate, Professor Lyons and I traveled to the site on Thursday (February 24th) to meet Mrs. Spicer, the librarian, and for me to take pictures of some of the albums of photos available. When first arriving, I was introduced to Principal Ortega, who expressed gratitude and lauded me (under the rightful guidance of Dr. Lyons) for the work I had done. She also gave us some strategies moving forward and allowed me to take a photo of an image depicting the first Hillcrest building that was in black and white.

 After that 15 minute meeting, we went upstairs where I briefly met the aforementioned librarian Mrs. Spicer, and used the camera I borrowed from the History department to take photographs of a multitude of collections at hand. The first was a yearbook from 1984-1985 depicting all the classes at the time. One interesting point the madam I will be interviewing next week in my first oral history was also in that yearbook as a student at Hillcrest. Other collections photographed include two PTA scrapbooks of clipped new articles and an abundance of picture on school wide events such as Field Days and Christmas Pageants. It also keys in on a few specific stories such as an extensive collection on the International Day of Peace in the late 80's, a story on a male kindergarten teacher who won Teacher of the Year in the county, and how a extensive farewell party was held for twenty year crossing guard who retired. That last story really captivated me as a reminder of what a tight knit community an elementary school can be After about two hours, I made it through four albums, with many more still gone unread warranting a second visit in the near future.

The following day, which happens to be the same day I am writing this, saw an effort to name and organize the 120 extra jpeg now found on my laptop's hard drive. While slightly mindless, I don't want to underestimate the importance of being organized (a skill I had to learn the hard way during this internship). Just today, I had to re scan a few documents because of carelessness on my end. Either way, this internship is constantly teaching me the steps I have to take to reach professionalism.