Summer Mentorship Component

Literal: 

1. K N O W 

Date	Hours	What I Did	Total Hours
07 / 23 / 13	11 AM - 3 PM (4 hrs)	Was introduced as to what I would going to do for my presentation in the next upcoming 3 weeks // Met the other workers and members // Took a tour of the shelter and interacted with the animals // Took notes // Introduction of ourselves (mentor & I) // Created a custom made doggy tag for my puppy	4 hours
07 / 30 / 13	11 AM - 3:30 PM (4.5 hrs)	There was an event for younger kids and learning about the shelter and animals and why it's so important to keep in check // I was observing and taking in how things were presented, since I'm doing this next week // Acted as an assistant and helped with the kids // Answered questions the kids had // Met two dogs & discovered how dogs really do have different personalities // Took both for a walk and bathed them	8.5 hrs
08 / 06 / 13	11 AM - 3 PM (4 hrs)	My mentor and I prepared for next week's seminar and put together a scrapbook of the history of the humane society, which included the orginally building, the founder, and different articles written about the humane society.	8 hours
08 / 13 /13	11:30 AM - 5:30 PM (6 hrs)	Today was the introduction to the seminar, in which I assisted my mentor. There were 12 students total. I answered any questions they had, helped pass out the materials, played an activity with them, toured them around the shelter, and also sat there and learned myself. Afterward, my mentor & two other volunteers and I put out beds in the cages for the more elderly dogs.	14 hours
08 / 14 / 13	11 AM - 5:30 PM (6.5 hrs)	Our topic for the day was animal behavior. So to contribute that to real life, two of the ASPCA admins came up & introduced two dogs to the students. Before doing so, a short section of a film off Netflix was played, which showed relationships between animals of two different species (it was really touching). After, we split the kids into two groups (one for each dog), and walked them down to the park to allow the dogs to show off their tricks & what they could do. Towards the end of the day, the kids were given doggy treats to give to the shelter dogs and they made little cards for them.	20.5 hours
08 / 15 / 13	11 AM - 5:15 PM (6 hrs / 15 mins)	Last day! Today's topic is very serious. It's of animal issues: factory farming, animal testing, breed discrimination & puppy mills. Animal testing is beyond what I want to get into detail, but a friend of Elana is part of a Beagle Saving Project that has to do with saving beagles from being used as testers. Beagles are most commonly used, and she actually saved one of them. The kids and I all got to meet him. The discrimination has to do with the certain breed of dogs, more so commonly the pit bulls. Sadly, they're used great to scare others off and used in dog fights, but little do these people know that they are the biggest, most playful babies. And the only reason a dog acts the way they do is because of the owner and whatever kind of training they give them. That comes with love and affection. As for the puppy mills, getting the dogs spayed & neutered is very, very important. Puppy mills and pet shops are a no go, and we are striving to get the kids to lean more towards adopting and getting the word around. Now that they have all this knowledge, they can educate the next person they know that wants to get a new companion!	26 hours / 45 mins

2. Mentor: Elana Blum
   Number: (626) 792-7151

 3. N E E D T O K N O W 

• Were people well educated before hand as well as we are now?
• What needs to change?
• What can I do to help change things?
• Why are there so many old, elderly dogs living in the shelter?
• Why are there limited resources in all shelters?
• What drives people to go so far as to throwing out a dog into a busy street from their car? 
• Why don't animal hoarders realize what they're doing is wrong?

The list can go on & on ...

Interpretative: 

4. The most important thing I gained from this experience was truly how important it is to adopt from animal shelters. Unfortunately  my family has never done so. And recently, we got a new puppy. This is very important towards my senior topic because the whole concept of puppy mills, pet shops, and getting your animals (mostly dogs & cats) neutered is so very important. It's our goal to put a stop to reproduction. Our shelters could only hold so much, and if these animals continue on being brought in at the rate it's at, we're bound to run out of room (which already happens) and have to turn to animal euthanasia (putting them to sleep).

Applied: 

5. What I did definitely helped me choose my topic. The whole experience was really fun, and it allowed me to interact with all sorts of different dog personalities. I actually made new friends! Tanner is my favourite. He's an 8 year old German Shepard / Akita mix (left). He doesn't have a name really, but I decided to call the lad Tanner. Anyway, going through the whole process opened up my eyes to see the reality of it all, and my topic is crucial to helping these guys out. Also, now that I've been greatly educated on such serious issues that we have going on now, my mind is is filled with greater knowledge that I can share with everyone else.