Exit Interview

Content:

1. What is your essential question and answers?  What is your best answer and why?
   • My essential question is: How can the Pasadena Humane Society best help citizens become responsible pet owners? To answer that question, I compiled three answers which follow as:
     
     • Host summer Workshops aimed at teaching children animal welfare issues
     • Host events that promote shelter adoptions
     • Humane society should lobby for legislation that improves animal rights
       
   • Out of those three answers, my best answer would have to be host events that promote shelter adoptions. Coming towards the end of my project and mentorship, the Pasadena Humane Society was in the process of actually hosting an event themselves. This really opened up my eyes and showed how much effort and hard work is put into the events they host. They really want to get the word out of adopting their shelter animals and sending in donations. I think that's what really inspired me and got me going. They have a certain goal in mind and a target audience. In the process of my iSearch paper, this was the longest portion of it. I had so much to say about hosting these events. One critical detail I focused on was the fact that the people who choose to attend these shelter / rescue events are there for a reason. With that, getting a certain message across is very possible. This ties back into my essential question because the Pasadena Humane Society can let folks know how to become better and more responsible pet owners.
     
     
2. What process did you take to arrive at this answer?
   • In order to arrive to any answer, really, was through loads of research. In the beginning, I thought I would have no issues with finding my answers. But I was wrong.
      
   • For my first answer, I pulled it through my summer mentorship. I helped my first mentor run a summer workshop for kids and taught them about current issues going on with shelter animals.
     
   • As for my second and best answer, I obtained that through various interview (third and fourth). During my third interview, I interviewed a woman named Lorna, who's an all time rescue activist. She emphasized on really getting the word out to those who care and tugging at their hearts. Show them how passionate she is about helping these animals. She's ran various rescue groups, which include a Chihuahua one and transporting them to the east coast, and Save the Beagles project. During my fourth interview with Tom, a volunteer who's been there for 8 years, he too emphasized on getting the word out. An event he mentioned was the Wiggle Waggle Walk, which is an event held around the Rose Bowl. People are welcomed to come walk 3.3 miles with their fellow companion and also meet the dogs PHS decided to bring and welcome.
     
   • Answer number three was tricky. I wasn't able to come up with it on my own completely. I believe I had some kind of idea, but didn't know how to structure it so that it would work with my essential question. My advisory teacher (Mrs. Pittman) directed me through and she helped me compromise this answer.
   
   
3. What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?
   
   • A major problem that I encountered and what really put me off set was failing my first answer presentation. I hit 30 minutes, no problem. However, my talking time wasn't enough. There was a minimum of 10 minutes required, and I didn't pull through. I was even attempting to stress out the time and continue stalling with research. But it wasn't enough. To resolve this, during an advisory meeting, I was asked to change my essential question completely to the one I have now. I've done well over enough research, with using both the internet, mentorship, and interviews in the hopes of executing my final presentation with enough time.
   
   
4. What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?
   • The two most significant sources I used to answer my essential question, again, were my interviews and mentorship. Of course, there was the help of going in depth with my answers and finding more research on the little details that go along with it, but the real life experience were truly the backbones of them all.