Portfolio 2011 Victoria Lai
Victoria Lai
Cover Letter
5010 Doretta Ct Orlando, Fl 32807 Victorialai93@gmail.com 407.489.7072 May 14, 2011 Rebekah Pate Teen Volunteer Coordinator 92 West Miller Street MP 367 Orlando, Florida 32806 Dear Ms. Pate Maybe this summer Arnold Palmer is looking to recruit teens to volunteer with children and are ready to work and excited to be there. If so, please look over the following resume for you to review and consider the strengths I have to be apart of the summer intern group. As a babysitter for the past few summers, I know what it takes to entertain kids and how to interact with them. Each day we would practice different skills that they would need later in life or for school. I have the skills to actively play with the kids and made sure they had fun throughout the day and made sure that when they were ready to be picked up, they left with a smile on their face. I understand that your group only accepts 75 teens for the six-week program but I think I posses the skills needed for this program. While my resume attached clearly shows my experience and skills, I feel an interview would better represent my abilities and personality. I would appreciate a chance to meet with you when convenient. Thank you for your review and consideration and I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Victoria Lai Enclosed: Resume
_____________ Victoria Lai 5010 Doretta Ct, Orlando, FL 32807 home: 407.237.0264 cell: 407.489.7072 email: victorialai93@gmail.com
Objective
Resume
To obtain knowledge about physical therapy and what it takes to become a physical therapist, while also learning the psychology behind the patients ailment.
Education
Completed four years at William R. Boone High School Graduation date: June 2011 G.P.A. 4.2 Top 20% of class
Experience
Lifeguard Certification - Present • I learned CPR, rescue breathing, AED and first aid techniques. Present• Advanced Placement Psychology Present• Yearbook Staff August 2009-June 2011 Editor August 2010-June 2011
Achievements, Memberships, and Awards • National Honor Society: 2009, 2010, 2011 • Academic Honor Roll: 2007-2011 • Varsity Waterpolo Spring 2010- Spring 2011 • Most Improved Player Award 2010 • Fellowship of Christian Athletes Board Officer • Spanish Honor Society • Editor on award winning Legend Yearbook
A Personal Essay When I was a freshman my guidance consular made a comment to me about joining journalism and at first I was against the idea because I had known somebody who said it was a lot of writing and a lot of work and while I liked to write I did not think it would be right for me. They continued to tell me that if I did journalism I would be forced, or practically forced to join yearbook or newspaper and I was not sure I wanted that commitment. However when I found out I was placed in the class and actually started learning what goes into a publication and everything behind the scenes that most people do not know, I liked it. I quickly realized I wanted to be on the yearbook staff. I started out weak because while my strength was writing, writing for an English class is a completely different style of writing compared to a yearbook story. I had to think of leads and subheads which could be difficult. Also in English class I am constrained on the creativity of my writing and in yearbook I have more room to do what I want with a story. I still really like journalism and for a while, when I was visiting colleges it was a possible major for me. While I no longer will be majoring in it, I know that it taught me useful skills to take into the major that I plan on taking.
Self-Analytical Evaluation
This year has taught me more than I could have imagined. Being an editor really taught me most of what I know and what I will use later in life. For actual production skills, it is one thing to look at s story planner and say what you want the page to look like, but it is another thing to actually get the page going. Sometimes it was hard to find motivation to start a page especially seventh deadline because I was so close to being finished and it was the end of the year and I just wanted to be finished. However, in a class like this, that is not possible. From last year I knew deadlines were important and I knew the importance of meeting them, but it never fails to amaze me how quickly a deadline can appear. I always tell myself I have a certain amount of days and then if I sit back and think about it, I don’t have as much time as I think I do in my head. This year especially being an editor I realized the importance of deadlines because I knew that I did not want to be late and have my section messed up or cause the journalism department thousands of dollars just because I missed deadline. I have always valued teamwork because I know, I get frustrated when working with someone and they do not pull their end of the weight. This year, I only had three pages that were shared with someone else, but there was still teamwork with staffers who worked in my section. Sometime I would help staffers in my section with interviews or pictures so they would be able to meet deadline. By us working together, they would get the desired grade and I would have the satisfaction of knowing that the page would be met by deadline. One thing that I lack is advertising and sales, which is why I could never be on ads staff. At the beginning of the year I told myself that I would not let myself procrastinate and wait until the last moment to sell all my ads because I knew what happened last year and I did not want to repeat that. I did not wait until the last minute and I found when you went to people earlier, rather than telling them they have a week to make a decision, they were more interested. Almost nobody wanted to buy an ad, which meant, I learned that I needed to change my advertising technique and try to follow up on possible sales. Journalism ethics have always been important obviously and I have always known the basic, do this, do not do that, you cannot forge a signature, the basics to journalism. This year there were times when it was not so much “hard� to follow the rules but it was in the back of my mind. For the homecoming page I remember multiple interviews where I forgot to get their signature and I just wanted to not have them sign it and move on because I was behind on deadline, seeing as we had about 40 pictures on the spread. Also being an editor when I got proofs and there were corrections that needed to be made, sometimes it crossed my mind to just half way correct it because I did not have time to sit there and go through all the mistakes, but I knew that was wrong and I wanted the book to be the best it could be. Finally dedication. Dedication is so important, especially when producing an award winning yearbook like we do. I worked on yearbook so much this year because I wanted to continue the tradition and make the book the best it could be. It took many hours outside of school, staying after or coming in early, or missing a class to get what needed to be done, completed. Especially as an editor I felt like dedication was really important because if I was not staying after to get something completed, what would that have shown the people who were working in my section? Nothing good. So dedication was extremely important to make this book great.
Reflection 1 My most significant piece of work this year would be the homecoming page. In the beginning when I found out we were doing a fold-able for it I was excited but nervous because I knew it was going to be a lot of work. Obviously the whole point of the fold-able was to create a fun way to get as many kids in he book as we can and homecoming was a great time to do it because of all the activities. That was another thing that worried me. We would be covering a week of activities on one spread. When I got to working however, while there were over 40 pictures to be used, it was not that hard to accomplish. We started with nothing and Amy and I were so confused where to start so we went through over 20,000 pictures just to find 40, which was tedious but at the same time I think being very particular about which pictures we used will make the page look great. It will be my favorite spread in this entire book. Amy and I put so much work into it and with the help of Vivien and Burke the design looks great. It is something new that I do not think students are expecting and that makes it even better.
Reflection 2 The page that I think could still use some work would be the core classes page. On the story planner there were some ideas but when it came time to do the deadline, nobody liked those ideas anymore. I spent a lot time getting pieces I could use to complete the multi-coverage layout that Caley and I decided on, but then it was too choppy and jumpy, and nothing made sense. Four days before deadline and after the Saturday workday, we decided to change the whole layout of my page. I was really discouraged because I did not think it was that bad, but I guess it was and if changing it meant the book would be better, then that is what I had to do. If I had the chance I would want to go back and change some of the pictures and make it flow better overall.
Reflection 3
studentlife #15, tailgating 9-17_tori062.jpg
This was my favorite picture I took this year. We did not print it, but I think it really captures the moment. Tailgating is by far one of my favorite things I did this year. As seniors it is our last year here and these were some of the last home highschool football games. We all came together, just to have fun and be with each other. The picture shows how much fun Cailey really had. It is not a poor picture but it probably is not book worthy.
Reflection 4 I would say that I was an asset to the staff this year in multiple ways. I was the academics editor so that was a big one. I helped staffers with their pages and things that needed to get accomplished. I stayed after a lot of time and offered help in whatever ways I could. I was also really dedicated. Many afternoons I could have spent elsewhere I was in the yearbook room working on my page or my section. My work ethic this year was much better than last year. I did as much as I could do in class and I was writing a lot at home on my own time. I really wanted this book to be great and I think because of the work that I and the staff put into it, makes it a great book. I also ran errands a lot for the class. Most of the time I was running to Chick-Fil-A, but still, I went there so much the people working the register knew to brace themselves because I would be
Reflection 5 My biggest hardship this year would be when I got mono at the beginning of the year. Thankfully it was at the beginning of the year and deadlines had not started. When I found out I had it, the doctors told me I would be out for a minimum for two weeks and that terrified me. I did not want to be away from the planning of book for that long. I learned that some things you just cannot control and have to deal with the situation at hand. There was no way of getting around being at home and I had to make myself better so that way, when it was time for my doctor appointment to inform me that I was allowed to go back, I would be able. It was really hard sitting in bed thinking about all the design that I was missing or stories that were being picked, and overall it was the hardest time for me all year. When I got back to school I had a lot of make-up work to do and it was overwhelming to think about fast approaching deadlines too. With the help of other editors and staffers the deadlines went smooth in the beginning. If it happened again, I would know what to do to make my self better, and how to time manage the work that I would have. While I was home sick I was still able to do some minimal work as long as it did not require me moving a whole bunch.
Reflection 6 At mid-term I was asked to give three to five new goals. I said I wanted to have my layouts done three days in advance and get them approved, sit down with staffers, make deadline, and find time to hang out with staffers more. The one I accomplished the most is sitting down with staffers. Each time at the beginning of class, once the announcements were done, I would go to each staffer and sit down and talk with them. We would talk about where they were on the spread, what needed to be finished and what plan of action they were going to take to obtain that. The page where this is most evident is the magnet page. The staffer assigned this page had a lot of trouble getting started. The first layout she was given, was really hard for her to find information or pictures to put on the page. Each day I sat down with her to tell her what she needed to do. The page took a long time to complete and there were many revisions done to the spread. In the end I took it over and did it with the copy editor to complete it, but I still feel like I accomplished one of the goals I set for myself.
Reflection 7 Y1. Feature writing: Student Life I really want my homecoming story to represent me because I really captured the spirit f the week. If one reads the story there is excitement and this momentum throughout the story. Students this year were really into spirit week and it may be that I am a senior and that is what makes it so great but this year’s homecoming was one of the best since I have been at Boone. Y32. Academic spread: one spread The Publications page is my second favorite in the book, behind homecoming. We have three separate publications, ones that are printed anyway, and I think that this year I really captured the three of them. Publications is near and dear to my heart so I was really happy when I got to do this page and I am so happy we switched the design from a regular DPS to a multi-coverage DPS. It works better to do the multi-coverage. Y7. Sidebar Writing My sidebar on Clay Townsend this year was one of my favorite parts of the spread. THe sidebar is all about Clay and how he really embraced his senior year homecoming and seeing as the sidebar is on the spirit page, it ties together really well.
Y1. Feature writing: Student Life I really want my homecoming story to represent me because I really captured the spirit f the week. If one reads the story there is excitement and this momentum throughout the story. Students this year were really into spirit week and it may be that I am a senior and that is what makes it so great but this year’s homecoming was one of the best since I have been at Boone. Y32. Academic spread: one spread The Publications page is my second favorite in the book, behind homecoming. We have three separate publications, ones that are printed anyway, and I think that this year I really captured the three of them. Publications is near and dear to my heart so I was really happy when I got to do this page and I am so happy we switched the design from a regular DPS to a multi-coverage DPS. It works better to do the multi-coverage. Y7. Sidebar Writing My sidebar on C;lay Townsend this year was one of my favorite parts of the spread. THe sidebar is all about Clay and how he really embraced his senior year homecoming and seeing as the sidebar is on the spirit page, it ties together really well.
Reflection 8
Dont let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game
Reflection 9 I feel like I have shown a lot of growth in the past year. Last year I was to myself in a sense because I did not really talk to most of the staff, I just stuck with who I knew, but this year that changed. When I looked at last year’s portfolio I am almost embarrassed at the simplicity. I took two maybe three brushes and made a flower design and had paint splatter and that was it. This year I still tried to stick to brushes because I feel like brushes are easier and I like using them more. For my portfolio this year I found a vintage brush and a paper brush and I layered them to give them an authentic look. For this year’s portfolio I tried to include more design than last year. My style has also changed. Last year was very pretty and clean and this year I went more edge rather than “cute”. My writing has also improved. Last year, I was new to staff and did not really know how a good story was written. My sport story this year is so much better than the stories I wrote last year. Last year I went through nearly four edits just from David alone, but this year my baseball story was only resubmitted once, which was a huge accomplishment. Overall this year I knew more what a good book looked like. In the beginning when we were trying to finalize a design and we were referenced so many different books, I learned the types of pictures that looked okay and the ones that looked phenomenal.
Design
Deadline 1
Deadline 2
Deadline 3
Deadline 4
Deadline 5
Deadline 7
Design