Latino Educational Convention

On March 28, 2008 for the firth straight year Utah Community Credit Union together with Utah Valley University are presenting the Latino Educational Convention at Mountain View High School from 12:30 to 6:30 pm.

This event focuses on helping the Hispanic middle and high school aged youth to realize the importance of their future by giving them a vision to look past a high school education and continue to college . The event is expecting roughly 800 Latino students to participate in this year’s convention and nearly 100 volunteers.

“This is a great opportunity to give a lot to the Latino community in our area. The main idea is to help the students to catch the vision needed to be able to further their education.” Said Jorge Aguero, marketing director for Utah Community Credit Union, and volunteer coordinator for the educational convention.

Aguero was touched by the program when he volunteered during the first convention at American Fork High School five years ago. Since then he has continued to volunteer his time to continue helping Latino students.

“We’re starting to see the fruits.” Aguero said.

According to Aguero, many volunteers are still needed to help run the program. They are still looking for volunteers to mostly set-up and escort the students throughout the day. Throughout the evening there will be different activities going on in the school. The event will kick-off in the auditorium then from there break into smaller classroom size groups. Afterwards other trained volunteers will be making presentations to the students to encourage them, and give them motivation to stay away from gangs and quitting school.

“I think it’s a great idea. After most of these students graduate from high school they don’t think about getting more of an education. They think that a high school diploma is all they’re good for.” Said Alex Garces, a Hispanic student at UVSC.

Garces also said “It’s realizing that you are worth more, and to not just settle for less. That will help students to visualize a future of success, and not just settle for a Mcdonalds job. I’m glad I’m taking the necessary steps to further my education.”

United Way of Utah County asks that the schools involved in the program try to make a one dollar donation to the program for every student that participates in the program. This contribution isn’t obligatory, but is helpful to the program. The money is used to start a scholarship fund that is then given back to the students.

“This year we stepped up the program a level with more workshops. This year the program is more balanced and complete.” Said Aguero.

For more volunteer information please visit http://www.unitedwayucv.org/org/opp/10261146003-detailed.html

Working on a new short movie

This semester i have been taking a digital cinema class. This class is required for me to take as part of getting my degree in Communications.
So far this semester i have worked on a one minute movie. If you scroll to the very bottom of my blog you could see my 1 min movie called backwards school. This clip was posted on youtube, and it's actually my first edit, so it's not that great; however, if you have facebook, you can check out my page and see the newly edited version of my 1 minute movie.
My final project for the class has to be around 3 to 5 minutes long. I've been planning and working on a script with my group. The teacher gives us a few guidelines to follow, so this time around we had to work around a certain kind of story.
What we have planned so far for the next movie is a life of a janitor working at the school washing windows when he sees the girl of his dreams walk by. I will be playing the janitor, and will be finding friends to play the other parts. Basically the janitor follows the girl, into the library. He sees a friend of his, who is a magician who tries to hit on her. He confronts his magician friend Larry and they have little battles over trying to win her love. We're still working out the details, but basically they find out that they're just working themselves up over nothing, because she's just way out of their league.
I edit these movie clips with final cut pro on the mac. It's amazing how much you could do with using the art of cinematography. It's quite simple to do. If you wanted to, you could film a movie with your digital camera.
Windows comes with a program called windows media editor that is like a simplified version of final cut pro. So everybody could essentially create their own little skit type movies if they wanted to, whether they used a mac or a PC.
Stay tuned in a couple of weeks to see my latest movie.

Spoiling myself

I have been wanting to get a new tv for a long time. I don't know why, but i have just wanted to spoil myself a little bit. I have been searching around for the past couple weeks and was deciding if i would muster up the courage and fork out the money.

I finally did it today. I got a 46" 1080p samsung flatscreen for $1450. It was an open box, so i got a better deal. Actualy when the mananger came over to help with the sell, he was a little upset at how under priced the tv was. The sales guy told me that they lost 8% because someone didn't list the open box price right. The original one was $2100, so i'm not complaining. I later saw the manger talking to some other employees about what had happened as if he was lecturing them for being the ones for listening the tv wrong.

The hiden fees. So with a hi-def tv you need a HDMI cable, that was like 60 bucks, then you also need to get a surge protector. The protector cuts out dirty power to keep a better image. That was another 80 bucks, then also had some screen cleaner. I figured it would probably be smart to buy an extended warranty, so i got a 3 year for almost another 300. So that racks things up pretty fast.

There is a huge difference from my old regular 32" tv. When i watch tv in my room at night it almost seems like the light is still on, cause it's so bright. Especially with the simpsons and the family guy. Those cartoons are really bright.

Since it's spring break i wont have as much time to enjoy the new luxuries of life. Tomorrow im heading up to Kennewick, WA to visit my aunt Katie for the rest of the week with my brother and his wifey and kiddies. Should be some good times, but i'm not looking forward to the drive with the little girls in the car for nearly 10 hours.

Internship in Madrid, Spain

Last semester I had the opportunity of a lifetime when I traveled to Spain to do an internship.

I learned about opportunities to do an international internships when i took an international business/cross cultural communications class at UVSC when I came across the U.S. Commercial Services home page, while I was searching for information about how to do business in Spain for my final project. I thought it might be cool to find an excuse to return to the country where i served my mission, but what I found was a lot more than that.

I became extrememly interested in pursuing an internship at the U.S. Embassy, so I decided to give it a shot. One thing after another, a few emails later and after passing the security clearance process that took a few months, I was accepted.

It was a fun experience working for the U.S. government. I got to go through all of the security briefings that all embassy employees had to go through, and goto do some of the activities that the commercial service office set up, including a couple of cocktail receptions at the Ambassador's residence. One reception was dedicated to a project that the office did on the Puerto Rico Trade Mission. (Pictured are other interns and myself)

Being a public relations major, I really wanted to focus on getting good contacts that I could use for future references, and do my best to leave a lasting impression on everyone that I worked with. I knew that I would be working with a lot of U.S. and Spanish companies. Working with these companies would help me to have "An in" with international companies, so that I could refer back to these companies for employement after I graduate.

Commercial Service Spain helps all American companies interested in doing business with Spanish companies to find key contacts which will help them to jump start their international business desires in finding international partners, sales agents, or distributors in Spain.

Some of the work I did consisted of assisting market specialists with doing International Partner Searches (IPS) for an American company. One particular company that I helped was called Lee Springs. I contacted various spring manufacturers in Spain to find interested companies in becoming the leading distributor in Spain for the interested American company. For Lee Springs alone, I found 5 potential sales agents and distributors, and one of them was willing to give an entire manufaturing plant for the manufacuring or distribution of Lee Springs products.

When I had free time, I was always asking specialists where I could lend a hand. Most of what I did consited of preparing contact lists of potential distributors and importers in Spain for U.S. firms interested in the Foods, Furniture, Lawn and Garden, Automotive, Dental and Medical sectors.

One of the coolesting things I did was help market Utah tourism in Spain by featuring Utah as a destination of the month for U.S. Commercial Services homepage. What I did was compiled tourism information on the top tourist destinations in Utah. This page promotes Utah tourism to Spanish travel firms. The information was used to spotlight Utah as the destination of the month and just recently got put up onto the website last month. To see the page click on the following link. http://www.buyusa.gov/spain/es/utah.html

I'm glad that I got the opportunity to do this internship. I learned a lot, and met a lot of really great people. I really hope that this internship will help me stand out in my resumee as I try to find future employment.

Recycling in Provo

Provo- As landfills continue to pile up, some wonder if the city has any filtrated steps toward recycling. Most cities do have recycling programs. On August 1, 2003 Provo City contracted with Waste Management Inc. to create a city wide recycling program to combat against environmental waste issues.

Residents now have the option to have recyclable items picked up from their homes. But are residents taking advantage of this fairly new resource?

Provo City may have an established recycling program, but only a fraction of residents are taking advantage of the recycling program. Often times people become confused about the steps required to get signed up for the program.

The process begins with people who are interested in helping out the environment. The recycling program is all about saving space in landfills in order to make landfills last longer.

“Throwing garbage into the ground and covering it up with dirt is not justifiable by any means,” said Lyons, a 43-year-old contractor from Provo. "Most of our garbage can be eliminated. We throw so much away that can be reused.”

Recycling may be the right thing to do, but it will cost residents. A small five dollar monthly fee will be assessed to the resident’s utility bill and in exchange for the fee, Waste Management will drop off a 90-gallon blue plastic container. This container is similar to the existing black garbage bins that residents currently have.
Once the sign up fee and bin delivery have been made, citizens can begin recycling. Recyclable items include: newspapers, clean cardboard, cereal boxes, junk mail, phone books, aluminum cans, tin food cans, plastics and small appliances. These objects that can be tossed into the blue bin. There’s no need to separate the items, and depending on the amount of other recyclers in the neighborhood, the pick-up can be weekly or bi-weekly.

“I think we as Americans waste resources that could be recycled,” said Lynn Cannon, a 28 year recycling Provo City resident. “I think we need to step up and try to do our part in helping the environment by recycling. I support Provo by recycling. It‘s simple and I don‘t even need to separate the papers from plastics,” said Cannon.

Provo now has another option for those who would like to recycle but prefer not to have the curbside recycling container at their house. Residents can take recyclable items to a drop-off bin at a compost station located at 1625 South Industrial Parkway. This service is free to residents. For detailed hours of operations please use the following link. http://www.provo.org/pubworks.recycling.html . The link also includes other drop-off locations in Provo for other items that are not accepted at the recycling bin found at the compost station.

South Utah Valley Solid Waste District located in Springville is the location to drop-off non-recyclable items in southern Utah Valley that cannot be safely discarded in other recyclable bins found in Provo. For more information on accepted items please visit http://ww.suvswd.org/

To sign up for Provo's recycling program, call 852-6000.