STEPPortfolio Finished Finally

So I finally finished my step Portfolio today, way later then it was due (but still before Qiams was done). I'm gonna turn it in on Wensday, so If any of you want to proof read my personal transition plan, go right ahead. I want to make sure its perfect since its taken this long. Here it is.
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Personal Transition Plan

In the year after I graduate from Tahoma Senior High School, I plan on to continue attending Green River Community College for at least another year. The reason why I have chosen not to go on to a 4 year university right away is two fold, not ready yet to financially support myself and the fact that I wish to first earn my Arts Associate Degree, so that it would be easier to be accepted into a quality university. In my spare time I plan on to continue my job at Safeco Field in Seattle and hopefully get a Internship with the Seattle Mariners Front Office. My goals had originally been to go straight to a university and major in journalism but that changed when I realized that I wasn’t ready yet for a four year university, and that I could make a living working in the sports industry, my true passion in life.

In order to get myself on my way towards these goals I have taken some necessary steps in order to make it easier on myself. I enrolled at Green River Community college for my senior year in the Running Start program that Tahoma Senior High School offered. The fact that I am enrolled enables me to get a head start on earning my AA degree at a fraction of that it would have cost me to do after I graduated. At the same time I am also getting my foot in the door when it comes to working for the Seattle Mariners, as for the last year I have been a valuable member of the Fielder program that they have. The Fielder program is what the Mariners call The 125 or so teenagers that they hire to help out around the stadium for games and other events that are hosted there. They are paid helpers and many of them have been able to make the move up into the Front Office and are now involved in many of the baseball personal decisions that are so frequently talked about on the news. I have also worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as a high school sports reporter and because of that experience I now have connections in sports journalism field in the greater Seattle Area.

My personal interests and abilities affected my STEP portfolio more than any other factor that I encountered. From the very start I knew I wanted to focus on my true passion in life: Sports. Everyone that knows anything about me knows that I am the single most knowledgeable person they could ask a sports related question to and that they can take my answer no matter how obscure the question was, as pure fact. I also have this type of reputation when it comes to history, politics or current global events, but none of those mean as much to me as sports. People may consider my knowledge of sports ironic due to the fact that I have the exact opposite build of what a athlete would pokes, but because of that I try extra hard to get into the sports industry. The self awareness assessments that I took only emphasized what I already knew about my personality. They said that I wanted to be a physical performer and that I was outgoing, easygoing, accepting, friendly, fond of a good time and like sports and finds remembering facts easier then mastering theories. All this is a perfect analysis of myself.

Something that I observed in my job shadow experience was the fact that Sports Management was in fact the career that I would wish to do for the rest of my life. Personally, I thought that while my host didn’t actually enjoy his job, I would enjoy doing every day of my life. The very thought of waking up and working at Safeco Field, the same place where so many of my teenage heroes have played, has me excited for my future unlike any other possibility. With the chance that I might have the talent to maybe be the general manger of the Seattle Mariners or any other sports team for that matter, is a good enough reason to work in that career pathway to the till the day I die.

My job shadow experience was not much more different then I expected to be as I have researched it numerous times in the past, before deciding on this career path. I was surprised to learn that even though there are no baseball games played in the off-season, that my host would remain just busy as busy as he would have if he had been working during the season. Other than that I would that all the office work that he did (scheduling promotions, managing budgets, etc) all fell in line to what I was expecting to see.

I think that I will be fairly well prepared for a job in the sports industry as soon as I finish my upper education at the university of my choice. Some of the reasons why I will be successful have to due with the fact that many consider myself to be very informed when it comes to sports. They also comment about how nice and funny I can be when in a group of people, but at the same time also very helpful and compassionate when the situation calls for it. A good majority of my past teachers have said that I am the most creative and intelligent student in their class. They remarked that I have a astounding ability to recite all most any trivial fact that they can think of no matter if it has to do with sports, history, politics or current events. They also like how I am so interested in reading and increasing my knowledge base.

If I could direct the grader of this paper to one particular area of my portfolio, I would find it to be difficult as I think that I have done a fine job on all aspects of the project. The area that stands out more than any other would have to be the Foundation Transition Items section, as if you read it closely, you will find a very accurate description on myself, strengths and weaknesses included. My biggest weakness when it came to the portfolio would be the fact that I was very busy with Running Start and was not able to finish it an as timely matter as I would have liked. The skill that helped me the most on this portfolio would be my familiarity with the computer as it allowed me to word process this with ease and at the same time make it look aesthetically pleasing as well. All in all this project was A very enriching and informative process and will provide me with something to share with future employers.