Set 2

So far, I have not talked much to that many people, but, there is one interesting thing that was pretty cool. I messaged my mentor Travis Koshko, because he was the only person I had secured a mentorship with, and he is the lead meteorologist at CBS19 Weather. I wanted to ask him what weather app I should use for advanced radar because I wanted to be more involved in studying radars and learning about weather patterns. Before I asked him this, I had used basic weather apps like storm radar, because I did not know much about radars or other information. I had looked at and researched a few apps like Radarscope and Radar Omega because they were popular and had a decent amount of features for only a little bit of money. So I contacted my mentor, and it was interesting because he said that he had used Radarscope for years, and he recommended it and the tier 1 that I was looking at for his family and anyone who asks him for a radar app. He said that this app was great for non-professionals and even professionals as well, as it had great features and was only $10, and then for tier 1 $10 a month. I found this very interesting because I did not expect Radarscope to be a popular app that professionals even used, I only really expected it to be used by people just wanting to look at radar images. While he did say there were some more complex apps, Radarscope would be a good choice for me, and so that is what I am going to get, it's interesting because he convinced me to get the app. I did eventually end up getting this app because I feel that in the future it will be very beneficial for me.

During my Senior Capstone project, I had lots of challenges, mainly with trying to contact people. I have contacted lots of different people, trying to get a response from them and to secure an internship or community service, but most of them have either not had availability for me, or just straight up did not respond. This has been very difficult because with a topic like meteorology, there is not much for me to do, it's very limited, especially with how the weather is in Virginia. But, even with all these people not responding, there is not much that I can do about it, all I can do is try to message them back and find more people to contact. That is what I have been doing this entire time, every time I do not get a response from someone, I mark it on my list and once it has been 10 days, I try to send them a reminder email, but normally I also just try to find someone else that I can contact, as I cannot be waiting forever for them to respond. I had a list of exactly who I had contacted, and if it was over a certain amount of time from contact, and exactly what process I am in the contact phase with them, which was helpful in this contact phase. But, going into depth on a specific challenge, I was trying to find an internship and I had contacted over 10 people, but again most did not respond, I was getting worried because I did not have an internship secured yet, and I was worried that I would either have to swap topics or have to get some kind of extension or something. But, luckily, I did secure two separate internships for 20 hours total, so that is very good and that relieves my worries. 

Overall, I am feeling more confident about this project than I felt a few weeks ago. Weeks ago, I was worried that I was going to have trouble with getting an internship because no one was responding, but now with two internships confirmed with Travis Koskho as well as Dominique Smith, I am feeling a lot more confident. Those will give me the 20 hours that I need for internship hours, leaving only about 10 hours left through community service for my project. I am currently in touch with a few people at different places about possibly doing weather awareness as well as other things that are impactful to the community regarding meteorology. 

I feel that this project itself is very nice and helps me prepare more for college. Connecting to all of these mentors and doing activities related to what I am interested in can help me further my knowledge of what I want to do in college as well as be more prepared for going into college. Right now my top college choice is Virginia Tech, doing something with Atmospheric Science and maybe also Astronomy, but I am not locked in yet about that as well. Also, doing these internships and community service can help improve my college application, while it is through BRVGS, doing these internships will still make my application look better and give me a better chance to be accepted overall.

Overall I believe that my progress in the project is going pretty strong. Whenever I need help with something, I get a response fast. I also try to improve on my mistakes, because at first there were some issues with my first journal, but I fixed them up once I learned. I believe that I am on a good pace to finish my internships and community service in July, and then finish my overall project by the end of July, and then I will be ready to present a few months later! I do know that there will be a research component either way, and I do not know what it is yet, but I believe I will be capable of doing it easily, and that I can push through and complete this project!