Power Plant

Off of E street in Chula Vista there is a power plant that is dedicated to the researching of sea turtles. I’d never known what it was though I drive by it pretty frequently seeing as it is on the way to school from home and vice versa. We drove up to what looked like a factory almost, and parked close to the water. There was a small peninsula that extended into the middle of the small bay, we walked towards a group of people there to also monitor the sea turtles. Shortly after the children showed up, a group of 6th graders, I’d gotten used to 5th graders but I remember 6th grade and feeling superior, so being responsible for these elementary school grownups was a little nerve racking.


We went over some questions from their fifth grade experience at the Chula Vista Nature Center, and decided to make it a little fun, remembering that going on field trips in elementary school, you want the best to happen and to just have a good time. These kids were animated, laughing, a little out of control but listened when I told them to. When we went towards the place where they catch sea turtles we waited watched, but had the chance to learn from the scientists that were there. We all kept an eye out for the turtles but in the end didn’t end up seeing one. Even though we didn’t, it was still an experience worth being there for, and I feel like every moment that I get to spend with children and be a part of a learning experience I wouldn’t trade for the world.

I have been at Pro Peninsula for almost a month Guys!

While I’ve been here, doing mainly stuff that focused on Wild & Scenic like sitting in on meetings & making tickets, I also made the save the dates/postcard, and made the skeleton for the website. I’m pretty proud of the things that I’ve been doing and I feel like it’s going to be put to use & if not, I still feel like I’ve been here for a reason, I’ve learned that when you’re around people who share the same values as you and are just friendly, plus if there is love behind what you do, there is no room for failure. I’ve learned that Pro Peninsula is more than a non profit awesome organization that is dedication to the saving of sea turtles, it’s one of the organization genuinely concerned about what may become of the world if we don’t take charge.


Wild & Scenic film festival is one of the ways that many people can get the out word about things related to nature that they are passionate about. With the time and work they put into these movies they make, they deserve to be seen, but there are only a select amount that can be seen because of the time limit, but even just the effort and the ambition they must have to create something with the hope that something new will become of it is beautiful as is. With that much energy, plus videos that keep you at the edge of your seat, how could you not want ot come?

Pro Peninsula Invites You to the event, Wild & Scenic.
 

Changing The World That Rests In Their Hands

During the second week of internship I had the opportunity to go on a few field trips with one of my mentor's co-workers. We went to a place I never knew existed called The Chula Vista Nature Center. Here is where 5th graders from certain schools get a tour of the nature center and after the tour, get to write back to their pen pals in La Paz, one of the nesting places for Green Sea Turtles. After some quick setting up we waited for the children to arrive. They all stepped off the bus enthused and animated, listened to directions, were introduced to me, and began the tour. We stopped to see the Sea Turtle tank first, then to see a Wetland to learn what these places mean to the many birds that stop for a rest during long journeys to more suitable environments. We eventually made our way to the Stingray & Shark Exhibit where I got to see the kids smile and reach into a rocky tank to touch the skin of the creatures that some of them had not ever seen up close.

After several more stops to see birds and learn new and fascinating things, we made our way to the room where the kids would write to their pen pals. We arrived and after some quick directions, I wondered around helping the kids that were struggling. I came across a little boy staring at his letter with his head in his hand. I soon found out that he was deaf in one ear & was having trouble understanding the directions that were given and how to read his letter. I spent around 15 to 20 minutes helping him read & write in Spanish, and watched him receive compliments on his thoughtful and nicely written letter. Watching these children at the Stingray & Shark Exhibit excited and hearing things like "they're so soft", or "whooaaaa", more commonly, though, I’d hear laughs from the joy of being able to learn with their hands and eyes, and seeing their success writing their letters, I realized that my heart is where there are young minds, so capable of learning, giving, and most of all, changing the world that rests in their hands.

Required & Inspired

My Cohort teacher from school posted a prompt for our internship blogs asking what role our individual internship companies had in the community. I came up with this:

One word to describe Pro Peninsula; Green. Or should I say Blue? Pro Peninsula is fund within the Ocean foundation; attention focus, Sea Turtles. When I think of PeoP, I think of nature, saving endangered species, and overall seeing the beauty of earth and realizing that it should not be taken for grangted. I believe that only after a few days of being here at Pro Peninsula that differences start small.. and they grow, and grow, and you know, one day you have a film festival about what's going on in the world, the wild, that people attend and become informed, you're mailing people who want the updates. Hopefully the word gets out and there and people become more aware and into saving the environment so that up and coming generations will see the world as beautiful as it should be seen. It's pretty heart warming to feel like you're doing something selfless to benefit evey one in the world, and I think that's why so many people are members of green organizations; because of that feeling of doing something about an internationl problem. Deep down, we all want what's best for the world, who not start somewhere? Like Baja?

It's only the beginning.

I was a sophomore in high school daydreaming in the middle of Chemistry, 4th period, about all of the opportunities that would approach me when I, Milan Finnie, finally became an upperclassman. Informed about the mandatory intern experience every junior must go through in order to complete a high school career at High Tech High Media Arts, San Diego I wondered where I might choose to intern. Later that year, we began a project called HTHMA Organics. The reason for the project was clear; many familiar products are used in the world, and not very often questioned or analyzed, and sometimes contain harsh chemicals that all end up in the big blue sea. Our project was to create all natural, non-chemical beach products; sun screen, aloe, surf wax, and lip balm. Living in Imperial Beach, California, I saw this project in a different light. It would affect my hometown!

Personally, I had the opportunity to make sun screen, and ended the project feeling accomplished, proud, and most importantly, beginning a new life of being one of the many global superheroes in the world.

I am now a junior attending High Tech High Media Arts. Finally, the time came for me to choose my internship, and I struggled immensely until one day, my principal told me to check out Pro Peninsula's website and see what I thought. Interested and stoked, I sit here on my first day, a little nervous, and little anxious, but above all, excited to see how this turns out. I guess we'll just have to see.

Interested in seeing the update? See it here next week.