J U L I A CO N D E S PORTFOLIO 2015-2016
TO: Mr. Reese Morgan & Morgan Law Offices
Cell: (407) 406-3870 condesjulia36@gmail. com Twitter: @CondesJulia Instagram: @j.condes
Dear Mr. Reese, As a high school student currently enrolled in William R. Boone High School’s law magnet program, I am seeking an opportunity to complete a summer internship with your law offices and gain both knowledge and skill in the field of law to take with me throughout the rest of my academic career. At Boone, I am currently a staffer on Boone’s Hilights newspaper where I have become well-versed in the use of Google applications due to their necessity in class thus gaining proficiency in docs and spreadsheet, and also gained skills in multiple Adobe applications like Photoshop CS6, InDesign CS6, and Bridge CS6. In addition to the technological skills I have gained on HiLights staff I am also currently enrolled in the Flatiron School online coding program, furthering my abilities with technological needs. Apart from my skills with computer-based work I am also a dedicated worker and I work well with groups in terms of communication and motivation and I work just as well alone, able to focus on the task before me. Another skill that I have gained through the newspaper program is that of speaking professionally and efficiently with others, mainly through the experience of conducting interviews with fellow students and administrators alike, as well as speaking on the phone with those interested in potentially advertising in our award-winning paper and meeting with these same people in person to make sales. Along with the experience that I have gained on Boone’s newspaper staff I believe that I would be a great fit into the circulation of the office because of my experience in multiple on-campus clubs such as the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance. I am the club’s elected historian for the 2016-2017 school year and already have experience managing this position in the club. With the experience of historian, I am able to efficiently organize files and keep records of past occurrences and important people and dates relevant to the task I am assigned with. It is with these skills that I am confident I can bring a good addition to the company as an intern. You can contact me at my cellphone number (407) 406-3870 or at my email address condesjulia36@gmail.com. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Respectfully yours,
Julia Condés
OBJECTIVE
EXPERIENCE
To acquire knowledge and skill in the field of law.
HiLights newspaper staff (2015-2016) -Conducted interviews; wrote multiple articles published in the paper; sold advertisement to local businesses; designed layouts in InDesign CS6; edited Images on Photoshop CC & CS6 through color editing, saving files, etc.; sorted images and created new files on Bridge CS6
Cell: (407) 406-3870 condesjulia36@gmail. com Twitter: @CondesJulia Instagram: @j.condes
SKILLS -Proficient in Adobe programs Photoshop CC & CS6, Bridge CS6, and InDesign CS6 -Proficient in Google drive applications: docs, spreadsheet -Proficient in Microsoft applications: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint -Knowledgeable in the coding language Ruby -Conversational in Spanish EDUCATION -Completed 2 years at William R. Boone High School, Orlando, Fla. -Graduation: 2018; weighted GPA 3.2 RELEVANT SCHOOL STUDIES -Completed English I and II honors -Received a college credit in AP Human Geography -Completed Computers for College and Careers Readiness -Currently enrolled in the Flatiron School online coding program -Completed Debate III honors -Completed three years of Turkish as a foreign language ACTIVITIES & AWARDS -Awarded an All-Florida by the Florida Scholastic Press Association in the “Profile” category -Awarded an All-Florida by the FSPA in the “Review” category -Winner of the Best of the Best award by FSPA in the “Review” category -Completed 70+ hours of community service -Gay-Straight Alliance member (2014- present); historian (2016- present) -Sophomore Class Council member (2015- 2016) -Orlando Science School’s Student Government Association historian (2013-2014) -Social Justice member (2015- present) -Ocean Activists member (2015- present) -Mayor Buddy Dyer’s Book Club member (2011- present) -Lady Braves cross country member (2015- present) -OCPS volunteer (2012- present) REFERENCES Daniel Glatstein, senior web developer for Contently, (818) 259- 3640 Melissa Graham, OCPS school teacher, melissa.graham@ocps.net David Perricelli, Seminole Community College professor, (407) 299- 6364
SELF A N A LY S I S
Over the course of my year on HiLights staff, I have struggled with making deadline, with turning in all of my work etc. However, since the beginning of the year, these struggles have turned into some of my biggest assets- assets that I hope to take with me as I move on from staff and continue the rest of my high school career. Almost ironically, it was through my failures as a staffer that I learned how to persevere and succeed. There were several times that I failed to meet deadline while on staff, but although I would become upset, I learned to continue to push forward and simply do my best to get my work in. For instance, one deadline that I struggled with especially was that of the December issue, and one of my two articles published in that issue won the Best of the Best award from the Florida Scholastic Press Association. Prior to joining staff, I was uncomfortable with conducting interviews with authority figures or with people I did not personally know. And although I still experience the awkwardness of questioning someone I am not familiar with, interviewing someone is not nearly as terrifying or worrisome as I once found it. Also since joining the staff my writing skills have greatly improved as has my ability to recognize and eliminate passive voice in sentences and phrases. The multiple edits that my stories went through, taught me a surprising amount about “to be” verbs, passive voice, and different aspects of AP style which I find relevant to several of my other classes (e.g. English; potentially AP Language Arts which I will be taking in my junior year).
“ T H R O U G H M Y FA I L U R E S . . . I L E A R N E D H O W T O P E R S E V E R E A N D S U CC E E D . ” The communication and team skills I gained while on staff are invaluable. I gained important experience that not only relates to HiLights but that, as I now realize, also pertains to the larger occupational and academic world. Through both my failures and successes as a member of staff, I learned the importance of functioning properly in a unit with others to achieve a goal, complete a task and communicate efficiently All in all, I emerged from my time as a staffer, though bruised and battered and tearful a better person and writer because of it. I was never proud of my own work. Every issue I felt that what I was turning in was less than mediocre, a stain on the paper that would only ruin its reputation. Even winning a Best of the Best and an All-Florida was not confirmation of even decency as a writer for me. But now that I move on from my tumultuous time as a HiLights staffer I accept, that, yes, I did mess up several times over, and yes, there were instances when I let the paper down but our paper still won awards- I still won awards- and, even better than that, I have grown incredibly close with some of my fellow staffers. So, yes, my experience could have been less stressful and tear-rendering, but I still learned an awful lot and I would not trade what I have learned for anything.
R E F L E C T I O N 1
When writing my article “Tartini needs improvements,” a review on an Italian restaurant, I faced multiple challenges, not only in following proper grammar but also in expressing my own opinion about the restaurant in an honest, articulate and understandable way. The reason that I initially chose to write this piece was that I thought it would be an interesting opportunity to write a review, in which I would have the chance to influence people’s decision to go to a certain place or not- all based on a few paragraphs printed on an unimaginative serif font. Although I was glad to have this opportunity, I was also glad that the piece was not on a heavy subject. For instance, I could have influenced someone’s opinion just as much had I written an Our View or Op-Ed on something as serious on the Syrian refugee crisis. Although “Tartini” was not the first review I had ever written, it was definitely the most difficult. Unlike most other types of articles I have worked on this year, “Tartini,” as a review, depended wholly on my own opinion of the establishment; what I wrote reflected on me more severely, I felt, than on a DPS where a particular theme is followed by multiple writers or in a factual, news-based article. My first draft of “Tartini” was riddled with verb tense inconsistency and passive voice, as well vague and confusing explanations of the meals served at the restaurant. Through multiple edits (I consider this piece to be the piece in which I had the most edits to make, mainly due to my verb tenses and
“ T H E F I N A L D R A F T O F “ TA R T I N I ” A C T U A L LY B R O U G H T M E A S U B T L E K I N D O F J OY . ” passive voice sentences) and one resub, I eliminated my passive voice from 80% to 2%. It is through this article that I feel I have learned the most about not only review writing, but also passive voice. Prior to writing this piece, I had never been truly exposed to identifying and correcting passive voice in my work. By the time the paper went to press, though, I was comfortable in my ability to successfully complete the above. Later on in the year, I took on another restaurant review. In spite of this piece going through multiple edits of its own, I did not feel the same confusion and frustration in writing a restaurant review; the second time around was most definitely not as difficult as the first. The final draft of “Tartini” actually brought me a subtle kind of pride. Only a week before finishing the piece, I felt hopeless about replacing “to be” and “is” from my piece, but when it was finished I could see how much more polished and professional it had really come. “Tartini” was the first piece I wrote for the paper that I took real pride and pleasure in. Therefore, despite the stress of that particular deadline, the learning experience I had pertaining to “Tartini” most certainly made me a stronger and more aware writer. I was exceedingly pleased with the end product and its affect on those who read it, which is ultimately why I feel that it is my most significant piece.
R E F L E C T I O N 2
N14.
I would like to submit “Tartini needs improvements” as a contestant for the cultural review category because I feel confident in its overall quality. This piece is the piece I am most proud of this year, and because of this I would like to submit it. As it has already won a Best of the Best award, it makes me feel that it may have a chance to win.
N12.
I chose this piece because I enjoyed writing it. I find the subject matter interesting and I like the overall layout of the piece. I feel that the person I wrote the piece on, Joshua Dawson, deserves to receive recognition for his skill as a photographer, and would love to get him recognition through this piece.
N14.
When I wrote this restaurant review, I was already confident in my ability to write a review, due to my expeience with writing “Tartini.” Because of this I feel that it is one of my better and more polished pieces and I feel that this makes it a better piece to submit for competition
CLIPS WRITING
I enjoyed writing “Tartini” because I feel that this article taught me the most about passive voice and “to be” verbs more so than any other piece I worked on. I am also very proud of the fact that it won a Best of the Best award from the Florida Scholastic Press Association.
I chose this piece to represent me in writing because of the difficulty that I had with it. All throughout writing the story, I struggled to add an emotional aspect to it. By the time this piece went to press however, I felt that I had achieved a sort of balance in incorporating emotion and fact.
What’s Mine: q Body Copy q Captions q Photography q Secondary Coverage q Design
I feel that this particular piece is a good example of my writing, even though I published it as a mostly inexperienced staffer. I tried to incorporate the emotional and factual aspects of adoption, which tie into the overall theme of this DPS.
CLIPS DESIGN
Although the design did not come out as I had initially planned, I still enjoyed working on something a little different than the usual with this feature. This piece won an All-Florida and made me really proud of the work I put into it.
CLIPS WEB
To read the full story click here Aximus adisimil ium nate volorro rendelic totat dolorem et moluptataspe nos deliqua eproriatum, ut pligeni aces re aut doluptat. Agnis et oditi quid ut estis mint laboriam, cusdanis et et volorei ciumquundia verumquo et ut aut enimus estiis eatus, ommostiumqui aut volorer sperehento quis maximi, vit quodis volupta tiusdandi core pos audam acesequae nis verioratatem eius in consed es esentur? Soluptam, adis adis aut estior recatas simporist fugit mintem iunt, cus ut estrum debis sam ditiunt modiatis dit ommolectiur? Debis del maionse quasped quiasitatem faccae volu