Senior Project Reflection

PART I: Two-Hour Presentation
(1) Two-Hour Presentation Student Assessment


P+, because I met all the requirements for the content and activity, but I exceeded the expectations for the creativity.
(2) What are you most proud of in your 2 hour presentation and why?


I am most proud of the way my room decorations turned out and the reactions I got from the class for my room and presentation. I'm also happy that everyone participated with all my activities. 
PART II: Overall Senior Project Experience

(3) What do you think you did well on in the project? What could you have done better? Please explain.
My service learning because it is where I learned the most and supported my answers through my experiences. I could have gotten perspectives from different bakeries and bakery owners instead of focusing all year on just one.

(4) What is your EQ and what is the best answer to your EQ? 
What is most important to running a successful bakery distribution company? Having a quality product and consistency. 

(5) How has the last month of culminating events (e.g I-Search, Two-Hour, Exit etc) affected your answer to your EQ? Has it changed? Why or why not? 
The answers to my essential question were further defined and went into more detail. For the I-Search paper I had to think about where exactly my answers came from. This helped me remember my experiences at the bakery and apply the things I did to my answers. 

(6) What suggestions do you have in order to improve the senior project?
I think the final projects at the end (creative expression, I-search, exit interview, service learning and 2 hour) should try and be spread out a little more. 

(7) Overall Senior Project Assessment

AE P AP CR NC


P, because I've meet the requirements for everything throughout the year. 

Service Learning

Literal

• I went to service learning almost every Saturday for four hours from 8am-12. Second semester I completed 44 service learning hours and a total for the year of 100 hours. I continued packaging bread, occasionally rolled dough, covered pie, made cookie trays, and little tasks like sweep, clean windows and take out the trash. I got to experience working with customers and serving them at the register. 
• Michael Peyton/Adam Bishop- (909) 945-0400

Interpretive
The most important thing I gained from my time at the bakery has been the basic skills and knowledge to run a bakery. All my life I have been on the front side of the counter, but at my service learning I got to see what it is like on the other side. I learned simple techniques that I think effect their bakery's success that could later help me for my own bakery. I learned personal skills that I can use later in life, like how to greet customers so they want to come back, just by watching other employees. It was the personal experience of working with others in a work force environment that has had the most impact on me, that also helped me better understand and relate to my project. 


Applied
Working at my service learning and talking with the owners/manager, I not only discovered my answers, I proved them. I noticed the customers came back for the bakery's all natural, made fresh daily, hand rolled bread. This is a quality product to the bakery, as well as their customers. The customers expected this every time they came in. A lady brought to our attention bread she bought that had holes in it from the way it was baked. It was not only the quality that she wanted, proving that not only is quality important, but consistency as well. 
Majority of the employees were usually in good moods even though their work calls for early mornings and a lot of labor. The overall environment of the bakery was cheerful and everyone seemed to get along. I came to the conclusion that it is a result of how the management handles their relationship with their employees. Adam Bishop had told me he try's to keep his employees happy and meets with them each every month. He encourages them to come to him with any questions or concerns they might have. This open line of communication reflected positively with the relationship of employees and other employees. It also showed with the way they welcomed me.
Many customers that I wouldn't consider "regular" came in with coupon clippings from a magazine. The bakery uses this technique to market itself. I thought offering discounts was an effective way to attract new customers. It even encouraged the "regular" customers to buy more products in addition to what they usually buy. I also heard customers mention the bakery products at local farmers markets. Promotions and public events also attracted more customer.

2 hour Presentation Rough Draft

Sponge Activity

• Some kind of teamwork activity. Later I will explain to them how it relatates to my answer good manager-employee relationship.

Introduction

• What is most important to running a successful bakery distribution company?
• Running your own bakery means you are the owner and you are handling all the finances and make all the decisions.
• Success is making enough profit to live a leisurely life with a positivly veiwed business.
• Bakery distribution company is selling your product to others, wheather it's store front or to other companies for resale.
• I decided on owning your own bakery as my senior project topic because I want to own my own bakery one day. I thought this was the best opportunity to learn how to do it.
• I'm going to explain the 3 answers I discovered to my essential question and after each one we'll see what you learned by doing an activity. Then i'll wrap it up by tellling you my best sources, and my product of my whole senior year journey.

Fondation

• What it takes to be a baker.
• Early mornings.
• Patience with products. Making sure they come out right every time.
• What it takes to be a bakery owner.
• Also early mornings.
• Helps to know yourself how to do every job in the bakery.
• Management skills/knowledge--> financial decision making skills, understanding employees (explain more in detail later)
• An owner needs high energy and passion for the business. A manager's attitude influences the attitude and performance of other employees.

Body

• Answer 1: Manager-Employee Relationship and Customer Satisfaction
• Communication between managers and their employees is important to meet all the bakery needs and reach success.
• Prevent misunderstandings.
• Empower employees. Offer them different job opportunities. Don’t try taking  on all the jobs, that’s the reason you hire employees.
• By empowering employees, the employees gain the manager’s high energy and passion, increasing success. Employees feel valued and important, useful.
• The whole staff is working together as a team striving for the goal of success.
• Employees are happy and friendly and this leads to happy customers. The bakery is also kept clean with a welcoming environment. This image  of the bakery influences returning and potential customers. By ensuring customer satisfaction, sales will continue, maintaining bakery success.
• Activity: 

• Answer 2: Quality Product and Consistency 
• Find strengths and weaknesses of employees. Success increases when employees strengths and weaknesses are identified.
• Understand ingredients, tools and equipment and know how to properly and effectively use them. 
• Quality product comes from using all natural ingredients and baking fresh everyday. Measure everything correctly. 
• Quality product also comes from the display or packaging of the product. Appealing to the eye. Show students displays and packagings of products.
• Activity: In groups have students arrange a small basket of baked goods. Not sure if it should be real products or something else. Provide them with ribbon baskets or bags etc. (?)
• Answer 3: Execute effective Marketing Skills
• Establish your target audience. You need to know who you are trying to sell your product to so you know whose attention you are trying to grab. 
• Use surveys and city demographics. Companies that do it for you. 
• Develop and keep business connections. They will help maintain business quality and performance by giving a competitive edge. 
• When you product is being sold in another market it helps your own business because other people recognize your product. (Service learning)
• Marketing Mix and 4 P's of Marketing.
• Keep adding new something new.
• It attracts new customers who were not interested in your current products and services.
• It generates repeat sales from existing customers who also want to have your new product.
• It enables you to get bigger sales by combining 2 or more items into special package offers.
• Separate yourself from your competition. Signature product or specialty. Also putting coupons in different magazines for the community. 
• Community involvement--->Farmer's markets.
• Tools available. People/sources. It is their job to help you get research and market. 
• Activity: Have students in groups "own their own bakery". They chose a one form of marketing i talk about (adding something new, signature product, coupon ad). Using one of the strategies they have to market their bakery. If they add something new they have to say what it is, why they chose it, how they think it will improve sales. If they have a signature product they have to say what it is, why they chose it, the different things that they offer with that specialty. (I don't know about this one. It's not that well thought out. 

Conclusion

• My best answer is having a quality product and consistency. This is because if no one likes the product that you are selling then nothing else is going to matter. It needs to look and taste good each time the customer buys it. 
• My most important sources were my service learning at Old Town Baking Co., Adam Bishop, Michael Peyton, and different articles from a website called Entrepreneur and U.S. Small Business Administration.
• Adam and Michael were my 3rd and 4th interviews so i learned from them both directly and indirectly. They both basically lead me to my answers, but most of what I learned from them was keeping the customers happy and the relationships with other employees. 
• At service learning I experienced the different things Adam and Michael were saying and this helped me better understand what they were talking about. I also learned by watching what different employees were doing around me. Example how to roll the dough, package bread, wrap a pie, help a customer.
• Entrepreneur had different business articles, like 'Get Your Product to Market in Six Steps' by Tamara Monosoff. I liked her explanation of marketing and how you can be creative and there are endless possibilities. She said you are the best person to market your own product. Since i don't have my own business her explanation I felt i could still relate to it.
• My product is the experience I got through my service learning. It was my first job and I experienced working with others in a work environment. Obviously I have worked in groups at school for the past 4 years, but the workforce is not entirely the same. I gained people skills by working the front counter and helping customers. I've gained problem solving skills from dealing with orders that were incorrect. 

Independent Component 2

1. 3/16: Paul Frank cake- 5 hrs. 3/19: Cupcake pops, mini cupcakes, cake balls- 7 hrs. 4/1: Boxing cake- 3 hrs. 4/19: Sesame Street cupcakes- 3 hrs. 4/24: Cake pops- 2 hrs. Total: 20 hrs. Remaining hours done with service learning- Saturday's 8am-12pm.

3. LIA:
Literal
(a) I, Amy Gracia, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) I baked and decorated cakes and cupcakes for birthdays. I tried something new which was making cake pops, mini cupcakes and small cake balls. I also put them together and organized them in a decorative way.

Interpretive
The overall process of baking can be really precise. From the actual baking, to the decorating and display. When baking, the little details may be stressful, but they make a difference in the final product. For example, the mini cake balls is cake that I shaped into mini cupcakes. Figuring out how to shape them and cover them to look like cupcakes was a challenge. The Sesame cupcakes has different detail to make the characters come to life as much as possible. All this detailing took extra effort and time.

Applied

Each time I bake I go through trial and error. I learn what works, what doesn't work, a better way of doing something. The more you practice something the better you are going to get. This has helped me further define what a quality product is. In addition, I realized how important consistency is. Each time you make something you need to be able to do it the same way next time. This is the only way to know how to improve your product, by knowing what you did and what you need to change.

Independent Component 2 Update

(1) What are you doing to fulfill the 30 hour requirement for this component?
I am continuing with my service learning, and baking.

(2) What are you currently working on? How many hours have you completed?
I go to the bakery every week and bake when I have enough free time. Not including service learning, I have about 12 hours of baking.

(3) So far, how is it helping you with your essential question?
At service learning, I have been "moving up", which means I'm getting a chance to experience the different jobs at the bakery. This helps me learn the operation of a bakery business. My baking experiences has been trial and error, and this is helping me find out what it takes to produce a "quality product" that not only looks good, but tastes good too. I'm starting to become more familiar with the ingredients and tools that I use, and am asking "why did this happen?" when something goes wrong.

Creative Expression

1. What type of art could you study to help improve your understanding of your senior project topic?
Baking in itself is a form of art. I could chose one ingredient, (lets say chocolate), and find all the different ways it can be used when baking (which there are tons). Because the art in baking usually comes from what you produce in the end, which has endless possibilities.


2. Give me ideas of what you could do or make for a creative expression presentation.
I could make an artistic display of products that I make. It could be a store front display, or an arrangement of my products, or the most appealing picture that can be used for advertising. 
I'm really not to sure what to do.------->Help!

The Product

     My product is a possible career choice. What I have learned so far has made me realize that I want to someday open and operate a bakery of my own. I want to make my bakery a friendly "family" environment similar to where I do my service learning. The employees have a relationship with many of the customers, which also attracts people. The reason I want to own my own bakery is because I can make all the creative decisions. I'm not just another employee doing my job. Don Bishop (owner), in my 2nd interview, said some of the employees don't have the same outlook on the business as he does, it is just a paying job to them. The way I see it, is if I had a bakery of my own, I wouldn't be another one of those employees. "If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life."
     Being owner would also allow me to know how to do every job. The manager at my service learning knows how to do every job, which I think is important. This allows him to work side by side with all of his employees, building a solid relationship with them.