Exit interview Questions

(1) What is your essential question?  What is the best answer to your question and why?

• What is most important to winning a local elected position? 
• If volunteering, creating an adaptable message, and having an appropriate monetary resource can win a local election, then applying the appropriate compilation of ambulatory volunteers to target a high-propensity population of a neighborhood or precinct for a political campaign during election season is the best answer. I have come to this conclusion based solely upon the extensive experiences that I have encountered while conducting research for my senior project my mentorship and research articles.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

•   I avidly participated in two local campaigns. I took part in one with Paul Solano as it was in full swing and then moved over to Jorge Marquez and lasted with that campaign from start to finish. I also found several articles that helped support my idea of using ambulatory volunteers when working on campaigns. These articles included: "Campaign 101: Learning from Major Campaigns, Offers Insights into Running Local Elections", "Political Campaigns",  and along a few other sources. I first discovered my answers with my first mentor, Max Franco. Max talked to me about something that Dr. Ed Hernandez, the State Senator had told him was the most successful way of potentially winning a campaign. I looked deeper as I researched my topic only to have those three ideas to being the most sought out reasons to a successful campaign. Therefore making Volunteering, Message, and Money my three answers. I only made them my answers after my second mentorship opportunity where I experienced a campaign during its beginning stage all the way to its end. I came to the conclusion that by having a good amount of volunteers in a campaign is the best way, it obviously depends on the type of campaign and the elected office. Yet the volunteers are the ones that interact the most with potential supporters and do so much to make the campaign function appropriately. 

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

• In my senior project what I faced was something that was already anticipated. I had to switch mentorship due to the campaigns being over. Due to this it wasn't really a problem more like a small little bump in the road. What I would say was a problem for me was working on my science experiment. I took forever in working on it and throughout the process I had absolutely no idea on what I was going to do my experiment on. I tried going down one path and it seemed like a good idea to one teacher but didn't seem so to another one, so I tried my very best to find one that would suit both of them. I finally found out what I was able to do, I compiled all of the cities within the Los Angeles County and divided up the overall population with both Republican,Democratic, and Registered voter populations with the overall population and sought out to see if there was any correlation with the city's population being over a certain number and its likelihood of it being a city leaning over towards the Republican side. 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

• One of my main sources was my mentorship opportunities, both working with Max and Jorge helped me get a better understanding as to what happens behind the scenes in a campaign. I got a better understanding as to what it takes to make such a successful campaign and how different leveled campaigns are all the same just for a different office. I was fortunate enough to get to know various people from both local, state, and federal officials. These entailed Congressional Representatives Judy Chu and Grace Napolitano as well as State Senator Dr. Ed Hernandez along with several city council members from the surrounding area. 
• Another important source that helped me through my endeavor was multiple print sources. If I had to pinpoint one exact print source it would have to a tie between  the California Fair Political Practices Commissions and the website, CompleteCampaigns.com. Both gave me insight to rules and regulations that campaigns have to abide by when running a campaign within the state and all that a candidate must do before considering his or her candidacy for a public office. 

(5) What is your product and why?

• My product? I think would be, the connections that I have now gained from both of my mentorship opportunities. I worked long and hard demonstrating nothing but professionalism that I was basically handed my second mentorship opportunity. I worked with minimal guidance from both Rob and Jorge. One helped me get acquainted with what needed to be done and I implemented what I had gathered into my second mentorship with relative ease. Soon after I was offered an internship with Arianne Garcia who does publicity for candidates. She helps design layouts of their literature pieces and does anything relating to getting the public familiarized with the candidate.