Jesse Aguilar Senior Project

5:10pm 0 hours today 118.5 hours Sandoway isn’t open today. Unfortunately, this means that Sunday was my last day. I did do all sorts of stuff today though. I saw John Wick: Parabellum with Max. Max was one of the volunteers at Sandoway with me. As you can guess, there was an over-excessive amount of violence and action. It was really entertaining though! I also learned five songs on the ukelele! Which is great because today was my first time playing. I will continue to learn it. I just can’t believe senior project is over! The next goal is graduation!

4.5 hours today 118.5 hours today My third and final week went really well. I am grateful to have the experience that I did with such great people by my side. I felt a real connection to South Florida’s wilderness and the people I worked with. Sandoway has opened up my eyes to passions that I will most likely pursue in college. For the last few days of the week, I have been working outside in the pre-summer heat. I tried my hardest to make the best of the time I had left this week. Unfortunately for me, the week went by really quickly. I felt that there was so much left to do (in terms of tasks and spending more time with everyone) with so little time left. Though I am relieved by the fact that I did do a lot and I worked very hard. The more and more I think about it the more it seems like it paid off! The most unexpected thing happened today as I was leaving Sandoway for the last time. A man who only spoke Spanish asked me for assistance after he asked me if I spoke it myself. He...

5/18/19 2:30pm 4.5 hours today 114 hours total Today seemed like a short day compared to the usual. I spent about an hour and a half cleaning and maintaining an animal enclosure. I cleaned the glass and scooped the mulch. I lay down a new layer of mulch as well. I sanitized the rocks and fake plants in the enclosure as well. I worked at the cash register too. One more work day of senior project! So glad that I worked for such an amazing place with such great people.

5/17/19 4:40pm 4.5 hours today 109.5 hours total I got to Sandoway today and jumped right into it! Max, Evan (director of education), and I all did some garden and landscape work. This included stuff pulling out weeds, trimming hedges and raking leaves. After that, it was a really slow day. After work today Max and I went to the beach and swam out to one of the pieces of the SS Inchulva. I’ll include a picture of the boiler which is just one of the many pieces. It’s just a giant cylindrical piece of the shipwreck. It’s hollow inside so eels, lobster, crabs, and other critters like to live in there.

5/16/19 5:10pm 4.5 hours 105 hours total Another school group came in today. Only this time they were all home-schooled kids. They were a bit younger than the previous kids, but it was fun to have them and their families visit. Today, I got to get to know a volunteer named Max. He's a really good kid and we share a ton of similar interests. I invited him to the beach tomorrow after we finish working. Believe it or not, he's on a senior project too! Also, we got a to scale whale shark jaw! Picture above.

5/15/19 5:20pm 4.5 hours today 100.5 hours total Yet another school field trip came today! It was entertaining to see all the kids get scared when the nurse sharks ate. Since they eat on the surface of the pool water they make a large slurping sound. The sound comes from the air pocket and their suction cup mouths. It’s really interesting stuff. I’m really not sure how many more school groups are visiting for the rest of the week. The kids are respectful of the space and the animals so I enjoy when they visit.

Chomp the American Alligator 5/14/19 7:20pm 8 hours today 96 hours total Another school field trip came to Sandoway today. It was a good time because the kids were attentive and polite. After they left, no one visited for the rest of the day. So it was super duper slow. Which normally I don't mind, but today wasn't great. I did make a couple of mathematical errors with my hours. I'm working to correct those currently. I'll get back to work tomorrow morning!

5/13/19 6:05pm 0 hours today 56 hours total Like I said last Monday, Sandoway is closed for the day. In my free time, I met with Education Rocks. The organization that has changed my life over the past several years. I will be going to Bali again after two years. We met to discuss logistics and stuff like that. I’m super excited to be traveling back to Bali this summer! I’ll get a good night’s sleep for a hard day of work!

4.5 hours today 88 hours total So, I have found that I thoroughly enjoy working the cash register and gift shop the most. I know it’s probably the least hands-on job in terms of working with the animals, but I love it. I get to interact with visitors all day and get to know them as well. Unfortunately for me, it doesn’t eat up any time and I get bored. It could be 11:30 and I ring a couple of families up for the gift shop. I could spend an hour doing that. Then, I look at my watch and it has only been ten minutes. Time really tends to move slowly when I work that job. I like it so much though, so I’m conflicted. Also, I am literally the only volunteer who has been trained to work the cash register. So the job always tends to fall on me. I really like working with this guy named Valentine. Everyone calls him Val for short. He’s older and has been working with Sandoway for about a decade. He was originally a volunteer like me. He said he made a job out of it because he was always the...

5/11/19 6:45pm 3 hours today 83.5 hours total Today we trained four volunteers. I think they’re starting to volunteer over the summer. Sandoway is most busy during the summer. That’s why it makes sense to volunteer a bunch of people. Right now there are just enough people coming to Sandoway to where I’m not getting overwhelmed. I hope to get to know the new guys because they seem pretty cool. Looking forward to getting to sleep in because I get to be there at 11:30 instead of 8:30!

5/10/19 6:05pm 7½ hours today 80.5 hours total Little did I know, a whole other group of kids came to Sandoway on a field trip. I taught some kids about the differences between a crocodile and an alligator. I showed them jaws from different species of sharks too. I spent a lot of time outside today. I did some landscaping in the backyard part of Sandoway. I trimmed the autograph leaves and raked up some fallen debris. The stingray tank needed cleaning too so I went along and did it. Lots of fun stuff today, but it was just as hot as you’d expect for Florida. Really, really hot.

5/09/19 5:30pm 7½ hours today 73 hours total Today, a school field trip visited Sandoway. I didn’t get to interact with them too much. They were probably 4th and 5th graders. I think their school was called Franklin Academy. Like I said, I didn’t interact with them too much. Despite that, I could tell that they were extremely well-behaved and polite kids. I hope next time I could teach them about Sandoway, it’s animals and exhibits. I think that would be super valuable to me and I hope for them too.

5/08/19 5:30pm 7½ hours today 65.5 hours total I spent the same amount of time at Sandoway as I did yesterday. I prepare fish, shrimp, and squid for feeding the sharks and stingrays. The stingrays are kind of sensitive and they need small pieces of food. Sharks are more capable of eating big chunks of food. I take the squids “spine” out for the rays because they can choke on it. When I prepare the shrimp I take off their hardened skin/shell so the rays can eat it. I also walked the turtles today. I brought them outside in the grass so they could get some energy out. I also ran the cash register for part of the day.

5/07/19 5:00pm 7½ hours today 58 hours total I spent the morning and early afternoon at Sandoway today. I worked at the cash register the whole time. However, I did take Maggie tortoise for a lengthy walk. I chatted with another volunteer for a while too. We talked about what senior project was. We discussed my plans after I graduate. She compared her kids' experience to mine. She was a really nice lady. Maybe I should have asked for her name! So my scuba trip was canceled AGAIN. I’m gonna try and make that up next Monday. I would be picking up excess trash from the sea floor. I would potentially run into a sea turtle or two.

5/06/19 6:20pm 0 hours today 50.5 hours total So, Sandoway is closed on Mondays. I was planning on going scuba diving for the day. I see a ton of trash when I scuba dive. So I figured I’d make myself useful today and pick some of it up. The freaking boat canceled last minute because attendance was too low. I rescheduled the dives for tomorrow afternoon. I will work at Sandoway in the morning and go diving right after! I’m super excited to continue this project!

4.5 hours today 50.5 hours total I had a great first week. I learned how to do so much and I DID so much. I have been trained to do multiple jobs around Sandoway. This ranges from running the gift shop to preparing individualized meals for the animals. Yeah, I made some minor mistakes in terms of forgetting to give visitors wristbands and what not. However, I really think that I have learned how to correct these small errors and do a better job overall. I really enjoy what I’m doing. I haven’t been too overwhelmed yet, but that is probably because there has not been that many visitors. I really think that this week has been beneficial to me. I can use the training that the staff has given me over the course of the week to successfully complete the next couple. Everything that the staff told me was gonna happen inevitably did. Stuff like that turtle is aggressive so you need to wear protective gloves. He ended up biting the gloves in lieu of my fingers. Or something like changin...

5/04/19 4:15pm 8 hours today 46 hours total I worked the cash register all day today. I spent 8 HOURS doing that. Despite doing the same thing for so long, I did have a good time. I got to talk to all sorts of people. I got to interact with parents, toddlers, babies, and teens! I also met a really cool volunteer named Isabelle. She has a great work ethic and she cares a lot about what she does. I admire that about her. Everything is going well and I’ll be working shorter hours from now on. Again, 8 hours is a long time.

5/03/19 5:35pm 8 hours today 38 hours total Today was a slow day in terms of the number of visitors. I learned how to check the pH, calcium, nitrate, and nitrite levels in a fish tank. I also spent time at the touch tank with several little kids. After a while, the kids were starting to grab the starfish too hard. So I said that it was nap time for the critters. It worked pretty well, not gonna lie. It wasn’t a complete lie though. If those critters are overstimulated, they need to rest and recover for a while. So that was my day!

5/02/19 9:10pm 8 hours today 30 hours total I finished the final paint coating on that aquarium base. I worked on feeding the stingrays and sharks. I also learned the ins and outs of running the cash register. I showed and taught a couple of people about the animals in the touch tank. It was a VERY slow day today. Apparently, it’s their slow month which is very apparent. Only about 10 people came in over the course of the whole day. Despite this, I’m super excited to be working and spending time at Sandoway. Who knows, maybe a bus full of kids going on a field trip will show up.

5/01/10 6:45pm 8 hours today 22 hours total Today was my first full day volunteering at Sandoway. I did so much in the eight hours I spent there. I learned how to manage the diets and meals of all of the animals living there. I learned how to change filters in the aquarium tanks. I began a large project of sanding and painting a base for a giant tank that they’ll be using. I checked inventory for the gift shop and so much more. I also focused on interacting with visitors and teaching them about all the great knowledge that Sandoway has to offer. I can’t wait to learn and work more with this amazing place.

4/30/19 9:10pm 8 hours today 14 hours total Today I had a meeting with the director of education, Evan Orellana. I also met with Amanda Clough who runs the volunteering at Sandoway. We discussed a plan for my volunteer work and what I’ll be up to. For about a week, I will be helping Evan with jobs around Sandoway. After that, I will be running the cash register in the gift shop. I am told that I will also be greeting and welcoming families to the center. This means teaching and talking about the different animals at Sandoway. This includes all sorts of handiwork like painting, lifting, hammering, and whatnot. My first official day starts tomorrow morning at 9am sharp.

4/29/19 9:00pm 4 hours today 6 hours total Since I’m not working officially until Tuesday, I had to keep myself busy. I went to a Delray Beach town meeting that relates to my project. They discussed the city’s adoption of straw alternatives or ban them altogether. Some restaurants have avocado pit straws, which is exactly as it sounds. The best part is that it’s plant-based so it doesn’t end up harming the environment. The problem with that is that they tend to be an expensive option. Many local restaurants have vowed to use paper straws. I look forward to seeing the city’s progress over the course of this project and over the years to come.