Business & Web Development at Smart Solutions Week 1

I spent this past week at a tech company in Beachwood called Smart Solutions, Inc. On the first day my sponsor told me that my main task would be revamping the corporation's website.

I was surprised (and still am) to be put in charge of something that is so important for any business nowadays, and especially when that business is technology-based itself. It's quite an opportunity.

The first week (minus AP testing) was used primarily in preparation for what I did today. I held a meeting early this afternoon to solicit input from the website's stakeholders (including the CEO!) and as a courtesy before getting started. For the meeting I created a comprehensive powerpoint incorporating a timeline of the project, areas of improvement on the current website, and a compilation of my own ideas for the upgrade. We went over the ideas in detail and I got a clear sense of what they were looking for. Although I haven't been able to do any work with the site yet, I've gained valuable insight into the business world by having to create a proposal and organize a meeting to discuss it. The stuff I'm familiar with starts tomorrow, when I actually get to begin modifying the website.

Many of my proposed ideas for the site are trivial, but some are on a more fundamental level. I will be forking the project into two “demo” sites that stakeholders can view (and provide feedback) before one of them goes live. One will be more-or-less the current site with all minor changes enacted, and the other will be a full redesign. My personal goal is to make the latter preferable enough that it becomes the one I get to implement.

I'm especially grateful that my project is turning out to be so meaningful because IT tends to get perceived as boring, but it's really not (at least what I'm doing isn't). I get to combine a business experience (in which I'm a novice) with an exercise in web development (where I reign :D ). From what I can tell, it's a perfect learning experience for me.

The website is located at http://smartsolutionsonline.com but changes will not be visible until it's all done. If there's still an image of a guy fist-bumping a server, it hasn't been updated yet.

- John K.

My time at Geauga Lake's Wildwater Kingdom

Hey everyone! I am doing my project at Geauga Lake's Wildwater Kingdom. Usually when I tell people I am doing my project there I get a response somewhat like, "Hey, didn't that close?!" The answer is yes and no. Here is a brief rundown on the history of this property that I've learned over the past few days to get everyone up to speed:

- Originally Aurora, Ohio was home to two different parks. There was Geauga Lake, a family owned amusement park, and Sea World Ohio, an animal park owned by Anheuser-Busch. The two parks were located across the lake from one another.

- In 2000, Six Flags purchases the Geauga Lake amusement park an renames it Six Flags Ohio. Sea World Ohio is still in business across the lake and is still owned by Anheuser-Busch.

- In 2001 Six Flags Purchases Sea World Ohio from Anheuser-Busch for $110 million. Six Flags builds a bridge across the lake to connect the two parks, and renames the property Six Flags Worlds of Adventure.

- In 2004 Six Flags sells Six Flags Worlds of Adventure to Cedar Fair, parent company of Cedar Point. Cedar Fair closes the animal park and renames the complex Geauga Lake Family Amusement Park.

- In 2005 Cedar Fair opens a new water park on the former animal park property. The water park is named Wildwater Kingdom. Cedar Fair renames the complex Geauga Lake & Wildwater Kingdom.

- In 2008 Cedar Fair opens only the water park, Wildwater Kingdom. The amusement park is closed permanently.

So yes, a water park still exists on Sea World's old property.

This park opens May 29th so quite a bit of work is being done preparing the park to open. Everyone at the park is very busy right now and I really appreciate them taking the time to explain things to me along the way! There are a couple of main things going on right now:

- Cleaning / Maintenance: Obviously after Ohio's harsh winters, a lot of work has to be done in order to make the park look like a tropical paradise. Planting needs to be done all over the park, and dead shrubs / trees as well as branches and leaves need to be hauled away. Buildings are being re-painted and most everything is being power washed. Slides are being polished and pools are being scrubbed out. They will start filling things with water later this week.

- Hiring / Training: Geauga Lake's Wildwater Kingdom only has 9 full-time year round employees. They do, however, hire hundreds of employees for the Spring and Summer months. This means that a lot of people are busy sifting through applications right now and training the employees that are hired.

- Retail: A lot of ordering is going on at the park right now. All of the food for the park needs to be ordered (i.e. pizza, chicken fingers, etc.) as well as drinks. Park merchandise also needs to be ordered (keychains, t-shirts, etc.).

- Marketing: Wildwater Kingdom is really working hard to market themselves (which I can understand considering many people don't know the park is still there). There are businesses a lot of special events this summer so they are working on sending invitations out to area to attend the events. A lot of work is also being done to advertise season passes.

During my first week I have been shadowing people in all of the aforementioned departments. The biggest surprise for me was probably the retail department. I never knew how much work it was! Consider a gift store where you have several hundred products. Those products don't just magically appear (as I previously thought they did). Those products are a direct result of someone taking the time to sift through many different catalogs and hand selecting the various products that will go on sale. It takes a lot of effort to even get a simple batch of keychains into a retail establishment. You first have to find the particular keychain you want, go back and forth with the Cedar Fair Art Department to get a logo for the keychain, send all of the information to the company that produces the keychains, communicate back and forth as you wait for a shipment, and then half the times when you finally receive the product they aren't exactly what you ordered. It's a lot of work!

Overall I'm having a lot of fun so far and have learned a lot. These next three weeks should be particularly interesting as things ramp up to prepare the park for opening.

- Andrew

- Andrew

Check out these blogs...

Dear Seniors Blogging Here...check out other blogs that are linked to this one including blogs from Ali Foti, the three fishemen, and Dylan Ford. I know all of them would appreciate your readership and comments. Thanks.

First Week at the Shaker Heights Police Department

My first week at the Shaker Heights Police Department has actually been quite exciting. I'm a part of a set Senior Project program at the SHPD, and it is designed to give participants a little "taste" of everything in the criminal justice process. Halle Baltes also wound up pursuing a Senior Project at the SHPD, so I'm very lucky to have another Hawken student in the program with me.

Because the program aims to give the participant insight into the system from every angle possible, I've had a bunch of different experiences this week. For example, Tuesday morning we observed Beachwood court cases (which included a theft and an assault), and Tuesday afternoon we sat in on a detectives' meeting to discuss a homicide case from 2006. Thursday morning we were with the jailer. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we got out on the road doing ride-a-longs, meaning we were in the car when the cop pulled people over for traffic violations or when the cop had to respond to a 911 call. Specifically, we responded to a fight by the high school on Wednesday and a house alarm on Friday.

The most notable event of the week, however, was an incident Wednesday morning. A guy was running up and down a street about a block from the police station breaking into cars. The SHPD were able to cut him off and corner him, but when he pulled a gun on the police, a cop shot him. He was taken to the hospital where he later died. I actually was not at the station that morning because I was taking an AP exam, but according to Halle, the station was buzzing. I'll attach a link to the article in the comments section because it won't let me copy and paste into this post.

Anyways, Halle and I are gearing up for another exciting week. We're scheduled for some shooting at the range this week, and I know we're both looking forward to that. Hopefully pictures will come soon; Halle's got them all on her camera now, but there's some of us in our bulletproof vests (we were required to wear them for our ride-a-longs) and our other adventures thus far.

-Becky

Week One

This week has sort of been weird for me on project, as I've probably spent more time at school with AP tests and the Spring Theater Project. However, everyone I've worked with so far at Channel 19 Action News has been extremely welcoming and seems to really appreciate that I'm there to help them. I actually haven't seen my sponsor, Sharon Reed, yet because I was working daytime hours, but I have been working closely with executive producer Tamu Thomas, who happens to be one of my mom's patients. The first day I was there, I also learned that one of the other executive producers, Brian Sinclair, is having a baby with his wife and is also my mom's patient. So it's nice to know that I have people there to take care of me besides my sponsor.

Anyway, so far I have mostly helped out with their facebook/twitter/online page. Meteorologist Jeff Tanchek is camping outside Quicken Loans Arena because he is...well a "Super Fan" of the Cavs. Mrs. Thomas had gone down to shoot some raw video of Tanchek for their website, and I helped put up this video.



I have also been doing a lot with the "Community Calendar." WOIO has a website set up where people can enter events that go on in the community, and they could possibly be featured on the news. People send the station a lot of fliers and e-mails, and it's the responsibility of one of the producers to put them online. She taught me how to do it on Friday then she repeatedly told me how much she appreciated it and how much time it was saving her. I felt accomplished.

It's also been great to sit in the control room and be on headset for the 12 o'clock news. It's not necessarily as involved as the 4,5, or 6 o'clock at the station, but it's still amazing to see the raw footage of what people will watch in their homes and offices.

-Myles

Break the ice...

Hey, who will be the first blogger? I'm excited to hear how all your projects are going...