Sample Profile Essay
Note to reader: This draft is re-printed here with the author's permission. These student drafts are provided for a couple of reasons: first, to give you a taste of the variety of topics and approaches students have taken, and second, to provide instructors with readings that might be used in class discussions and activities. These samples are not perfect and represent final grades from across the grade scale (A through F), so please be forgiving, understanding, and respectful if you find errors or problems.
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Hunter Clark
Professor Michael Peterson
English 1010D
February 25, 2016
Utah Jazz Take Over: Undercover Boss
The makeup artist was vigorously preparing Mr. Miller’s face by washing it and giving him a close shave. Grabbing the fake hair and putting it up to his lip, she trims it to the shape, tracing the edge with an eyebrow pencil. She grabs a brush and applies spirit gum over the entire area outlined by the pencil marks and centers and attaches the fake beard where the spirit gum is and presses firmly against the covered area. Once dry she cleans the area around the beard and he is ready to go undercover for the Utah Jazz.
Applying makeup takes place in every episode of Undercover Boss: a television show where high ranking executives or owners of a company goes undercover and works within their company as a level entry employee. The executives or owners of the company get to know the people on a personal level and get to know what challenges them. At the end of the show the executives or owners take off the makeup and go back to their original identity. The bosses reveal themselves to employees that they worked with and give them promotions, training, and sometimes are rewarded. Undercover boss usually benefits the companies, but sometimes not for the long-term. Recently, the Utah Jazz were the first NBA team on Undercover Boss. Greg Miller, the owner of the Jazz, suited up and got a new body. The makeup artists gave Miller a different look by putting on fake hair and adding 30 pounds to him and gave Greg Miller a different name: “Mark.”
In the show, Mark went through a few different jobs that he had to do. He first met Dennis, a bald-headed, middle-aged African American. Dennis is exposed to set up the basketball floor so the games can be played. Mark noticed when they were setting up the basketball court that it was unorganized and could have been done in a much faster way, it was like putting a puzzle together, finding the right piece to match the ones around it, and he also notice how dangerous it was putting the heavy court pieces down. It would be safer if everyone had gloves on. He got to know Dennis on a personal level and found out about his personal life, his wife had diabetes and the hospital bills for Dennis were expensive and it puts a lot pressure on him to provide for his family. Mark really related with him because diabetes is what killed his dad, Larry H. Miller.
Once Mark is done recollecting his memories of his father, he went to get ready to help with the concession stands. He later meets Manny, a short Mexican teenager that taught him how to take orders. At first it was a struggle for Mark to get the orders right, so Manny made a bet: whoever sold the most chicken fingers would get a free ice cream. This helped Mark loosen up and break his nerves and pass time. Mark ended up winning, and Manny happily bought Mark ice cream. Later Mark met Amber, a cute red-head girl that has an electrifying personality, and her job was to cheer up the fans in the upper bowl. When you’re in the upper bowl of Vivint Smart Home Arena sometimes you don’t feel as connected to the game. Larry H. Miller was very passionate about his fans, even the fans in the upper bowl. It is Amber’s job to get them excited and throw out free stuff. Once Mark meets Amber, they went out in the hall to practice, Mark practiced in front of Amber, she could tell that he hasn’t done this before because he was really tense, not very loud. Matt Griffin, part of the Jazz Dunk team, says that Greg Miller is a “well prepared guy” meaning that he likes to read off a script and likes to know what he was going to say beforehand, but now he was doing everything off the top of his head. It was his first time going out of the tunnel, he was not very loud and not everyone paid attention to him. With the help of Amber, he got out of his comfort zone and started to yell loudly and was getting the fans to cheer.
After he was done jumping around from job to job he met Matt Griffin, a friendly guy with dark brown hair that had a well maintained beard. Matt Grew up doing gymnastics and playing basketball with his friends, he was a normal kid. Matt didn’t know what he was going to do when he was growing up, but he found something where he could do both at once being on the Jazz Dunk Team.
The first practice they had with Mark, Matt didn’t know if he was going to be able to run or jump let alone both of them together. “I was a little worried he was going to get hurt,” said Matt. But after a few times Mark was getting the hang of it; after the practice they went to see if he could do it in the game. Once they got on the court and everything was ready, it was Mark’s time to shine. He started from the opposite side of the court and ran all the way down the court he then passed the ball off the back board to the next guy then they used a series of flip and passes to complete the dunk. When they went back to the other side of the court, Matt told Mark it was his turn to dunk. Mark ran down the court at full speed and jumped on the tramp and everything was going perfect, he was in the air and reached the rim. When he dunked it, it hit the back of the rim and rolls out. He barely missed it.
After going undercover Mark went back to being Greg Miller, and he took off all of the fake makeup and hair. He went through and met everyone that he worked with, he promoted Dennis and gave him a new car and paid off his car payments and his medical bills. Manny was finishing up high school and now has a college fund waiting for him thanks to Mr. Miller. Amber got her family’s medical bills payed for and she was given money to go on a trip. The Jazz dunk team got a budget of $25,000, and Matt was given tickets so he can have his family go to a game.
When they first introduced the idea to Matt, Undercover Boss said that they had someone coming to be a part of the Jazz Dunk Team. They were exposed to perform at the game, he was a little suspicious of what was happening. They said that they had two contestants one on the Jazz and another on the professional team out east, they were going to teach them a few jobs that included being on the Jazz Dunk Team, and after the contestant was done, Undercover boss was going to have Matt go in to be in front of a panel of judges and talk about why the contestant should or should not win. They did a good job of hiding the fact of it being Undercover Boss but Matt could tell that something was not right with the whole situation.
During the hour and a half practice, Mark was still struggling and he only did a couple of reps. Matt was a little bit frustrated, he said “He is not good. Which is fine because nobody need to be able to do what we can do. It’s going to be really freaking hard to put him in a situation to where he feels successful and where we feel successful and what we are doing is good.” They then whisked him away and said that he had someone else to work with. Every game day they had a routine, they warmed up during the first quarter and get ready to perform. So Mark was going to come out cold. One of the biggest concerns going in to the multi team dunk was where Mark was going to put the pass. So the second guy had one job, he was aware that the ball was going to be anywhere and his job was to clean up that pass in order to make dunk.
Undercover Boss was really bad at managing Mr. Miller’s time. They should of had two practices under his belt before they put him in the game. They didn’t realize the preparation that it took to perform on the dunk team, how they had to warm up through the first quarter. If Greg Miller were to warm up, he would of had a better chance of making his dunk. But other than that, he did pretty good under the circumstance of only practiced for an hour and a half.
What they didn’t show was how Mark threw a perfect alley-oop to Matt and he missed. Matt said, “When the review happened and I went into the locker room with Greg miller standing there and one of the first things he said was oh man I missed my dunks and I was like dude I missed mine too. It was like a real moment between he and I.” Later in the interview Mr. Miller had given the Jazz Dunk Team a budget of 25,000 dollars per year, Matt doesn’t have a set budget. He had a credible source so when he asked his boss, but he had to ask his boss and then his boss asked his boss and by that time two weeks had past it was too late to get it for their show. It had bother Matt for the longest time now, Matt said they should have plenty of room in the budget. Since the show, the Jazz Dunk Team had gotten a truck and trailer to help carry the tramp and pads where ever they need to go, because they go to local high schools and colleges to perform at schooling events, instead of using their own trucks and purchasing a rental trailer.
The Jazz had Undercover Boss come in to help them with their company. It took a lot of planning. In the end it turned out that Greg Miller came out and said that he would give the Jazz Dunk Team $25,000 per year. He didn’t keep his word with that deal he made in the locker room in Undercover Boss. Matt Griffin said “It’s kind of different, it’s not like all of a sudden there is a pool of money to be able to work with, even with the Undercover boss thing the Jazz Dunk Team asks where my budget, does this mean we have $25,000 to spend this year and they say let me go and find out. They never had been able to answer that question.” Doesn’t this make people wonder what has happened in the last 7 season of Undercover Boss.