In the We Happen project, my favorite part was having a good time working with my group instead of feeling the dreaded stress of the deadlines for the presentations. The reason we chose Food poverty for the issue of our non-profit because my group, consisting of Simon Cross, Sofia Mertz, Noah Godina, Colin Vail, Cole Lampro, and I all had personal connections to the issue, we wanted to help those in the streets who are reduced to begging for help to the people walking along with averted gazes and rushed paces. I learned to grow a bit confident/comfortable almost, as well as keep up with the group, when working in a project through presenting to the class/a panel of experts, working and revising the presentations, and creating a logo.
We were all able to share our ideas, for our nonprofit, as well as information about the issue clearly when presenting with both experts and classmates. We had to do three presentations in total for the project, a Needs Assessment, our Non-profit Presentation Draft, and a Final Presentation, the last one being with the experts. When I started out with the Needs Assessment, I was so nervous, and being extremely self-conscious of the people around me, I barely spoke. I felt frustrated because I knew the information but the distribution of slides made it so that I looked like I didn't do much for the project, but in the second and final presentation I was more prepared and comfortable despite presenting in front of the entire team or the group of experts. I got more slides and it was more easier to talk in the last two presentations when I knew what to say and where to look. It was definitely an improvement from the Need Assessment because of the feedback I got from the teacher/audience changed a little from the lack of speaking to mostly the content of the slides and my group members paid more attention to me/encouraged me to keep going. This helped me learn to be more confident because nothing went wrong when I messed up on a slide and I was able to present equally with my group without slackers or fights. After each presentation, we all made sure that everything should be planned, to practice, learn the information (not just memorize the slides) and that the slides were divided equally, it helped as the audience focused more on our work and it showed that we knew what we were talking about. But presenting in front of the class/experts wasn't the only thing that boosted my confidence or got me to catch up with my group mates, the work and revisions behind the presentations also helped.
We all communicated and worked well with each other to make the presentations better than last time, with copious amounts of researching, practicing, talking, and checking over the information/slides. Simon and Sofia sort of led the group but I pushed myself to join in the conversations and distribution of work. Usually I would have either stay out of the way or did things myself as I've done with other projects but for this one, I didn't just blindly follow their orders or bossed the group. I don't know why I became so sure of myself but this group made me feel comfortable because they would listen and they weren't slackers/people I didn't know. So when working, I became a group member that helped and supported, I helped start with the links to information, slide organization, critique, distributing the work, and doing whatever I could with the presentations/the information/ideas for it. I suggested a lot of critique/commented on a lot of the decisions and they showed in the presentations, I'm certain that my group knows of my constant editing, critique, concerns, and ideas. This new type of teamwork surprised me in a good way so that I learned to be more sure of myself in the least as well as be able to keep up with the others when they decide to do their things versus working to bring the ideas together. It's hard to find a group where everyone fits perfectly with each other, especially one where you can grow to be confident with them, and if you find one, everything becomes easier. Working with many different people can either help or prevent you from doing your best, as I'm learning from the past and the present. While working/revising the presentations helped me keep up in the marathon that is my group, creating the logo was a whole new experience!
I was able to make a logo to represent our nonprofit, it was a very interesting process and the result was great. The final draft of the logo is a heart-like apple shape of the name of our nonprofit, FPSD, and surrounded by a suitcase; it represented the issue we're attempting to solve and how we'd tackle it, which was food poverty and giving people connections/a chance to get back up on their feet. During the presentations, the logo or the drafts gained a lot of attention and people really liked it. I was really uncertain about myself when presenting but the logo really did boost me up. There's just something about creating something for a group that stand outs from just working on just your part of the work. This helped me learn to be more confident/keep up with my group by being able to use my hobby, drawing, to help with the group as well as being able to receive praise on my own work. When I created the drafts, I had a lot to think about, like what it should it have, what needed to be in it, how should it be put together, and will it attract people, the details were extra but I was able to make it look good. It made me feel good to see people enjoy my work.
Creating our logo, presenting in front of experts/classmates, and working and revising with my group all changed my perspective of working with others, I caught up and I stood up. Knowing that nothing bad would happen if I messed up, implanting myself into the group to work and be listened to, and getting compliments for the work I personally did got me to feel better about what I was doing and feel more comfortable to work with others. In projects, the work itself is not the only thing that counts, being able to share it is also mandatory. Learning to be more confident helps in so many ways, if not for the projects, and it shows that you know what you're doing, that you know that you're good, it just gives you a little something to help and support you throughout the process. It's important to me because I lack confidence, I lack basic intelligence, I don't have a lot to offer but feeling better about myself or my situation turns everything around, so that I have the knowledge, I am good, and I've done a lot for this, whatever it is.