Self-Direction:

This course pushed me to take learning into my own hands in ways other courses had never before. I remember in the beginning I struggled to find motivation to write independent blog posts, but by the end the ideas just kept flowing. I also had to take on the initiative of driving and performing a lot of my groups interviews. It was hard to put off wanting to study for other classes or hanging out with friends to do that, but I took my own time to do it because I was dedicated to the project and excited about creating a finished product. I realized that everything I did was working towards a final result – that is where my motivation came from.

Responsible & Involved Citizenship:

I feel like these targets can apply to within the group and outside the group. Within the group it was VERY important to be conscious of how much “space” I was taking up, how much I stepped down to let other people talk, and how much I encouraged other people to speak up. I also had to be conscious of the best ways to support my teammates in certain moments, like when they did not feel safe, comfortable, and taken care of in the program. I learned how to take appropriate steps in order to try and make the group experience the best for all of us. Sometimes the cause of discomfort were the teachers in the program, sometimes it was other people in the group, maybe even myself a couple times. I did my best to try and address any issues that came up for my group members, no matter what the source, and direct my own actions in such a way as to help prevent future issues.

Informed & Integrative Thinking:

I learned a lot about how to take information you gather from dozens of different people/sources and find how it works within one topic. What role does the information/opinion I gather play in the greater scheme of things? How can it inform my opinions and the way I think? How does it affect different stakeholders?

For example, how does Cal’s opinion about men’s role in sexual violence compare with the story Anonymous High School Survivor told? Are there connections? Can one opinion help explain the other?

Clear & Effective Communication:

I learned about the importance of activities like viewing activities with other groups and fishbowl discussions and how they help with creating a final product. I realized how important it was to give space in group discussions for quieter voices to come out. Sometimes in our group of 7-9 the discussion could get chaotic, so we would have to create ways to make sure everybody’s voices were heard. We would take turns sharing or ask ourselves to be more conscious of how we were speaking. Kindness was always helpful as with multiple opinions and attitudes things could get heated.

Unexpected Learning:

I poured a lot into this project. I drove and took part in the majority of interviews, which I know was significant for actually getting this project done. I did do more interviews than any other person, and it was because I decided to put in the conscious effort to do so. When the first draft of our project, where we edited 7 different parts independently became impossible to edit and make work (believe me, we tried), did not work, I emailed James and Avery to say hey, do you think it would be ok if I just completely made a new draft with a cohesive story arc, that was possible to ACTUALLY edit. Then I proposed that after I, one person, had made the draft, it go through rounds of people to become a final product. Avery, then James for preliminary edits. Lizzie for creative aspects and B roll, Then Phaedra and Lindsey for audio, zoom, all final revisions, etc. The said yes so I spent somewhere around 6 hours making the draft that our final product comes from now. Anyway, it was just impossible to make a draft with 7 different people in 7 remote locations. So I put an enormous amount of effort into this project. Group work is hard and making a draft for our group to start off of was not possible the way you had us doing it.