PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
In this project, we were each assigned to represent a certain country who is a part of the real United Nations; I was assigned to represent India. Once we learned generally about our country’s culture, people, government, and politics, we began to research our first issue that we would discuss in our conference. Our first issue was the Venezuelan Refugee Crisis. We had to gain a full understanding of the issue and all of the causes, consequences, and our own country’s involvement in the issue. In preparation for our final conference, we wrote policy papers that outlined our country’s position on the issue and we also wrote proposed resolutions to debate in conference. My resolution was one of the 3 that was discussed in the conference and by the end I got the majority of people to vote yes on my resolution and it passed. |
me delivering my opening speech
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HIGHLIGHTS: For me, one of the most interesting parts of this project so far was writing my policy paper. Through writing this, I got to really familiarize myself with my country’s perspective and generally its political standing. I put a lot of effort into writing my policy paper and through that I also learned a lot about academic writing. I am more confident in my ability to write concise and convincing papers in a shorter amount of time. This was really engaging because I got fully invested in India’s perspective until I wasn’t even thinking about my personal opinions anymore. This kind of project is something that is very new to me, so I really enjoyed taking this new perspective. GROWTH: Personally, I think that my ability to adapt to my surroundings and my peers has really grown during this project. During the writing process of the policy paper and resolution, I had to constantly change my perspective and how I approached the assignment. In the end, this skill was very helpful because it enabled me to change my ideas so that they suited more than just my views. This also translated into the conference when I had to write a closing speech during the actual conference. I was constantly taking ideas from other speeches and using them to bolster my arguments. Also, when I was writing my resolution, I adapted to what other people wanted and this helped me get almost complete consensus when it was voted on. |
CONFERENCE PREPARATION: Personally, I felt fairly prepared for this conference. I made sure to look over my policy paper and other notes before the conference so that I was confident in what my perspective was. I also practiced my speech enough that I felt that I could present it pretty well. My level of preparation helped me participate a lot, especially in Unmoderated Caucus. I was confident in what my country’s position was, so I was able to use that to convince other people to agree with me while still staying in character and not saying anything that my country wouldn’t. For example, I was talking to a group of people who were writing an amendment for my resolution, and I was able to get them to make a change that I could agree with while still maintaining my relatively neutral stance. REFINEMENT: In preparation for the second conference, I am going to draft my speech(s) earlier and then practice them more. In the last conference, I feel that I could have given a more compelling speech at first and convinced more people sooner. My second speech was a little more free and unscripted, which I think helped me deliver it with more conviction. I have realized that the more emotion and convincing logic you put into your speech, the more likely people are to remember it and consider it’s statements. Doing this will help me get my point across and will also make the conference more interesting. I also think that being able to deliver speeches in an impactful way is a very good skill to have in the future, not just for this project. |
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
For the second conference, I still represented India and it's opinions on Global Nuclear Proliferation. To prepare for the conference, I had to gain an understanding of what nuclear proliferation is and what threats it poses to international security. To do this, I learned about international treaties that have already been signed and are in affect and how India's opinions agree and disagree with them. I then used all of this information to draft my own speeches, resolutions, and a policy paper to use in conference. Even though I couldn't participate in the actual discussion, the process of research really helped me learn about this issue and I think that I could have done well in the conference if I had participated. GROWTH:
I think that I have definitely exhibited a significant amount of growth from the first conference to now. In the beginning of the project, I second guessed myself a lot and had trouble starting on a lot of the assignments. I was too caught up in what I could do wrong and second guessing my ideas. After completing everything for the first conference, I was much more confident in my abilities. During the preparation for the second conference, I found it much easier to get started on my assignments and I took initiative in places where I saw I could bolster my arguments. This also translated into me really improving my skills. Even though I could not participate in the actual conference, I learned a lot about how to write a compelling resolution and policy paper. I also learned how to appeal to all different perspectives and opinions and converse with people who do not agree with me on certain topics. These skills are not only very helpful in this setting, but they will also aid me in other situations which is very valuable. REFINEMENT:
If I were to re-do this project I think that I would spend more time on refining and practicing speeches and debating. I think that I did a good job at preparing and researching my country's views, but I definitely could have made my speech more convincing and refining my debate skills. Doing this would have helped me convince more people of my views right off the bat instead of having to clarify and further debate after initial speeches. After the first conference, I learned the importance of delivering an opening speech well. Because I couldn’t actually participate in the conference, I think that I didn’t work as hard as I could have on my speech draft. If I did this project again, I would still practice and work hard on my speech even if I couldn’t give it in the end because this is a good skill to have. If I were to change this, I think that I would have built my skills greatly and it would have also aided me in conference. |
INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY;
From what I have experienced from this project about how the UN functions, I can see both pros and cons about their system of problem solving. I now can see the importance of consensus because it encourages nations to actually follow through with resolutions. I also think that it is very beneficial to have allotted time for people to discuss and find allies in order to combine their ideas. Also having the discussion run by impartial chairs who simply guide the conference towards consensus if possible is a good way to find a solution that works for the majority of nations, in not all. One thing that I don’t really understand all the way is why many of the resolutions are not binding to those countries that sign. I understand that it can be hard to find an enforcer for the resolutions, but I think that finding this would enable existing solutions to be much more effective. After doing this project, I also have a much deeper understanding of how important it is to know how to speak what you mean. A delegate can have an idea that could get consensus at the end, but if they do not deliver it well, no one will get behind it. If you are a good public speaker and know how to appeal to all different kinds of people, you will be so much more successful in discussions. This is an insight into how certain countries can have so much power over others and I think that I will be able to see this in a lot of other settings as well. KNOWLEDGE:
Through this project, I learned a lot of valuable things about the international political state of our world. I gained so much knowledge about how international delegates interact with each other and what factors weigh in on governmental decisions. Even if I never experience something like this project again, having the base knowledge will help me generally be more aware of what is happening in our world and everything I should be paying attention to in an international political issue. Not only did I gain this important knowledge, but I also learned some valuable skills. Learning how to write convincing papers that show opinion in a logical way is something that I will definitely use in the future. Also learning how to speak my ideas in a way that even makes sense to people who don’t agree with me is something that will likely aid me later in life. Being able to take these skills that I learned in this project and apply them to other aspects of my life is a good skill and I am glad that I have improved it in this project. |
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PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
This project was a collaboration between Humanities and Biology focused around adolescence. In Humanities, we learned about the ‘work’ or purpose of adolescence and how we develop during this time. We started out this project by learning about the history of adolescence and the different definitions of it. Then we learned about the different developmental theories and interspersed building background knowledge with reading Diary of a Part Time Indian and excerpts of Brainstorm. Then, with all of this information in mind, we interviewed community members about their experiences in adolescence. We transformed all of this into write ups and artistic portraits that we showed at exhibition. What is the most important thing you learned during this project?
One really important thing that I learned through this project was the importance of taking initiative. Compared to my freshman year, we have a lot more flexibility in how we use our class time. Instead of giving us a schedule in which to do our class work, we were just given a list of priorities and then left to navigate our own way through the classwork. This made me realize that it is really important to just get right into the work so that you can get it done in time to do other work. There were some times when I wasted time getting ready to do work instead of actually doing it. As we went through the project, I began to find a rhythm that I would get into when I got to class. This really helped me get my work done one time. When exhibition was right around the corner, I didn’t get too stressed because I had done a good amount of my work on time. This left the rest of my time to really polish my final products and prepare for exhibition. |
REFLECTION:
What work are you most proud of from this project? One piece of work that I am proud of is my interview write up. I put a lot of effort into making it refined and connected to both my interview and the class content. In the paper, one place that really shows my level of effort and refinement are the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs. I used both the skills of connecting my paper to class content and integrating quotes into my writing. Usually, I am very critical of my writing and I therefore strive to make it as refined as possible. From the sh%@ty first draft to my final draft, I put a lot of time into refining it and making it as polished as I could in the project time. Not only am I proud of the writing itself, I am also proud that I stuck through the whole refinement process and really dove deep into my writing because I think it really paid off. Where did you run into difficulty during the project? One difficulty that I ran into during this project was figuring out what I wanted to do for the portrait. Initially, I didn’t really have a lot of ideas and I was relying on the interview to inspire some ideas. However, the interview topics were slightly more broad than I was expecting. It took me a while to actually pin down an idea, and then I decided to change it last minute to make it a little more interesting. The continuous changing of ideas made it very hard to gage how it would actually turn out, so this made me more stressed. I dealt with all of this by just sitting down with the interview and really thinking about the content that I found most important. Then I looked at reference pictures to get ideas on how to show what I wanted to show. After I did this, I felt much more confident in my vision and only had a few minor tweaks to do when actually taking the photo. Class Habits and Intellectual Presence Rubric: I would give myself a 10 in terms of my class habits and presence. I try to say engaged in class and I work hard to use my time effectively. For example, towards the end of the project we were simply given a list of priorities and then expected to manage all of the tasks we were given. On those days, I got straight to work as soon as I got to class and used any extra time I had to refine my final products even more. On slower days, I got my started notebook out when I got to class and made sure to be ready for class on time. I think that this attitude towards this class really helped me stay on top of my work and also helped me stay engaged in the content. |