Social Entrepreneurs Project Reflection
Throughout the course of the Social Entrepreneurs project, students developed an understanding of the positive and negative outcomes of globalization, learned how social entrepreneurships can solve major civic and social issues throughout the world. In addition, students discovered the basic principles of human-centered design, and for a final exhibition product, designed and created a company that acts a solution to one of society’s most pressing issues. In small teams, students worked collaboratively using human-centered design to understand communities’ needs, and then created innovative solutions to meet those needs in a sustainable and financially stable way. Throughout this process, students developed skills in writing business proposals, critical research skills, and various company branding techniques. At exhibition, students delivered elevator pitches; aiming to persuade investors their proposed solution will create substantial systematic change and ensure to ensure the financial stability of the company. Overall, students discovered, learned, and applied an abundance of various topics, terms, and skills, making the Social Entrepreneurs project exceptionally meaningful and valuable.
Initially, I had a vague and not very developed understanding of both globalization and social entrepreneurship, so throughout this project, my knowledge of the subjects advanced and expanded substantially. By reading and analyzing multiple articles, completing a large amount of research, and by watching multiple educational videos and documentaries, not only was I able to grasp the basics of the concepts, but also was able to see real-world examples, adding more relevance to my understanding. Additionally, applying these newly gained insights to the final product of the project allowed me to have an even better comprehension and made both the topics and the project more meaningful. Learning about globalization and social entrepreneurship brought a lot of new perspective and awareness about the causes of social and civic world issues, and ways social entrepreneurships can solve them. Before this project, I thought only the most intelligent and powerful people had the ability to make major changes to solve issues, thus I now feel empowered and the world has become a lot smaller because collectively, we created eleven solutions to solve the biggest issues in the world. Now at the end of the project, I now have a clear and developed understanding of globalization and social entrepreneurship due to the extensive research and reading, real-world examples, and finally the application of the topics in our final product.
In my mind, collaboration is the joint efforts of two or more individuals working together towards achieving a common goal. Collaboration was especially important in this project for many reasons, but specifically for sharing ideas and expertise to solve the problem, and to distribute the hefty workload. Of all the skills used and learned in this project, collaboration proved to be by far the most challenging, however I do believe it was the skill I most improved. During the group selection, I originally believed both my teammates had skills and interest in areas that I lacked, thus our team would work very well together and we would be able to create an excellent end product. Although our team was very successful in creating a great final product, it was very challenging to create an efficient team dynamic. There were several instances when my teammates lacked in equal participation and motivation. Therefore I struggled to communicate efficiently and kindly, causing a little tension and friction between members. After stepping back and analyzing the situation, I realized they were willing to help; they just needed a little more guidance and direction. By leaving numerous comments on the Google document and exchanging text messages, I was able to clearly communicate what needed revision and improvements, and my teammates felt relieved to know what to work on. From this experience, I know that I personally need to improve my communication skills a little more to have healthy relations and successful teams in the future, and to grow as a collaborator.
The growth mindset and fixed mindset alike are the set attitudes that an individual holds; however the difference lies in how these mindsets affect behaviors and actions of the individual, and the lens through which one views themselves. In the fixed mindset people believe their talent or intelligence, are fixed traits, while in the growth mindset, people believe their talent or intelligence can be developed through hard work and dedication. During this project, I believe I used both mindsets, and was eventually able to overcome my use of the fixed mindset. Initially, I thought I simply wasn’t a very creative or innovative individual. As the project progressed, I realized this was the perfect opportunity for me to exercise those skills and develop them further. This realization is an example of the growth mindset because I was then able to get over my mental block and allowed me to work on those traits and improve the overall quality of our project. If I could go back to the very beginning of the project, I would have changed the way I categorized myself for the group selection process. By categorizing my skills into what I was good at made me trapped in the fixed mindset making it difficult to push myself in the areas I struggled in.
Although the first couple runs through of the pitch at the exhibition were rough and choppy, by the time the third investor approached my table, my confidence and my ambition to earn their money was boosted, thus I got into a flow with excellent eye contact and was without stumbling. Presenting this project was much more fun and exciting than previous projects because I had a certain sense of pride and confidence in this project; something I hadn’t really experienced before. I believe that being proud of what you are presenting is a huge key factor in determining your performance at exhibition. The most challenging question I was asked at exhibition was, “How can you ensure you will have corporations in that area that would be reliable customers of your recycled material?” This question caused me to pause and generate an answer that would be entirely honest, but still is persuasive and would ensure investments. We hadn’t previously thought through the answer for this question, causing me to be caught a little off guard. In order to have an even better presentation next exhibition, I will practice my speech, or what I plan to say, and have it completely memorized to avoid stumbling and losing potential investors, or to allow the public to be thoroughly impressed. Overall, exhibition was very successful for me and I really enjoyed the experience.
Initially, I had a vague and not very developed understanding of both globalization and social entrepreneurship, so throughout this project, my knowledge of the subjects advanced and expanded substantially. By reading and analyzing multiple articles, completing a large amount of research, and by watching multiple educational videos and documentaries, not only was I able to grasp the basics of the concepts, but also was able to see real-world examples, adding more relevance to my understanding. Additionally, applying these newly gained insights to the final product of the project allowed me to have an even better comprehension and made both the topics and the project more meaningful. Learning about globalization and social entrepreneurship brought a lot of new perspective and awareness about the causes of social and civic world issues, and ways social entrepreneurships can solve them. Before this project, I thought only the most intelligent and powerful people had the ability to make major changes to solve issues, thus I now feel empowered and the world has become a lot smaller because collectively, we created eleven solutions to solve the biggest issues in the world. Now at the end of the project, I now have a clear and developed understanding of globalization and social entrepreneurship due to the extensive research and reading, real-world examples, and finally the application of the topics in our final product.
In my mind, collaboration is the joint efforts of two or more individuals working together towards achieving a common goal. Collaboration was especially important in this project for many reasons, but specifically for sharing ideas and expertise to solve the problem, and to distribute the hefty workload. Of all the skills used and learned in this project, collaboration proved to be by far the most challenging, however I do believe it was the skill I most improved. During the group selection, I originally believed both my teammates had skills and interest in areas that I lacked, thus our team would work very well together and we would be able to create an excellent end product. Although our team was very successful in creating a great final product, it was very challenging to create an efficient team dynamic. There were several instances when my teammates lacked in equal participation and motivation. Therefore I struggled to communicate efficiently and kindly, causing a little tension and friction between members. After stepping back and analyzing the situation, I realized they were willing to help; they just needed a little more guidance and direction. By leaving numerous comments on the Google document and exchanging text messages, I was able to clearly communicate what needed revision and improvements, and my teammates felt relieved to know what to work on. From this experience, I know that I personally need to improve my communication skills a little more to have healthy relations and successful teams in the future, and to grow as a collaborator.
The growth mindset and fixed mindset alike are the set attitudes that an individual holds; however the difference lies in how these mindsets affect behaviors and actions of the individual, and the lens through which one views themselves. In the fixed mindset people believe their talent or intelligence, are fixed traits, while in the growth mindset, people believe their talent or intelligence can be developed through hard work and dedication. During this project, I believe I used both mindsets, and was eventually able to overcome my use of the fixed mindset. Initially, I thought I simply wasn’t a very creative or innovative individual. As the project progressed, I realized this was the perfect opportunity for me to exercise those skills and develop them further. This realization is an example of the growth mindset because I was then able to get over my mental block and allowed me to work on those traits and improve the overall quality of our project. If I could go back to the very beginning of the project, I would have changed the way I categorized myself for the group selection process. By categorizing my skills into what I was good at made me trapped in the fixed mindset making it difficult to push myself in the areas I struggled in.
Although the first couple runs through of the pitch at the exhibition were rough and choppy, by the time the third investor approached my table, my confidence and my ambition to earn their money was boosted, thus I got into a flow with excellent eye contact and was without stumbling. Presenting this project was much more fun and exciting than previous projects because I had a certain sense of pride and confidence in this project; something I hadn’t really experienced before. I believe that being proud of what you are presenting is a huge key factor in determining your performance at exhibition. The most challenging question I was asked at exhibition was, “How can you ensure you will have corporations in that area that would be reliable customers of your recycled material?” This question caused me to pause and generate an answer that would be entirely honest, but still is persuasive and would ensure investments. We hadn’t previously thought through the answer for this question, causing me to be caught a little off guard. In order to have an even better presentation next exhibition, I will practice my speech, or what I plan to say, and have it completely memorized to avoid stumbling and losing potential investors, or to allow the public to be thoroughly impressed. Overall, exhibition was very successful for me and I really enjoyed the experience.