Vickiana Nazario Reflection #2

 2nd Group Project of Summer Reflection

For the second project, I was fortunate enough to work with my amazing group. Typically, in other classes, the professor ends up switching groups around different times throughout the semester but during this class I have learned that staying with your initial group makes for an enriching experience. This method allows for a group of people to really get to know each other which in turn leads to extraordinary work and partnership. During the preparation of our project, Zainab took the leadership position and was always there to answer any questions or concerns any of us had. Each member of the group did extraordinary research and were very knowledgeable on each of the subjects that they spoke about. 

When setting the basis of how we were going to work on our project, we decided that the study guide was going to be our first task. We were a bit confused on how to structure it since this was new to us. After further investigating canvas, we found that there was an example of one which conveniently had the exact lessons that our group was doing and the same amount of group members. To make the process easier, we decided to follow this guide and give the same number of lessons that the guide used to each of the seven people. This made things infinitely easier for us as a group and we quickly got the study guide out of the way to start working on our PowerPoint. Personally, the study guide was a smooth ride for me. I was in charge of 11.4, 11.5, and 12.1 which essentially meant that I had to conclude Chapter 11 and introduce chapter 12. I didn't mind this and saw the benefit of it all since I did end up learning some new things about formulating and structuring research. 

Soon after, we were asked to have an agenda to turn in to the professor. Funny enough, we thought that the study guide and agenda were the same thing. Professor Sinkoff further informed us that they were in fact not the same and that the agenda would be an overview of what each of the members would be presenting. The agenda ended up serving as a benefit to us as we didn't know how we were going to structure our PowerPoint. We decided that Zainab and Paulette were going to introduce and give background on anxiety overall and the rest of the members would go into the different types of anxiety. Each of us ended up choosing which type of anxiety we were going to be researching and present. I personally switched mine from health anxiety to panic disorder as I felt it was more common and less of an umbrella in terms of the different anxiety disorders. 

When working on the PowerPoint, I was already confident in how it was structured especially since some people had already done their slides and used them as a reference at times. Monica provided us with the template we used which was creative and aesthetically pleasing. Each of us oversaw three to four slides and each member did about the same amount of work without there being any imbalance. I was the first person to introduce one of the topics of anxiety which was panic disorder. I found this topic to be very interesting to me since it is something I personally struggle with and wanted to broaden my understanding of it. My primary source of research was the National Institute of Mental Health website which allowed me to get the most up to date and accurate information about the disorder. The site is easy to navigate, and my research went without any setbacks. When structuring my three slides I decided on doing one general slide about the condition, one slide of symptoms, and a final one of solution and remedies. I felt like this could perfectly capture all of the main points I learned and wanted to share.

On the day of presentation, I prepared how I was going to present. This helped my confidence and calmed any of the nerves I had. We were the first group to present and had already turned in our agenda to Professor Sinkoff. Our first task to tackle was the study guide. Personally, this served as a warmup for the PowerPoint presentation. Each of shared everything that we gathered from the study guide. Then we moved on to the actual presentation. Tailynn did an amazing job introducing our group and then Zainab and Paulette followed. Then came my turn to present which went way better than I anticipated. I shared some personal stories from my experience dealing with Panic anxiety because before I had learned about it, I had never met anyone that dealt with it and hearing someone else that struggled with the same thing would have normalized it for me in some way. Nowadays people are more comfortable sharing their own experiences with mental health which I think is a great step in the right direction. Soon after, the rest of the group members presented and did an amazing job. All in all, our presentation went smoothly without any mishap. I'm very proud of us and excited to work with them for the rest of the semester. 

Next, it was group 2's time to present. Group 2 focused on the autism spectrum. They had a very lengthy presentation, and everyone was knowledgeable on the topics. I enjoyed listening to them present this information to us as autism is more prevalent than people think. Some of the smartest and most successful people are on the autism spectrum which is so impressive and monumental since it inspires more people that maybe feel like they're at a disadvantage because of their Autism. The next group that presented was Group 1 with their focus being specific learning disabilities. Not everyone presented in their group, but they still did an amazing job. I found this information to be super interesting, and I learned that this is common amongst a lot of people today. I know that since learning disabilities aren't visible, Certain people don't take learning disabilities as serious. In conclusion, the groups had amazing presentations.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project and feel like more people should learn about these mental disorders. A lot of people deal with them, and society is finally becoming more open and accepting of mental health overall. I'm very proud of how each group did and look forward to any future projects and presentations that we will I'll be working on throughout the semester. Thank you!!!!