Starlin Jimenez

My Experience Presenting

Presenting in front of a class is at times one of the toughest challenges students face as they go through their schooling careers. Fortunately, I attend a wonderful introduction to communications class that helps me practice those skills before I enter the workforce, where I will most likely have to communicate my ideas effectively in front of a crowd of people that are important to something I want to do. Recently, I presented a slide show based on group leadership and problem-solving. I will be breaking down the moments of realization I made throughout my experience and how they have made me a better person in the end.

Before I get into brass tax I want to mention my preconceived notions about presenting in front of a college class. I had not presented in college up until this point so this was a new experience for me. There was this sense of urgency I felt inside to be perfect and make sure not to slip up and put forth the best work I have ever done but, soon you realize that everyone is a human and they also make mistakes. I also would love to mention that the professor's accepting nature and very caring attitude helped me push through a lot easier knowing that this is a space where you grow and nothing bad will come from it. So after I got over my nerves I felt like I was ready to take it on.

Thinking about presenting

Being assigned to a certain group I did not have any say in which chapter I got assigned but, luckily the individuals within the group were able to choose the words. I had no real preference so I chose the words that I first saw. The concepts from my section of the chapter were problem definition, question of value, and question of fact. These were under the Identify and define the problem section. These concepts represent the best course of action a group can take when trying to identify and define a problem. It is interesting to me how each some of the concepts are questions you ask yourself and the group allowing to find a solution while reflecting on your own actions which is a cool aspect to me.

So, now the words that i need have been assigned I started to research how these concepts were applied to real world situations and it blew me away how wide the range of use was for these concepts. It opened my eyes to the possibilities presented by the use of effective problem solving concepts. I saw many anecdotes supporting the use of question of value and question of fact. One particular example given was when a company had to decide whether it was ethical to lie to investors and consumers to raise the value of their company but they noticed that they would hurt many people in the process and it would blow up in their faces in the long run. To be exact on what i learned in a concise way is that problem definition is a formal way of laying out the problem, question of fact helps decipher what is true and how true something really is, and finally question of value is when you ask yourself and group whether what you are doing is worth it or not.

 Intensely researching

It was genuinely surprising how interesting this chapter was and it also put things into perspective for me about what the best forms of communication are and how to effectively lead a group to finding the best solution to a problem. Then, I had to formulate a presentation based on my interpretation of the concepts given to me and what the most eloquent but, concise way of delivering this information was. I had to take a second and research some tips and tricks on how to present in front of an online class since it is different from physical. I had to mix past experience with the new information I found on effective online presentations.

Finally, I presented the project and I felt like I could not have done better. Spoke clearly and I felt very confident in my ability to convey the message that I wanted to drive home. I really appreciated the immediate elaboration and feedback the professor gave right after my part ended. It let me know what I did right and informed me on what she thought was the most important aspect of my presentation. I ended off the whole assignment by self-reflecting on what I could have done better on. I felt I could maybe have gone a little slower only because sometimes a message can get lost when you speak too quickly, especially when it is the first time someone is hearing about it.

Celebrating my success

So, after this project, I did end up using one of these concepts in the real world particularly, the question of fact. I was trying to figure out why my mom's car was not starting. I started to then ask myself questions like "did someone leave a light on causing the battery to die?" or "who was the last person to use this and what did they do with it?" These are questions of fact because I am asking myself if something actually occurred or not and if they did occur to what extent did they occur. This line of questioning actually led me to the fact that the battery had died and we had to perform a jumpstart, This was the first time after the presentation that I has used the question of fact concept.

I did want to give a huge shoutout to my group and the group leader who did really good providing assistance and guiding me through the process when 1 really needed it. If it weren't for them the presentation would not have come out nearly as good as it did. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say without other people helping us out we would never have made it as far as we did in this assignment or in life. Sometimes you have to really appreciate the camaraderie of fellow classmates and know sometimes there is power in numbers. 

😁👍