Thoughts and Considerations

The end goal of my project was to foster communication among communities to help reduce the stigma and grant awareness for the topic of teen dating violence. This end goal was greatly evolved from my original idea, not in concept but in execution. I was highly ambitious and learned quickly that my original plan of designing a video with very little previous video production experience on a topic that I previously had little knowledge about was too far out of my scope of abilities.
I then learned that my next idea already existed which actually inspired me to change my goal instead of turning me in a completely different direction. This led to my final project which was an online resource to be used to help reduce the stigma and normalize the severity of the topic of teen dating violence. The biggest issue was an apathy among adults and those in positions of power and I created a way to get those already in contact with them to help spread the normalization of the discussion on the topic.
The most challenging parts of this project were finding ways to get kids engaged in learning which, as a student, I know is much more difficult than one would imagine. It was also challenging to find a format that would get my goal across while still being accessible and fit my needs. Of course my biggest issue was finding the humility in myself to accept a project that was not what I had expected or originally thought of. Getting over my own pride and perfectionism in order to complete an actual goal is something that I usually struggle with on a daily basis and significantly impacted my ability to complete this project.
However, there were quite a few rewarding aspects of this project. From my experiences sharing my project I have gotten quite a few responses from people acknowledging the extremity of the issue which helped validate the effort that I had put into this project. I am also grateful to have had the rewarding opportunity to complete a 6 month long project with the challenge of making the world a better place. That opportunity has helped me understand the amount of work that goes into projects like this and prepares me for any potential future community projects. This project also gave me the opportunity to work alongside others with the same goal as me which was to improve the world. Being surrounded by that many people who have a vision of a better world is greatly rewarding.
Utilizing these past 4 years in STEAM, I can now go on to imagine more, create more, and have the confidence in my ability to find creative ways to solve problems. The physical skills that I have learned in STEAM are nowhere as valuable as the mental skills that I have developed which will help me understand problems and make it easier to adapt to challenging situations.