Mind the Gap:
Bringing Mindfulness to the Equity Divide in the U.S.
During exhibition, I was assigned the role of a panelist and an event organizer. As a panelist, I was responsible for writing an opening statement on my research and opinion about a specific topic and be prepared to answer questions regarding the topic. I also worked with my panel to create slides and questions that would spark interesting conversation. As an event organizer, I worked with a group of people from my team and the other 11th grade team to plan out the entire exhibition. This included contacting guest panelists, organizing the venue, planning out lighting and design, creating posters and brochures, and making a schedule. Having two roles was difficult and frustrating at times. There was very little communication between teams and it was virtually impossible to have group work time with everyone. Since we had almost no time together, we kept redoing each others work because we didn't know what everyone was doing. Additionally, one team would make plans or change something without telling the other team, and it effected everyone (sometimes negatively). I felt like this project undermined everything that High Tech High stands for: communication, respectful collaboration, and student voice. I felt like I wasn't heard or respected throughout most of this project. I felt like the ideas that my peers and I brought to conversation were not listened to or cared about by other students and sometimes teachers. I understand that collaboration can be hard, especially with a group as large as this, but I think that the entire project could have been structured better. Many of my own problems and stress could have been solved if I had been assigned a single job. I was working very hard to do everything that was asked of me, but my work for my panel or my work as an organizer could have been much better if I only had one to worry about. I think that some people were assigned tasks that were fairly simple and they found themselves with less work to do and more time on their hands. I think that in those cases, work from people with two jobs or work for event organizers could have been distributed. In the end, the symposium ran fairly smoothly, and I think that I did well as a panelist, but I was very stressed in the days leading up to exhibition and I didn't like feeling that only a few of us were contributing to the process. I am very thankful for the people I worked with who spent hours preparing for the exhibition and making it happen. I am glad that the event organizers from my team were fun and easy to work with, and we were able to work together without problems. I appreciate Dr. Cochran and Mrs. GC for the tireless effort that they put into making our symposium happen, whether it was staying late to plan lighting, finding guest panelists, or giving us extra hours of work time. Overall, I learned so much through this project about the value of communication and project work, and I will use the things that I learned for the rest of high school (and my life).