Spoken and Written

Process Piece- How to Brush a Trail

This piece was written for an intro to writing class at College of the Atlantic (2015). The assignment was to write a “process piece”, which is basically a how-to guide. I choose to write it about my experience in California and Glacier National Park with the Student Conservation Association. While writing this piece, I was intrigued by the concept- how do I explain how to do something in simple, easy-to-understand language, while also telling a story? Looking back over this piece, I realized that it fits directly into my goal of exploring aspects of communication and story telling and utilizing this to educate and engage others. This is why I included it in this portfolio. It also reminds me that I need to be open to the ways my past projects have shaped my interests now, and explore this more.

Guided Meditation- Halophytes

This is a guided meditation that I created as a final project for a class called Morphology of Plants on Mount Desert Island, a class I took at College of the Atlantic in Maine (2014). During the presentation, I turned the lights down and asked my peers to close their eyes as they listened to me read.

I originally came up with this idea when I was trying to create an environment that would be least stressful for me, the presenter. However, what I didn’t realize is that it also relieved pressure and stress from the audience as well. When presenting this piece, I noticed the tension in the room recede. After the presentation, the class provided feedback and the consensus was that this presentation was not only effective at introducing information, but also relieving the stress of finals, if just for a few minutes.

The major take-away for me after presenting this project is that thinking creatively about the way information is presented can be both a process of reflection for the individual (in my case, not liking public speaking) and a process of exploration for the audience. After creating and presenting this piece, I realized that I would like to continue to explore ways of sharing information and providing unique experiences for people in the future as well.