Senior End of Year Reflection 2019

Guarantees Reflection

Throughout the past four years of high school, we have spent a majority of our time learning to develop what is known as the five guarantees: technical skills, communication, collaboration, leadership, and project management. Communication will always be the biggest one for me because it's how you form a network. The communication aspect is what the program is made up of--how to communicate a message to different audiences. This skill is so valuable for everyday life, and without it, we wouldn't have a clear understanding or even be able to function properly. This is the minimal foundation for success in life and e-Communications taught us to go above that and create a brand for ourselves, make our name and program familiar to many. It takes time to learn how to do this efficiently and effectively, and without practice, the skills do not build on itself and neither does the confidence we carry with it.

Strengths and Weaknesses 

Communication will always be my strength, it is where I excel within this program. It was not always like that but through practice, it got better. The more clients I had the easier it got for me to use my voice and tell them exactly what I could and could not do. It became easier for me to communicate what I wanted help with for the video, how it should be shot, and pitching my ideas for others to understand my vision. Something I know I still lack is communicating a hard deadline, but there is always room for improvement even outside of the program. 

My weakness was and still is the collaboration aspect. Senior year I really saw growth in myself because this was the first time in all four years I was able to take a step back and just do the one job I was assigned. Previously, working a little bit of everyone's role was something common for me to do and I knew it was because a large part of me was insecure about projects getting done in other people hands. This year it was so easy for me to just take a big step back, watch the process, and trust my group members ability to get their work done. 

Summary 

With all the time I have spent learning how to develop my five guarantees, I want to carry them with me through life. These skills are all so valuable in any profession, and they teach you the soft skills of working with other people. Personally, there is nothing about the program I would change. I loved all parts of it and I felt over the past four years I was taught a plethora of skills that will stay with me for a lifetime. 

Project Reflection 

My website is my favorite part of this year. This was the place where I was able to showcase all of my work and show the world what all takes place outside of the classroom. The website was a small portfolio at the beginning of the year that gradually grew bigger and bigger as I added more work. Many challenges I faced was initially creating it. This honestly was not something I was confident on and I was not ready to show the world all of the things I was doing. It took me a long time to get the look of it exactly how I wanted and be confident with others seeing what I was going. After the senior show, I realized so many people were impressed with my website. It was easy to navigate, it was simple and people could view exactly what they wanted. I was able to go ahead and make some minor changes to the layout after that evening just to make it more user-friendly and has stayed up 24/7 since. This will always be something I take pride in and something I continually add to for the simple fact that it's all my work and it's something I want to always show off. 

My second favorite project is going to be the graphic design I made for our class feature film this year. 'Just My Imagination' was an opportunity for me to really stay behind the scenes but do what I love. Video's for social media were put in place but my love for this came from all the graphic design made. 

This was a process that started in October and went until May. All of it was so rewarding because this was when people were viewing my work the most. Mrs. Smith stayed right by my side making sure that things were made and then quickly turned around and sent to the printer. I was so happy with the outcome of these posters and tickets and beyond thankful I was able to do a lot of graphic design this year.

Last and finally was my government PSA I did. This was not one that I turned in for an e-Comm grade, but one I was able to show off for the purpose of "Why Voting is Important". 

This was my final favorite because I wanted to produce something funny, and a lot of people really did enjoy it. They laughed at it, and even my teacher enjoyed it. This was a time I was able to use my video skills from the program and create a video for a separate class that really got my message across. It was such a satisfying feeling actually having people laugh with me at the outcome of my video. Unfortunately, this was not something I received feedback on, however, when it was shown to individuals in my e-Comm class, they liked it just as much as the seniors in my government class so it was a piece of work that made me feel really confident in my skills.

General Information 

My time outside of e-Comm was spent taking pictures and working on my video projects, they were easy to take home, and I was constantly able to work on my skills from home and focus on making my projects better. My strengths were maximized by the time I spent individually working on my photography skills. It taught me how to create better shots and color correct video frames to get the best quality out of what was being filmed. Overall as I move forward, I know I will need to continue working on my collaboration skills, and working with others. As much as I like to tell myself I can do everything on my own, I know I can't and it will constantly be something I have to work at. 

Just My Imagination 

For our feature film this year, I was publicist which means I spent a lot of time working to promote our movie, doing the graphic design, and making sure our social media content was accurate. As shown above, my time in class was spent planning on how to market our movie and make sure tickets sell, which they did!

Summary

e-Comm will always be something I am thankful for. The last four years have taught me a lot of valuable lessons and have helped me to network with some amazing people. Mrs. Smith is an absolutely amazing teacher who I am so grateful to have had for the past three years. The lessons I learned, the people I met, as well as the growth in myself and my work, will forever be my largest takeaway and the greatest memories I have of this class. I plan on continuing to work on my skills in photography as a move on in life as it is one of my hobbies that I don't want to stop. Overall, I just want to say thank you to everyone who supported me through my e-Comm journey and all of those that helped me improve my work along the years. e-Comm was a blessing in my life and all I have to say to that is, thank you Olathe Northwest for giving me a place where I felt I always belonged.