EP’s GCE Portfolio

Field Experience at Sandbox

EP — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:06:32 +0000

For a field experience, our Student Enterprise class went to Sandbox Industries. Sandbox Industries is a foundry that supports start-up businesses. The purpose of our visit was to gain experience by presenting the progress we’ve made on our individual business plans. During the presentations, we discussed the key points of our business: why we created it, what the plan is, and how the business will function. Here is the SlideRocket presentation I used to explain my business, Catalyst Outreach:

From this field experience, I learned a lot from the Q & A with Sandbox Industries employees, including Nick Rosa. We heard helpful advice about work ethic: you should love what you do, don’t go to work only to leave. I thought this advice connected well with our businesses because they are aligned with the Millennium Development goals, so our motivation comes from impacting the world.

After I finished my presentation, I considered what I can do in the future to improve my business plan. Regarding the presentation itself, I can work on communicating my mission in a way that creates an impact in a short time. My business plan will improve when I think of responses to tackle “killer” questions (questions that will signal a significant problem with your plan if you can’t answer it). I also need to think about how I can improve perceived barriers. As I revise my business plan, I’ll be thinking about it from the side of the client. This field experience provided us with memorable advice to finish the year strong.

Katabasis: 12h Immersion

EP — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:19:44 +0000

The purpose of this Endurance challenge was to immerse ourselves in our missions. It’s a struggle to go through hours of focusing on one goal. Along the way, you could feel unmotivated or hesitant to dive into your mission. How would you feel or how would your morale change as the hours passed? To answer that question, we recorded 10-20 seconds of our reflections at the end of every hour.

I decided to continue practicing behavioral modification, which I taught a lesson on during the Strategos unit of our course. The name of our third unit, Katabasis, means to descend into hell. Personally, my mission to replace negativity with something positive is a challenge because I find it hard to look into the source of my feelings. It’s like staring into the face of someone you don’t want to see. During the first 3 hours, I focused more on writing in my journal because that was the method that worked in the past. Then, I started to paint a self-portrait. I thought it would help to reflect on my feelings by considering the image I have of myself. Also, painting is something I feel very passionate about, so it kept me motivated to continue focusing for another 9 hours.

For me, the hardest part was stopping. Doing the self-portrait while trying to keep in mind to replace any negative thoughts with positive ones was a hard conversation to have with myself. However, doing it through the medium of painting worked out far better than it would have if I wrote for the entirety of the project.

I am proud that I found ways to connect my mission to Papillon’s, the main character in the book I read this unit. Papillon, who claimed he was wrongly accused, endured for years to escape from prison. The theme of prison and freedom connected to my mission in ways that I mention in my 10-20 second reflections. Here is the video of my reflections from my 12-hour immersion:

Field Experience at Shark Tank

EP — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:23:36 +0000

For Student Enterprise, we went to the Embassy Suites where a casting call for Shark Tank was held. Shark Tank is a television series that features a panel of “Sharks” (wealthy investors) who consider investment requests from entrepreneurs for their business or product. The casting call is the chance for an entrepreneur to apply for his/her chance to be on Shark Tank. We got the opportunity to interview entrepreneurs and practice networking.

The Enterprise course is at a stage where it is important to investigate and explore entrepreneurial ideas and concepts to further deepen our knowledge of business plans. As we are writing our own business plans, we are discovering how to overcome the challenges that develop along the way. The entrepreneurs we spoke to at Shark Tank shared their useful experiences with us.

I recall speaking to two entrepreneurs who provided quality answers to my questions. The first, Laura Ramsey, was there to represent The Clear Bag Store as their director of sales and marketing. The Clear Bag Store sells clear bags and accessories for work, school, and travel. The business has been active for three years now and applied to Shark Tank because of a growing demand for their products. When asked about how she felt about being at the casting call, Laura Ramsey noted that she was excited because, if a person is willing to take the risk to start their business, then pitching an idea to Shark Tank is worth all the risk. The second business founders I spoke to were from Door 2 Door Global. Door 2 Door Global provides aid in transportation for children, matured loved ones, those with disabilities, and many others who request the assistance. There is a strong sense of purpose within the business to provide care for people who require an unique sense of safety. I found that it was very helpful to speak with people who believed in their business’s mission and were willing to take any risk.

The time we spent interviewing people at the casting call helped each student to develop their business plan in a different way. For me, I enjoyed the experience of networking and asking questions to entrepreneurs with more experience. Meanwhile, the writing of my business plan that is aligned with a Millennium Development Goal continues to progress. What I learned from this field experience will give me a guide to direct my business.

Strategos: Kautilya Plan

EP — Thu, 10 May 2012 04:13:26 +0000

The purpose of learning about Kautilya in Endurance is to formulate a strategy for ourselves to realize our missions. Back in 300 BC, Kautilya created a structure for administration, economic policy, and military strategy that continues to hold its influence in political science. Kautilya left us with a template and questions to consider the importance of what we want to achieve. The questions are simple: Why? How? How much/many? When/where? What if? Using Kautilya’s guide, we investigate what drives our mission and how to achieve it.

As we are in the “Stratego” unit of Endurance, it is a time to focus on what you can do (emphasis on the do). We learned in Morpheus that it is important to be able to visualize what you want, and now it is about action. My personal mission is about having a more positive outlook. It is a common goal to have, but there are many methods that people go about improving their outlook. When we presented our missions as lessons to the Endurance class, I wrote a second Kautilya plan for the lesson. I wanted to involve classmates in the lesson, so I had to think of a way to get them to the answer I had sought before. The question was: What are some methods of assessing internal feelings to change outlook? My lesson plan (that I’ve detailed below) was to introduce them to behavioral modification. To involve everyone as a participant, I brought in a zen sandbox. The sandbox only served as an example of a way people contemplate their feelings and clear them away like debris to feel refreshed. The rest of my lesson plan answers Kautilya’s prompts. Kautilya, zen sandbox, strategos — they may all sound disconnected, but in our Endurance class we always find ways to make connections.

Lesson Plan
Question	What are some methods of assessing internal feelings to change our outlook?
Why	The purpose of this lesson is to introduce behavioral modification therapy, a way to find the source of negative feelings and replace them with positive feelings.
How	At the end of the lesson, the participants will experience replacing feelings. The presentation will start with EP stating the purpose of the lesson. Then, she will go through the steps of behavioral modification therapy (what happened? what did you think? how did you feel? what could have you thought?). Next, she will ask each participant to recall an event which prompted a negative mood. The participants are not expected to share what they are thinking. The presenter will pass around the zen sandbox to have each person go through step 4 as a collective — through clearing the debris of sand they are thinking about the act of replacing negative feelings with positive ones. As a wrap-up to be sure that the participants understood the activity, the presenter will ask the participants what the purpose of using the zen sandbox was.
How much/many	1 presenter (EP) and 11 participants will be involved with the presentation. The presenter must bring her zen garden sandbox and rake accessory. The participants do not need any materials of their own. The presenter will pass the zen garden sandbox around to involve each participant.
Where/when	GCE Room C; Thursday, May 3rd, 2012. Time limit: 6 minutes
What if	If the presenter is running out of time, there will be someone monitoring time. When there is 1 minute left, it is important to let participants use the sandbox to refresh their minds with positive thoughts.

How To: Scrollable Text Box

EP — Mon, 07 May 2012 07:54:45 +0000

In our Innovations & Technology course, students create tutorials to teach extra lessons on web development. I created a screen-recorded tutorial that goes over understanding the code to make a scrollable text box and inserting it into your webpage.

We have been working on a class project throughout the term: developing a website called GCE Catalysts. It’s important for us to share what we learn on own time with each other. You can watch the video below, and I hope you find it useful.

Catalysts at Orbit Media

EP — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:33:38 +0000

For a field experience, the GCE Catalysts went to Orbit Media Studios. We went to direct questions to professionals on what web design and development entails. We met the CEO, Todd Gettelfinger, whose responsibilities include ensuring customer satisfaction and financial management. He wants clients to find value in every dollar they spend with Orbit. Our class wanted to get his outlook on the web design and development industry. It is a field that changes as technology changes. Orbit Media’s history reflects their ability to keep up with the innovation. The group started with comic design, flash (a multimedia platform), and games. The next phase was when they started to work with a variety of media: print, video, and web development.

Orbit Media now works to provide web services to start-up or existing businesses. They have been active for 11 years now. With 30 people working in the studio, they have completed 700 projects. They work with a diversity of clients from General Aviation Mobile to the Independent Publishers Group. To satisfy their clients, they maintain direct contact to understand their mission. Knowing what the business wants to do informs the look and feel of the website Orbit Media will create. They work in higher-end web design, meaning that they can provide services such as e-commerce and custom applications. Todd Gettelfinger explained that Orbit Media focuses on serving Chicago-based businesses because they want to be known as Chicago’s number one website creators. Orbit is currently in a “manage growth” phase, meaning that they have to plan a way to grow at a pace they can handle. Our class benefited from learning about the experience of being involved with web design and development.

We also met other members of the Orbit Media team. Amanda Gant, the marketing and relationships manager, provided insight on the importance of getting information from clients. Meeting and constant communication has to happen to ensure that clients feel their message being expressed on a website. Mary Fran Wiley, a web designer, introduced us to her process of creating a unique look for clients. “Discover, design, develop, and deploy” are the steps she takes to make sure the design is attractive to clients and users. We learned that the most important thing for a designer to do is ask about the client’s brand book. The answers they provide inform the images and styles designers set for the website. The design isn’t the only thing clients ask Orbit to individualize. Function is another feature that needs special attention. For this job, Sam Ward, a web developer, uses coding to make the function of the website match the client’s need. An important phrase mentioned in the meeting was that in website creation there must be mutual respect for each other’s jobs. Then, the function and design will synchronize to make an enjoyable web experience.

Meeting with Orbit Media had a positive impact on our learning as beginning designers and developers. Recently, we have been discussing how our website should look and function. Learning from the expertise of Orbit gave us guidance to focus our vision. As our website aims to raise awareness for environmental sustainability, we see that there many opportunities to create a unique look. We definitely look forward to incorporating what we learned into our website.

Field Experiene at Vosges

EP — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:14:18 +0000

Our Student Enterprise class went to Vosges Haut Chocolat. We investigated their marketing and sales strategy. Vosges is a unique competitor in the chocolate industry because they have created an innovative chocolate experience for people. The mission of Vosges is to “travel the world through chocolate”. They have a positive outlook for the next two years because their income has an expected growth in millions of dollars.

Part of Vosges appeal is that they accommodate many dietary restrictions: there is a vegetarian, organic, and kosher line. Through that method, Vosges’ target market can include many people. When the founder, Katrina, started, she had a particular customer in mind: Sophie. She would be an open-minded girl who was eager to try new things. Having this type of customer in mind led Vosges to create diverse products. Their products are primarily chocolate deserts. Katrina has taken her experiences from around the world to include the flavors she has tried into the chocolates. The chocolates are made with surprising combinations of ingredients (such as curry, grains of paradise, and olive oil) and have a consistent quality of delicacy. This type of innovation invites many people who want a new experience with their deserts.

The greatest demand for Vosges chocolates comes in their last quarter, the holiday season. People demand chocolate much more during Christmas-time. Vosges is very considerate of their employees with this situation. Not as many employees are necessary to meet demand in the other quarters. The change of pace determines how many people Vosges will have working. Therefore, Vosges hires people as temporary workers to avoid the process of firing and re-hiring people. Ninety-percent of the people that are hired as temporary workers accept the invitation to come back to Vosges. The model of employment is a thoughtful strategy to benefit both employer and employee.

Vosges works under special circumstances when it comes to their channels of distribution. They do not put preservatives in their chocolate, so it is necessary to sell what they produce. Vosges carefully plans out their production and promotion to keep the chocolates from expiring. Vosges has settled down and plans on keeping their base in Chicago, Illinois. Therefore, they also know their environment well. They have two shops located within the O’Hare airport. It is a strategic location because people see the high-end shop and are attracted to buying a small desert gift for themselves or whomever they plan on seeing. At the moment, they are particularly trying to meet the demand for the Japanese market. Vosges is in a tricky position to meet this demand because their products have a short expiration time frame.

Part of Vosges promotion is their presentation of the products. The boxing and decoration is given particular care. As a brand, Vosges has an instantly recognizable look: it is bohemian and delicate at the same time. The look reflects Katrina’s personality and thoughtfulness to appeal to the senses and spirituality of people.

Vosges has become a well-known company with a reputation for quality and a clear healthy message. It was a positive educational experience for our Student Enterprise class to learn about marketing and sales strategy.

First Puppet – String Theory

EP — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:22:27 +0000

In String Theory, our art course, we’ve created our first puppets and given them characteristics. The way each one is modeled reflects certain aspects of their personalities. The title image is of my puppet made out of paper. Below, you can read more about her:

Name: Sara Sterling
Age: 28
Hometown: Arcadia, Iowa
Current Location: New York City, New York
Family: Only grew up with one parent, her father, who is now deceased
Education: Brown University
Occupation: Creative director of ad agency
Hobbies: Reading, writing, swimming, crossword puzzles, chess
Variables in life: Is trying to find some company in life (perhaps a pet)
Puppet or the puppet-master? Puppet

Sara was born in Arcadia with her father looking after her. He passed away when she was 18, and since he left her with an inheritance she didn’t qualify for a guardian. She decided to move to New York to look for opportunities.

Morpheus: Mandala

EP — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 04:58:51 +0000

In Endurance, we created mandalas for our first milestone. The purpose of this piece was to represent what we have learned about vision in the Morpheus section of the course. In Morpheus, we studied the endurance of explorers to learn how vision guides a journey. We recycled previous assignments, such as reading logs and a flavor experience, to re-examine the lessons and make connections. I chose to make an abstract painting for my mandala because it’s an art form that connects to my personal vision. Here is an image of the my mandala:

I would like to further explain the meaning of the mandala’s design. It was made on three wooden boards and painted in a folk-art style. I read Kon-Tiki, the story of Thor Heyerdahl’s expedition across the Pacific Ocean on a raft, and I wanted the mandala to have a look related to setting of the book. Heyerdahl led the expedition because he wanted to prove that people of the Polynesian Islands originated from South America, so I derived the construction of the mandala from the story. The face of the Inca sun god, Kon-Tiki, inspired the design for the middle rings. The center is a chrysanthemum, which symbolizes my prison and freedom. A chrysanthemum in Chinese culture symbolizes happiness, but in Japanese culture it symbolizes perfection. I saw that this double-meaning fit in with my idea of prison and freedom because it relates to both my happiness and the prison of striving for perfection. There are two jade-colored rings in the mandala, which represents my vision for a cleaner environment. As mentioned, Kon-Tiki’s eyes and nose defined the geometric shapes in the middle rings. The outer ring is patterned with four colors because it connects to the first solo we had in class with flavors. During the solo, we were given four flavors that we did not enjoy to taste. To keep myself from feeling like the challenge was too hard, I mixed all the flavors and saved my favorite flavor for last. The reason for the patterned ring is that it represents my experience with avoiding bad flavors in my life. The process of painting the pattern also relates because it was the most tedious part of the painting.

I’m proud of connecting this project to myself and my personal interests. Throughout the school year, I have taken opportunities to learn more about Japanese culture and past civilizations. I feel that I was able to express this interest in a way that relates to my vision and Thor Heyerdahl’s vision.

I learned that creating a mandala is a helpful method to focus on what one’s vision means. Considering Heyerdahl’s vision, I understood why he was willing to face the challenge and risk of cross the Pacific — the strength of his vision made all the confining fears of reality disappear for the purpose of pursuing a question he had to resolve. Personally, I noticed the themes I stuck with and why they were significant to me. Overall, this project consolidated the elements of our class activities to understand the concept of vision.

Lesson Plan on Systems

EP — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:58:04 +0000

For Organizational Systems and Models, we created a final lesson plan that covers unit 1, 2 and 3. We presented this lesson to our class to explain our interpretation of systems and models. I wanted to explain what we learned in class through sudoku. Sudoku is a number-placement system so it can be considered a system of numbers. The game is meant to be solved using logic so it ties in what we learned in unit 2 about problem solving. I had the class solve a sudoku puzzle as a group. Solving the puzzle represented how teamwork completes a system. Everyone’s input was needed to complete the puzzle. Below is the presentation I made to explain sudoku to the class.