Describe your initial motivation for choosing this particular project.

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The inspirations for this project came from a fun conversation with a professor and two of my closest colleagues at a previous SWPACA conference.  They discussed how interesting it would be to look at female comedians in popular television shows.  Shows such as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt along with others were the inspiration at the beginning.  After the conference I was filled in on the conversation and was immediately excited to join in on the project.  It took some time before we were able to narrow our focus but what we found was a trend among many of the shows we were researching.  The successful women in these shows were not doing it alone, there were always other women who helped them along the way and provided support rather than envy.  It was in these relationships that the real success was found.  Once we made this discovery we knew exactly what our focus should be and what we were going to write about.

 

Describe the steps you took to complete the project.

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This project took place over the course of several months. In order to really get started on this project my essay had to first be accepted to the Southwest America Popular Culture Association's conference which was held February 2017. To do this I needed to submit a working abstract  of my essay including any sources I was going to use and some details of what I wanted to write about. Once I was official accepted I finally could get started on the real writing process. I wrote and revised my essay several times over the course of three months. I then took my essay to my peers and mentor for feedback. Because I was working with two other students who were writing essays within the same theme, we were able to collaborate and bounce ideas off each other. Before going to the conference we made sure that each of our essays worked together in a cohesive way. The last step of my process was traveling to Albuquerque, New Mexico in order to present my essay. It was a wonderful experience and everyone was able to make connections with a many different colleagues.       

 

What was your goal? Did you achieve it?

 

My goal was to present an original essay to the SWPACA conference. I was not only able to achieve this goal but I was also able to meet many personal goals. From this project I was able to gain more self-confidence in my writing abilities and I was given the chance to feel like a professional not just a student.

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What was your outcome? Did you see it come to pass?

 

My outcomes for this project were that I would further my professional development and gain feedback on my writing. I was very fortunate to see both of these outcomes come to pass. I made connections with members of the conference and were able to see what things I could add to my presentation if I wanted to expand my project. It was very interesting be a part of the community of professionals and feel welcomed by them.

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What skills did you use (or what new skills did you gain) from your work on this project?

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This project allowed me to work on my writing skills and helped me gain more self-confidence. When I was first asked to join the group applying for the conference I felt very inadequate, but after presenting I felt that I did awesome and was able to see why my mentor asked me to write an essay. 

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Why do you think SUU decided to put an experiential learning requirement in place?

 

I believe that SUU has put this program in place to give students the opportunity to do something outside of class work that can benefit them in the real world. However, the problem with this program is that requiring students to do something outside of class work is still class work. I think that this program could be great but just like most classes there are many hoops that students have to jump through in order to accomplish their experiential learning.  I think that experiential learning is important but I feel that the university has made it something that most of their students dread because it is just one more thing they have to do.

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What does the metaphor "EDGE" in the name "EDGE Program" mean, especially for people who will be graduating soon?

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I think that EDGE is meant to inspire those that will be graduating soon. SUU is the only school who requires this program which is supposed to give us a leg up on our competition in the real world but I think many students think of it as just another requirement. I think that the students choosing any project as their EDGE project only hurts them, because in order to beat the competition your projects needs to be in the area of study that you want to go into. I think that most students see this program and want to just do the easiest and most fun project and this does not always help them in the long run. I think that in order to give students an EDGE in the real word the project needs to be in your area of study.

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