What did you see that you loved at pitches this week?

I really enjoyed the E4 presentations. It showed me what they can look like after you’ve put more than a quarter of work into it. I thought they both did a great job and it was really thorough. I think that working on something that you are more passionate about or is more personal to you is easier to do than the E1 vp2. It felt like we didn’t have a lot of guidelines so that was a learning curve in itself. But overall I felt my group did a really good job presenting and I felt we were well prepared and rehearsed. We learned some good things and I am happy with how we did based on our level in the class. Although I would have liked a bit more guidance. Or some pointers earlier on from the teaching team. I felt like I didn’t entirely know what was expected of me. But like I said I think we did well with what we knew and had to go off.

The other E1’s had some really cool ideas that I thought were really innovative and different. It was fun to see the creativity and thought put into it. But it also seemed like they weren’t entirely sure what was expected of them either. I am sure we will learn if we continue with the program.

What went well this quarter?

I really enjoyed working with my vp2 group. We got along really well and meetings were usually easy-going and enjoyable. We worked well together and I think that made things smoother overall. I also enjoyed the community in class a lot. I felt like the students were eager to help us fit in and give us tips when we asked. Everyone was kind, open-minded, and open-hearted it was nice to be a part of. I also enjoyed the networking that we did recently I felt like I learned the most that day in class it was awesome to be able to fire question after question to the coaches and get an elaborate well thought out answer every time.

I also thought that the mix between zoom and in person was pretty nice actually, I liked being able to stay home and be in comfy pants especially if it was rainy. It saved me a wet 20-minute walk home which I was a-okay with.

This week I just rested a lot and slept and ate yummy food. I was excited about it. My body and mind were tired so it was nice to relax before the home stretch of the fall quarter.

I don’t think we have anything left to do except the actual pitch on Monday! We made some changes after dress rehearsal but we have nothing else to do from today (Sunday) to Monday except to practice.

We put in screenshots from the app onto the presentation, as well as swapped out one of our competitors for one that is more similar and has more competitive features. We also made some small adjustments to our scripts, made sentences flow better, added and deleted information. Just small things. I don’t want to give a lot away!

We will have more to do after the pitch than before.

Other than that, we will practice in person Monday morning with our group, and then (if possible) we may try and volunteer to go first. I like going first better, helps get rid of the nervous energy fast. The waiting is honestly the worst part. Presenting itself isn’t all that bad.

Outside of class, I got to spend time with friends I haven’t seen in a while and we had a much-needed girl’s night. I also got to go back to work today! (Covering a shift so the trainers could go watch one of the graduated dogs get handed off to a Veteran at the Seahawks game). I got to see all my pups and the new ones too! All 16 happy slobbery dogs. It was good for the soul. Especially because my apartment is full of cats and I am in no way a cat person. It was nice to be surrounded by wagging tails. I don’t hate cats, they’re just not my forte.

Anyway, I am glad my super busy week is over, for the most part. I am excited about Thanksgiving, mostly to see family, since we didn’t get to see each other last year due to Ms. Rona virus. I think this week will be good. 🙂

 What are you going to do to exceed the standards this quarter?

I am hoping that our prototype that Harrison has been hard at work on will put us over the edge a smidge. I think we can also make our learning journey video cool as well. Maybe make it sort of like a mocumentary? That could be funny and possibly make the video more engaging for us. I also hope that we will all be well prepared and ready to present with little to no flaws. Perhaps even the BIC’s and other maps could be really well thought out and detailed. We can make our evidence locker easy to use and free of clutter and well organized.

Why does it matter to you?

I want to show that I take this class seriously and I want to try hard and put in the effort. I also want my grade to show that I put in the time and effort this quarter to succeed. I want my work to reflect what I have put into it and myself as a student. I am a hard worker and I try hard. I want the things I make and do to represent that.

What jumps out to you in the VP2 rubric?

The evidence locker. It almost seems this is worth more than anything else we will be submitting. which makes sense because it shows everything we did over the quarter. But I would have thought that the final product or service would be graded higher. I suppose it is a good thing it’s not because what if on the off chance the product isn’t ready or doesn’t work out, your grade would go down a lot which would be a bummer. So I understand that the evidence of how hard you worked on the project should be weighted more heavily.

I am a tad nervous… no not nervous. Antsy or eager to get the evidence locker up to par with the rubric. We have a lot to do to organize everything. I am not a huge tech nerd so I will definitely be asking my group to help me with that. They won’t mind though. We’re still a team until it’s over haha.

Where could you use support?

Maybe seeing an example of how the teaching team would like the evidence locker and all the files to be represented? There is a lot to turn in and I am a tad confused on what is supposed to go where and what needs to be included in what files etc.

What did you learn in shift and share- what did you love, what would you have loved to see?

I enjoyed seeing Lecoya (I hope I didn’t butcher that) present all the ways we could make prototypes online and what resources were good for what kinds of prototypes. I loved that they were able to share something they are passionate about with the class’s undived attention. I remember I had a really bad headache that got progressively worse throughout the class so I wasn’t very focused. So I guess I would have loved to have not had a headache! especially because investing is something I am interested in learning more about, but since I was more focused on my headache I didn’t retain a lot. Which is a bummer but that’s how it goes sometimes.

(Also, sorry you have to enter in a weird code and your email to post comments. Idk how to change it so if you do let me know!)

Something nice that happened this week was my roommates and I went on a midnight walk around the neighborhood. I took some neat photos in the dark with a setting I didn’t know my phone had. They aren’t awesome but I think they look kinda funky and cursed honestly. lol. Bonus points if you know where this house is.

What did you love this week?  

This week was kind of stressful for me. I was really irritable all week and I was not a fan. My roommates weren’t either. everything made me angry, frustrated, or irritated. I am certainly not normally like that. But, I am doing much better now. I was able to use the gym as an outlet for most of the week or go on walks with my dog. I was stressed about the venture project too. I feel like my team has more research to do about the logistics of how it will all work. We will figure it out though.

I was able to do a lot of work over the weekend for my group. I don’t mind that they didn’t help, I didn’t ask. I really just wanted to get the BIC done and I decided to just go ahead and do it and explain it later. I also did a few other things just so they got done and we won’t have to worry about them. I’m happy I did that because it relieved some stress I was feeling. I don’t think my group will mind too much.

Some other un-school-related things that I loved were the parts of the day when the sun came out. I think it was Thursday night that I saw some sun shining incredibly bright on the mountains outside my window. I love when the clouds are real dark and the sun lights up the trees against the dark background. Anyway, I decided to drop everything I was doing and chase the sun. I drove over to Larabee elementary school and basked in the setting sun. It was so bright and so lovely. I took some cute photos of myself which I don’t do very often even though I enjoy it.

School wise I was stressed but there were other things I loved this week which helped. 🙂

What resonated with you in workshops?

I don’t know what resonated. I wish we had gotten the work time that was scheduled. I think that would have been more helpful than the coaching and the other thing we did Wednesday. I feel like I would have been more productive and more engaged if instead of presentations we got work time. I’m not really sure what the presentations were for or why we listened to them. I wish the things we did in class went along with ventures or gave us more tips on how to be successful in our ventures. I am not sure how to apply what we did to my venture. Maybe we could do something about how to find important clients to interview, or how to actually start a business and the steps for that, or team-building exercises. I feel like some of what we do isn’t connected to entrepreneurship and more to motivation and self-growth… But the class “innovating You” already does that. I wish there was more of a focus on entrepreneurship and connecting the ventures to the stuff we do in class. Maybe that will happen as I move on in the course but I don’t know right now.

How might you apply this week’s learnings to your venture?

I suppose if I take anything I would take the part about coaching and listening/ checking in with my team more. Make sure everyone is on the same page and that we all know what we are supposed to be doing. Instead of getting wrapped up in my own worries and stresses, I could engage with my group and come up with a better game plan.