Final Video Presentation and Justification

       Our Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqsH-JPSKEI

    While our group had a great time brainstorming for and working on this final presentation together, we found it a bit difficult to narrow down and decide what exactly to emphasize. Between all the amazing, yet complicated, reading assignments and class discussions, how could we possibly talk about every single thing that made us think a bit deeper, see things in a new way, or challenge us? We decided to compartmentalize, so we got together and discussed every single week of class- each of us revealing the concept that stuck with us the most. We looked back over the readings and our notes, as well as recounted our friends’ presentations. We even thought back to our off-campus activities and discussed what our main takeaways were from being hands-on. 

From all of this, we ended up with a poem that we feel truly encapsulates the semester. It includes at least one takeaway from every week, and while it took some back and forth to agree on the most impactful parts and what rhyme sounded best, we were finally able to produce something we were all truly happy with and proud of. Additionally, a poem felt appropriate to accompany our nature visuals and as the main avenue to demonstrate our takeaways, as a poem is something that you can pack full of content while simultaneously having an air of art and beauty- reflecting our semester perfectly. We also felt that just as we started the class with poetry, it only makes sense to end it this way, too. 

In addition to the poem, we wanted to give our video a personal touch by answering interview-style questions about how this semester has personally impacted us. We didn’t want it to feel like a memorized text or speech, but rather, more like a love letter to the class. By answering a few simple, yet broad, questions, we are able to share with the class our own personal takeaways from the semester, and share our most impactful moments. We chose these questions because we felt they were able to embody what we considered to be the broader topics our class aimed to discover this semester through our coursework. We hope that by answering these questions, our classmates can gain a better understanding of how we personally grew and can gain the opportunity to be a bit introspective themselves.


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