DRSL: Effective Communication Freshman Year
For effective communication my freshman year, I used the Spanish essay that I wrote. This essay was required to be about who I am, but beyond those instructions it was up to me to define myself, how I label who I am, and how others label me. I found it quite difficult to talk about who I am, and what makes me a unique person. Using Spanish, I discussed how I feel being half Caucasian and half Japanese. I addressed common stereotypes about both races and how they make me feel. I had to make sure I wrote in a way that people could understand what I was trying to convey. This assignment definitely made me project something into words that I normally never talk about.
DRSL: Effective Communication Sophomore Year
The Powerpoint that I made on clinical depression is a good example of effective communication from my sophomore year. Although the instructions to the project were straightforward, the research and organization took a lot of time to ensure that I was able to present my findings thoroughly but also not in a boring way. I used various pictures of artwork as a way to represent a type of therapy, art therapy, which can help with depression. I thought these were important in helping with communication because they provided a visual aspect to my presentation.
DRSL: Effective Communication Junior Year
My I-Search paper is a good example of effective communication because I was asked to choose a topic to research and to write my research process and my results. The research also involved something more than just online research, such as an interview, which is what I used. Along with the paper, which must be clear and educative for the reader, there was a requirement to make a powerpoint and share my findings. I had to find the right balance between text and talking so my audience stayed engaged. In my powerpoint I was able to use visual images to connect to popular culture to help communicate my findings.
DRSL: Effective Communication Senior Year
This shows effective communication because my colleague and I had to research our topic (linguistic discrimination), create a research paper on the information that we found, create a powerpoint on the information, and give a presentation on our findings. The research involved going through academic databases and interviews with individuals who have been victims of linguistic discrimination. The presentation was used as the final project for the first semester of University of Utah Humanities. Following the presentation, we also had to be prepared to answer questions regarding our presentation.