Our first trip to Connellsville, earlier in the semester, was more so about gathering knowledge and, almost like a detective, getting a feel for the community and its residents. The second trip on the 17th of November was all business: one afternoon to present our deliverables to everyone who would listen.
We made our triumphant return to the Connellsville Canteen to present all our groups’ updated deliverables. Leading up to the presentation date, we had reached out to contacts that we had met before and invited them to the canteen to listen and have lunch. A surprising number of people showed up: the whole canteen was nearly full. I sat at the table with some of the business cohort and talked with some lovely people that were there, many of whom I had not talked to before. They were so happy to hear from us young folk about what we had done and will do in the future.
To be honest, I don’t usually get nervous before presentations but as we were about to go, I felt nervous. I guess the reality set in more so than on a graded assignment; it wasn’t just a presentation, but a showcase to the real people of Connellsville. And this is even when people are more lenient about things like using speaker notes (although, I don’t believe in speaker notes, and I did not even use them when I presented). I am happy with the way the presentation went, including our part on educational trainings for the Connellsville Entrepreneurship & Educational Center (more about that in another post). I am glad that we practiced our presentation and heard from some of the faculty about what we could change and improve. I will admit that in the actual presentation, we were a little long, but everyone seemed fairly interested in what we were talking about for most of the presentation and had many thoughtful questions.
I got so much out of our trip to Connellsville. Most importantly, it fully set in that what we were doing in Fayette County meant something to the people, which really made me feel satisfied with what we had done.
The DC trip was, if anything, a cherry on top to cap off the excellent work we did in Fayette County. It was an experience that was enjoyable in many ways, from visiting all the classic DC tourist sites to seeing the culmination of our work.
Experience: Took a short flight and stayed in quite a nice hotel, the Renaissance, across the Potomac from the main town. The first night, we went out to dinner a short walk away from the hotel at a nice Italian restaurant, and got to know the people in our group, as well as the area, a little more. The day ended quickly, though, since we had to get up bright and early for the first day of the ACRI event.
How the event works is that all the other colleges that were given money from the ACRI, all of whom occupy Appalachia region, would have about fifteen minutes to present what they had been working on over the course of the semester. We were not presenting until the second day, so we got to see a lot of the presentations from the other colleges. It was interesting hearing the varying scope of the projects and universities, all drawn together by the theme of helping distressed communities in Appalachia. I really liked the Tennessee presentation, although it was done by graduate students, and there were some other highlights here and there. I was placed at a table with Zoe, Kayla, and some faculty and students from Alfred State University. It was nice getting to know them and what their college experience was like, as it is of course radically different than in the larger city of Pittsburgh. The town of Alfred, NY was voted as the #1 most “college town” in America, so its university essentially makes the town. It also was nice mingling with more students from the other universities in our break halfway through the presentations, like “Chad II” from Virginia Tech. Once the next set of colleges were done with their presentations, we had lunch courtesy of the hotel and a little before we went into DC proper.
We really got a lot done in one rainy afternoon. I hit the Air & Space museum with a few others before meeting up with Bryan and the rest, going to visit the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and WWII Memorial before getting some Mexican food in Georgetown. The next day was the beginning of our big presentation, so before we hit the hay, we all got together to practice our lines and our transitions (10-person presentations can be hard like that). The content was the same as in Connellsville but presented shorter and sharper. The preparation paid off the next day, when we were the second university to present – boy did we kill it. Throughout the entire day, I was also nervous, in fact it was the most nervous I think I have ever been, but it was worth it. Besides, all of our parts were around a minute tops. By the time for questions rolled around, the audience was so blown away that they didn’t even bother asking us any.
Throughout the whole process, I learned to really appreciate just how great our team was. I truly believe that our presentation was above and beyond all comparison in terms of our direction, presentation, and overall pertinence of content. I believe what we are doing is truly going to be directly helpful to the community, which is more than what other universities can say (not going to point fingers or name names). Part of that is because we are part of the long-term commitment and not, as Dr Glass so eloquently described it, seagull scholarships. But part of it is the dedication from all of my group members. I also got great experience presenting in front of a large audience in a big, business-like event room. It was kind of nerve-wracking initially but overall it ended up going really well.
To conclude: I am so glad I did this! I learned about and practiced concrete concepts about economic development, community outreach, and assessing client needs. I also realized why Bryan calls Pittsburgh the Paris of Appalachia. I have been in many group projects over the years, but this project was the most rewarding – and it also happened to have the least annoying group members.
