Final Reflection Questions:

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1. While writing your paper, what did you learn about the research process?
While writing my pride paper I learned exactly how to successfully complete an intense research
paper. Not only did I experience the process of gathering research and information from
scholarly websites, but also learned the crucial steps in prewriting a large formal paper. To find
information, students were taught to navigate NC Wise Owl in order to ensure factual
information. In any research paper situation, using a scholarly website to provide accurate data is
the best route to take. Aside from the research collection, the prewriting system we were taught
proved very helpful. In my opinion, the outline and source notes we were required to put together
made writing the paper itself extremely simple. My outline was very indepth and fully covered
16 pages in Google Drive. Because of this, writing my paper simply consisted of making my
factual bullet points into complete sentences and adding transitions.

2. How was the research related to your mentor hours?

My mentor, Colin K. Dunn, is an Emotional Intelligence (EQ) specialist and a large portion of
my Pride Paper discussed the concept and importance of Emotional Intelligence in life and the
workforce. Emotional intelligence consists of the following areas: empathy, intuition, creativity,
flexibility, resilience, delaying gratification, self awareness, self control, and social skills.
Emotional Intelligence is the parallel to the brain's intelligence quotient. Just like we measure
Intelligence Quotient (IQ), the study of EQ is a growing subject. My mentor hours consisted of
assisting Mr. Dunn while he taught a week long course with the underlying subject of Emotional
Intelligence. The research I stumbled upon while writing my pride paper aligned with all of what
Mr. Dunn was teaching. Until recent years, Emotional Intelligence is a subject people did not
think about in correlation to business. However, today, businesses and companies are being
trained by people like Mr. Dunn and his colleagues to learn how to hire employees, cooperate
with staff members, and be a leader within their company. All of these topics were found in
recent studies as well as taught through Mr. Dunns course.

3. Summarize the mentor hours that you completed.

The first day working with my mentor began at 7:30 in the parking lot of the Social Security
Administration in Baltimore, Maryland. I met my mentor, Colin K. Dunn, for the the first time in
person. I helped him carry the large suitcases full of supplies for the week long seminar. We
checked in with our luggage at the Social Security front desk and were escorted to the seminar
room after we passed through the metal detectors. The actual training session began at 8:30am
which gave us plenty of time to set up and get to know each other. Mr. Dunn and I distributed
binders with notes for the whole week to each table and put the appropriate amount of chairs
around a table. The binder functioned as 'guided notes' of some sort for the participants. Inside
each binder, Mr. Dunn took the time to print out 100+ handouts and worksheets separated with
dividers labeled for each day of the week and its "focus" per binder. And he made approximately
25 binders. Once the business executives began to arrive, Mr. Dunn introduced me as his
"assistant"! Day one's lesson was the 'Voice of Leadership'. Throughout the day, the business
executives and I participated in group as well as individual challenges. Mr. Dunn had created
many activities that required focus and internal searching. He taught about the importance of
being adaptable, relatable, and understanding when it comes to being a leader in the workforce.
Many of the activities we participated in involved communication, problem solving skills, and
compromise. The seminar ended at 3:30pm that afternoon. Mr. Dunn and I cleaned the seminar
room and began preparing it for the next day's activities. After Day 1 of shadowing and working
with Mr. Dunn, I was thoroughly intrigued with him and his work. Day 2 started with another
early meeting time in front of the Social Security Administration. Once again, I helped Mr. Dunn
set up the seminar room. Today I passed out extra supplies like markers and notepads. Day
Two's focus was 'Business Writing'. The activities and hands on simulations consisted of
practicing writing and our style. Mr. Dunn taught everyone effective business writing for busy
leaders. This new style includes quick outlining, addressing the person, and staying professional
& to the point. He taught us to "delete, categorize, and prioritize" when outlining for business
writing. Mr. Dunn stressed the importance of quality business writing for leaders in the
workplace. Great business writing techniques will aid one's EQ in making their success. After
the 7 hour class I helped Mr. Dunn clean up and set up for day 3. Unfortunately, I was unable to
stay for the rest of the week long course but I thanked him for being my mentor and for the past
two days. After we said our goodbyes, I had officially completed my mentor hours.

4. How did working with your mentor affect your understanding of the topic area and /or
the professional world?
a. If you mentor was not directly related to your topic, what did you learn about the
profession that can be translated to any future professional setting?
Working with my mentor, Mr. Colin K. Dunn, affected my understanding of Emotional
Intelligence within Neuroscience by providing me with insight to a career like his own. While I
found his course on EQ in the workplace incredibly interesting and enjoyable, I personally think
that I do not want to pursue a career like his. Instead, I hope to explore a more clinical aspect of
Neuroscience based on pediatric concussions. Even though I choose to approach an alternate
route in Neuroscience, I believe that my hours spent with Mr. Dunn provided me with guidance
and understanding of the professional world. His overall demeanor and commitment for his
career showed me that to be successful, in any line of work, one must be show positivity, have
motivation, and be self confident. While Mr. Dunn was not directly related to my topic, I believe
the skills I learned from him and the Pride Project will easily be translated into my future
profession.

5. How did creating a product and completing the hours challenge you personally?
The creation of my product challenged me in various ways. Overall, the product pushed me to be
independent. Like previously mentioned, my mentor was not a factor in my products creation
which forced me to complete it under my own guidance. I struggled with planning and following
up with teachers in order to get maximum participation for my concussion survey. Another
challenge included creating the informative packet about concussions for parents, coaches,
students, teachers, etc without involving my own opinion. Because of my experiences with
concussions it was easy for my emotions to interrupt the strictly statistical information I was
striving to provide. Finally, the third challenge I encountered during creating my product
included the time crunch. My product consisted of a survey that I conducted for almost 2 months
in order to collect broad, but accurate, information. Because of the depth I wanted, the process
proved long. I believe that because I overcame multiple challenges, I will be more likely to
succeed in college as well as the real world.
6. Do you feel prepared academically and emotionally for the presentation?
a. If not, why? What challenges do you still face to feel prepared?
In my opinion, I am very prepared, academically and emotionally, for this presentation.
Academically, the students in the class of 2017 have been working on their individual research
since the beginning of junior year. Not only have I had excellent teacher advisors to guide me
throughout the numerous steps of the Pride Project, but I have also witnessed a whole new level
of academics through this project. I believe that taking Public Speaking with Mr. Piatak first
semester allowed me to me emotionally prepared as well. For the whole semester he helped us
learn all aspects of quality presentations. Thanks to Public Speaking I am able to feel calm and
collected about presenting my project to the judges.

7. How did the entire process stretch you as a learner and as an individual?
The entire Pride Project process stretched me as a learner and as an individual in a couple ways.
The first stretch includes the public speaking aspect of the presentation. In the past, I would get
very nervous when presenting. Even with the experiences from Public Speaking, my nerves were
not all alleviated. Overcoming my presentation fears stretched me as a learner and allowed me to
become a better student. The second challenge proved to be the biggest stretch because until this,
I have yet to delve into the data and statistics behind teenage athletic concussions because of my
fear from my own personal experiences with 3 concussions and the side-effects and lingering
symptoms. Therefore, it is a personal voyage into my own injuries and a step into awareness for
others to avoid severe situations.

8. Other than time management, describe an obstacle you encountered and how you
overcame it.
Aside from the obstacle of time management, I encountered difficulties in the product creation
within my survey. As part of my product I planned to compile statistics on concussions
throughout the Middle and High school. To achieve this I created a fairly indepth survey and
reached out to the english teachers in each school asking if they could make their students
complete the survey. Many teachers responded and were happy to help but some teachers
required follow ups to request again. While the teachers asked their students to complete the
survey, each grade was still lacking exceptional participation. Also, I ran into issues with some
students taking the survey and jokingly answering the questions. For example, I had a student
answer that they have received 14 concussions, but answered that they have never had a
concussion on a different response. With submissions like that I had to delete them in order to
keep my data from being skewed.

9. What life skills did you acquire and how will they help you in the future?
Through the Pride Project, I learned many life skills that will help me tremendously. These skills
include: organization, social skills when addressing adults - like my mentor and teachers, and
time management. Within the workforce, organization will be absolutely crucial to be successful.
Because the Pride Project was started in the fall of junior year and continued through senior year,
I had to make sure to keep well labeled documents within folders on Google Drive. Also, I
learned organizational skills through setting up and using Weebly to compile all of my
information and work. Like organization, I learned techniques for when I have to professionally
talk to adults such as my mentor and the teachers that gave my survey to their students. Not only
did I learn to be professional and polite in these conversation, but I realized that in order to
approach an adult, I must be calm, kind, and direct. Finally, I acquired the skill of time
management throughout the Pride Project process. Each and every part of the project had a
deadline and sometimes to meet them I had to work ahead. Experiencing and accomplishing
these intense deadlines forced me to see the benefits of planning and working ahead in order to
manage my time well.

10. If you had to go back and do parts of the project again, what would you do differently?
If I had to go back and do parts of the project again, I would have planned ahead of senior year to
lay out my Alzheimers experiment in hopes that it would get approved. Before my product idea
to conduct a concussion survey, I submitted a product approval form outlining an Alzheimers
experiment. If I had endless resources, appropriate funding, and more time I would have loved to
complete that experiment but because of the money and time stretch I was asked to choose
another path. Aside from that, I would go back and force myself to complete my product sooner
than I did. This would have alleviated quite a bit of unnecessary stress. Finally, if I had the
chance I would have shadowed my mentor for his whole course (a week) instead of two days.
While that would have provided me with extra, not required, mentor hours, I genuinely enjoyed
what he was teaching and felt that I would have learned even more. Because Mr. Dunn allowed
me to participate in the activities with the business executives I learned skills like
communication, public speaking, and maturity.

11. Based on the entire Pride Project experience, do you plan to pursue this field as a
career or college area of study? If so, why? If not, why?
Based on the entire Pride Project experience, I do plan to pursue a career in the field of
Neuroscience. While I enjoyed my mentor hours and found everything I learned with my mentor
fascinating, I will most likely not have a career in Emotional Intelligence specifically. Instead, I
hope to become a neurologist and either treat patients suffering from concussions and head
trauma or see and treat patients with Alzheimers. I feel that between the extensive research,
prior experience, and production of my product, I have a solid feel for a career in Neuroscience. I
plan to attend a University that provides a Neuroscience major and department in order to
continue my studies. Within the University, I hope to participate in groundbreaking research for
Alzheimers as well as concussions. As a whole, this project has given me the ability to grow
intellectually.