Mission, Topic, Purpose, and Hypothesis:
What is one of the world’s most motivating ideas? Is it the chance of success? The fear of failure, even fear in general? Is it substance: money or objects? There are many motivational ideas this world brings you; however not quite like the one I have in mind. Competition. The effort of at least two parties acting independently to gain success. That is the vision and mission of our project. We want to see GW2’s sports program provide students the option of competing against other middle schools in sports and motivate more of GW’s students to become student athletes. The purpose of this mission is to motivate students to work harder both in and outside of the classroom, get more students involved in the school and it’s sports program, and have GW gain respect from other communities. If we create competition and improve the sports program at GW, then students will be more inclined to work harder in school and get more involved in the sports program.
Real World Skills I’ve Learned:
From this project, so far, I have learned skills that will be beneficial to me in the real world.
One of these skills includes how to appropriately talk to and contact people. For example, during this project I was required to send an email to a teacher to acquire information from him about GW’s current intramural program. I learned how to send an email to him by respectfully getting information from him, and since he wanted to speak in person, I was able to experience and learn how to effectively interview him. This skill is a skill that you will always need in life and business. In a business, without the ability of being able to contact and talk to people, how would you get anywhere? You wouldn’t have the ability to efficiently communicate with people.
Another real world skill I’ve learned is how to create a survey. In order to see what the students of GW2 want out of the sports program, we created a survey. I was able to learn how to create an efficient survey by making sure it wouldn’t take too much time out of class, while still acquiring all of the information necessary to benefit the mission. Surveys are general resources that are used in all types and forms of business. By having the ability to create a survey, I can have the opportunity to be useful in multiple types of business.
The third skill I’ve learned that will help me in the real world is how to problem solve. Many challenges are thrown at us during our efforts in improving GW’s sports program. The only way to get past these challenges is by problem solving. A major challenge we are facing right now is the funding we need for buses. From this problem both my group and I problem solved with the ideas of applying for grants and creating pledges for community members to fill out. Problem solving is probably one of the most important skills I could’ve learned from this mission so far. Problem solving is a skill used in all areas of both life and business. In order to be successful with anything, the ability to find solutions to problems is necessary.
Challenges My Group and I Encountered:
With trying to improve or create anything, it is impossible to avoid challenges. As both a group and individually, we encountered many challenges.
One challenge we encountered was finding grants that would be able to support us in improving GW’s sports program. If we would find one that could potentially help us, we wouldn’t be applicable for it. If we found one that was perfect for us, the submission deadline would be too close. Nothing relating with grants would go our way.
Another challenge we encountered is the funding we would need, in order to have our school participate in a middle school sports league. After speaking to the athletic director of another middle school apart of a middle school sports league, we were informed that in order to join, we would need about $250, 000. Not just because of the admissions cost, but for funding of buses, helpers or coaches, and many other things. The major challenge we are facing is coming up with this $250,000 or at least a fraction of that.
The third challenge our group has encountered is independently finding the next step to our project. Though this wasn’t a huge problem, it did appear to be reoccurring. We have been completing work quickly and efficiently, however sometimes aren’t sure what the next step is we need to complete in order to go forward with our project. I know I’ve been relying on our language arts teacher, Ms. Chintha too much and the challenge for both the group and I is trying to figure out the next step of our project on our own.
Solutions We Tried Out:
When working on a mission, you can’t just sit-back and watch the challenges be thrown at you, you have to find solutions to them and face these challenges. That’s what we’ve been trying to do with the challenges we’ve encountered, find solutions to them.
There are two main solutions we have been currently working on to overcome the challenge of not being able to find grants. One solution to the challenge has just been to continue to search for grants that we could apply for that would benefit us. The other solution (We’ve been focusing more on this one) is trying to get community members (student’s parents, teachers, anyone apart of Alexandria City) to know about our mission and convince them to help support us in it. Some of our group members have been working on a pledge for community members to fill out too.
As stated earlier, our second challenge is coming up with the funding necessary to join a middle school sports league. The solution of the previous challenge ties into the solution for this challenge. You see, one of the solutions to contribute to the funding we need is applying for multiple grants. So in a way we have a challenge inside of a challenge. Therefore the solution to the challenge of coming up with the funds; along with applying to multiple grants, is creating pledges for community members to fill out and convincing them to support us.
The solution to the challenge of being able to independently find the next step of our project is simple. One part includes us knowing and thinking about the next phase of our project and what we need to do for it before it comes. The second part of this solution includes us just forcing ourselves to figure out what our next job is independently.
Next Steps:
To progress further in this project and be successful, there are still many steps we need to complete. Recently we have completed a student survey pertaining to GW’s sports program. Our next step with that is making sure every student in GW2 receives and completes one of these surveys. In order to gain support from Alexandria community members our group created pledges for people to fill out. Our next step with this is to distribute the pledges our group members had created through local businesses. Our group is also planning to continue to gather more information on the process and how GW could join a middle school sports league.
Favorite Part of the Process:
Working on this mission has been a great experience so far. There were many parts of working on the mission that I enjoyed and found useful, however there was one part in particular I really liked. One of my favorite parts of this process has known that we have been working towards making a real difference. Unlike doing projects on topics or ideas that are pretend and don’t impact anyone or anything, this mission actually does. By doing this mission I am, and I assume other students as well are more motivated to do this project well because it has the possibility of actually making a difference. I really like this component of the mission project and think it’s extremely important.