Communicating Powerfully

My Current Understanding

My current understanding of Communicating powerfully is being able to effectively transfer an idea or feeling from your mind to someone else's in a way that will allow that idea or feeling to be contemplated and taken in with impact and understanding. This can be done through many mediums. It could be a sculpture depicting something particular for the audience to experience and think about. It could be a presentation or a paper that informs you of something. It could also be a play or musical that's telling a story, even an informational slideshow. There are countless mediums of communication, and to Communicate Powerfully, your message must be intricately assembled in a way that suits the context, satisfies the audience, is clear and has apparent quality. It helps also to have a collaborative relationship with the recipient of the message to best help them take in and understand what you are communicating. 

My Growth

My 7th-grade narrative project played a pivotal role in my ability to Communicate Powerfully through writing. I've always struggled with writing even though I am pretty well spoken. In this project, I began to write how I speak which broadened the vocabulary of my writing and improved its clarity. I had become a confident speaker from being a SEEQS ambassador and writing like I speak made me a confident writer as well. 

When I first started at SEEQS, you would only have recognized me by my appearance. I was shy, antisocial, and quiet. Becoming an ambassador, practicing speaking to strangers, turning my colorful thoughts into powerful words, is what changed since then. My confidence and speaking abilities grew dramatically and therefore, a big shift happened in my personality as well. I was no longer shy and quiet, I put myself out into the community, I spoke my mind with confidence no matter who I was talking to. I became a powerful communicator. I feel that Communicating Powerfully was one of the most notable shifts that happened in my abilities. Not only did I improve my ability in Communicating Powerfully, but I greatly excelled and enjoyed it. 

I've now gone on to present at the Schools Of The Future conference, and SEEQSAversery events, utilizing my developed skills of communicating powerfully. I also practice Communicating Powerfully with my music. I started playing the violin 6 years ago. Half of that time, I've been at SEEQS and I've become more technically capable as a musician over that time, which has helped me to Communicate Powerfully.  For example,  I learned how to do vibrato, which is a technique used on many instruments to create a pleasant oscillating sound. This was really beneficial to my ability to express myself in my music and I was able to practice and apply those abilities through SEEQS at events like the 7th grade talent show. I've also learned to control the emotion of the music based on my own emotion to make a more impactful and expressive piece of music. 

My Project

My 7th grade narrative writing project was a culmination of my skills in expressing myself through writing, which, before then, I struggled with. In this project we were tasked with creating a narrative  based on yourself and trying to incorporate aspects of you and people you know into the writing so people would find it more realistic and engaging. The project began by getting some of the basic requirements like word count, perspective, genre, etc. Then, we began outlining the plot. I brainstormed in my notebook for a while then finally came up with the idea of a pickpocket in London who had the same way of thinking as me. I chose London because I had a personal connection to the city and I wanted to use my knowledge of it in the story. Next, I began the drafting process, which took me longer than most others in the class because the story was very full of detail so it turned out to be very long for a short narrative. I had some friends give revisionary feedback and help me improve it and make it better quality.  I finally finished my story and was shocked by the resulting product as it was better writing than I had ever done before. 

How It Connects

I Communicated Powerfully in this project by using a broad vocabulary to help convey the message of the story and used proper language and conventions because it was a professional narrative piece. I tailored it to my audience by including parts that are intriguing or relatable to middle schoolers. For instance, the elements of mystery around the protagonist are interesting to my middle-school audience and it helps them get hooked more effectively into the story. The character has two different ways of expressing himself, which I think a lot of middle schoolers can also identify with and relate to. I used descriptive language to help form a more accurate and realistic vision of the setting and characters in the story. For example, in the sentence, “He then made his way into the hot, steamy air of Waterloo station,” I used the descriptive words “hot” and “steamy” to give the reader a sensation of Waterloo station and have the reading experience be more immersive. 

This project helped me significantly with my communication through writing, my role as an ambassador assisted me in the verbal medium of communication because of its contribution to my general confidence throughout life. As an ambassador, I've led tours, spoken to educators and representatives, and presented at conferences. Being an ambassador is all about communicating all of the aspects of SEEQS to your audience while tailoring and personalizing the presentation based on the needs and expectations of the audience. For instance, when presenting to an educator, we could tailor the presentation to talk more about grading systems, essential questions, the schedule, etc. This will allow them to learn more in-depth about things that are concerning them as a teacher. As opposed to if I was presenting to a community member who was the owner of a small fashion business (I did have a tour with an owner of a small fashion business) I might want to talk more about EQS and how we do lots of field studies about issues that would concern them like fast fashion. In the tour I gave to that person, I tailored the presentation by talking specifically about EQS waste and consumerism which was learning about fast fashion and its impact on the world. Overall, being a SEEQS ambassador represents Communicating Powerfully in many key ways and was a vital part of the journey to my current standing as a powerful communicator.