Through this five-minute presentation, I explored rhetorical methods for communicating a somewhat humorous story from my childhood to classmates and peers. Preparation required continued practice and revision of the story structure to ensure that an overarching message connected properly with the audience.  Likewise, this project pushed me to move past my reliance on speaker's notes to  create a more conversational environment while presenting.

The stress caused by the college admissions season creates a culture in which we must strive to be 'perfect' in school and extracurriculars. Thus, I was initially intimidated by the prospect of confronting my failures and sharing them with the class. While completing the assignment, I gradually remembered dozens of my shortcomings, far exceeding the assignment's requirements of 10 events minimum. However, I soon realized that many of these failures no longer conjured embarrassment because they preceded a subsequent, more exciting success. Similarly, revisiting these moments through the perspective of 'owning them' emphasized their trivial nature in the larger picture. Across leap groups, there were many commonalities in failures, especially as they pertained to school and sports. Overall, most people approached the assignment by embracing the humor in the failures while acknowledging the lessons learnt. 

Research requires trial and error before a hypothesis can lead to a conclusion. Thus, understanding that failure is important can help me move forward more efficiently after inevitable 'setbacks' as I work on my capstone project. Similarly, being able to confidently present failures to others will help me to recieve valuable outside feedback at all stages of the project.

In mid-September, I collaborated with my LEAP group on a five-minute presentation concerning the history and impact of the Flowbee invention. Through humor, we explored presentation techniques and received useful feedback before diving into our individual topics of choice. We began the presentation by illustrating the wide array of advanced hair gadgets currently on the market and connecting their current existence to pandemic-era home haircuts. This succeeded in establishing a common ground with the audience while still moving the topic forward. For the next presentation, I want to work on maintaining the interpersonal beyond the introduction by being more conscious of the purpose behind each question or visual I choose to include. Similarly, I will practice developing a satisfying conclusion to the slides.