Final Blog Post

David and I have arrived at the end of our senior project, and boy has it been a busy three weeks! We just presented today and our presentation made me think about the details of everything we have accomplished. Stepping back, now I can clearly see just how much we did over the course of these three weeks. Both our mentor, other teachers and parents have come up to us and told us just how much work we have done. Mr. D talked to me today and told me thank you for putting so much effort into my senior project because my final product is here to stay. The kiosk, the equipment, and the fish are going to be enjoyed by Hawken students and families for many years to come. 

Overall, David and I accomplished everything that we wanted to and everything that was asked of us. Both of us worked extremely well together. The best way I can describe us is focused, dedicated, hardworking, and persevering. Over the course of these three weeks we were continuously on task and dedicated to getting everything done. Regardless of what problems or roadblocks we encountered we worked together and overcame them. Coming out of this project I can very confidently call David more than a close friend, but a colleague. 

These past three weeks have also taught me many skills that I haven't been exposed to before. Firstly,  and probably most importantly, I have never worked to secure funding for a project. For the entire first week, David and I worked with the Hawken Business Department to secure our funds and write everything out. Mr. Tate called this adulting, but David and I saw it as political. We had to overcome challenges presented to us by people and push everything to get done in a rapid pace (we only had 3 weeks for this project after all, and we barely finished). The second thing that I was exposed to was working consistently in the fab lab and woodshed. Surprisingly, throughout my time at Hawken I had not spent much time in these two areas, but now I can confidently say that I have spent many hours there and worked closely with Mr. D and Mr. Gainley (who I have also barely interacted with before the project).

To close this up I would also like to mention just how well David and I worked together. I know that David and I learned a lot of key skills about collaboration and teamwork. I would definetely say that we are both type A personalities that can sometimes clash, but we overcame this problem. I can say that David worked as the "good cop" by introducing all of our ideas to people, and I was slightly the "bad cop" because I pushed people to get everything done under a time crunch (because otherwise our project would still be unfinished, trust me). But overall our duo worked really well together and this shows by how much we have accomplished. I would like to say thank you to David, our mentor Mr. D, Mr. Tate, the donors, and everyone else who made this project possible. It was definitely a memorable three week run and the best way I could imagine leaving Hawken.