Throughout my whole capstone project there have been many difficulties and challenges such as deciding which topic to choose, how to start my hours, and finding a mentor. The most challenging part of the project I found was writing a 5 page research paper. I found this aspect the most difficult because I am not the type that enjoys writing papers and don't find writing a research paper as useful a skill than many other things in life than many other types of writing. I overcame this by working hard and putting a good amount of effort into writing an informative and accurate research paper with the information I have collected. Even though I received a failing grade for the paper I still feel as my paper was a good piece of work. Other aspects I found challenging were to get out of my comfort zone and try new methods to get my work completed such as finding my mentor. For this I had to go through the process of using school resources to find a possible mentor, which lead me to meeting my mentor at a Basic PRLS seminar. Through my mentor I found how to do my hours through seminars and a leadership weekend retreat.
Personally From this project I gained the opportunity to push myself out of my comfort zone for the sake of a grade. This gave me the chance to grow as a person through working with my mentor and attending many leadership seminars and a 3 day weekend retreat on leadership. Through these activities I learned to be a more confident and respectful person that can present himself professionally in front of others. This also helped me become more social and open with strangers, since I constantly had to work with strangers from many social classes.
To use this project I had to think critically to find a mentor and to do a majority of the assigned work such as for the paper, blog posts, and to keep up to date with the deadlines. I used my communication skills multiple times to get information and vague portions of the project, to find a mentor, and at the seminars to learn how to present myself by constantly participating. For this project I had to be very creative to give it a sense of professionalism and to make it seem interesting in my paper and blog posts, while also making my abstract and culminating blog itself sound interesting and informative.
