Group 1 Blog #2

 "Group 1 Blog 2"

SPC2608: Prof. Sinkoff

Created by: Ana M. Prado

For this project, I say mental health was the main idea. The concept I suppose. Originally, our topic was called "Improve and Care for People in Need of Mental Health". That was the title we chose to do since we can all relate one way or other to it and make things easier for us to interact with. Later on, we changed our topic to "Raising Awareness to Mental Health". We did this because it seem like it was getting too similar with the other topics, too repetitive. We can go on and on talking about mental health but we had to choose a title more precise to dwell on it. This was to present it to the "Annual Student Interdisciplinary Symposium" after all. This wasn't a regular class project, it had to be perfect.

Creating a template for both our project and the agenda was quite easy to accomplish since I already had an idea in mind for it. I wanted to create little nurses saying beautiful and encouraging quotes on every slide we created. So that when people see, to hopefully make their bad day turn great. I aim to study and work in clinical psychology. Ever since high school, I have dreamed to devote myself to helping people in need, to let them know they aren't alone. You never know when one small act of kindness can change the world completely. One person's day brighter, ten or more are brighter as well. It's all a cause and an effect. That's why it's important to take care of yourself and others. So the world one day can be much brighter than now. That was my aim, my purpose, my goal for this project. For the template to outshine that message.

Since there were only six of us, we had to come up with three different subtopics that can really grasp different areas of our main topic. Alessandro and Amanda chose to work on "Stigma Regarding Mental Health", Alejandro and I got "Educating Yourself on Mental Health and its Impact", and Alejandra and Alan stayed with "How we, as a society, can Help Raise Awareness". Each of us talked a variety of different ways to help, to advise, to spread awareness of, etc. I was very happy with how everything came out and how we put it was. We individually as a whole accomplished and tackled a beautiful broad topic into parts.

I was nervous when I found out we had to present it at the symposium. Although looking at other people's presentations, I can say everyone did an amazing job. They were on top of everything with their topics and such. I have never attended one before so this was a great first experience to have. I was excited that it's so highly talked about enough to put it in my resume. 

Group 4 really impressed me the most. To the way how in sync they were to how informative they were about their topic. They came to serve and dropped the mic. They know what they were doing. Group 3 was far the best template I have ever seen. Everything was so organized and well put. I love the idea of the step-by-step process of enabling close captions. A very smart and interactive move to get in touch with the audience more. Very clever. Group 2 was very reassuring and understanding of human behavior. They provided many effective and positive ways to improve mental health and cope with it. Overall, I believe everyone did their job amazingly.

My expectations for this project were high despite knowing it was for the Annual Student Interdisciplinary Symposium. As I have stated before, psychology is a huge part of my life. I love grasping and learning about new things especially when it comes to the human mind. There's so much that we don't know about and we can never know what's going through someone's mind. That's why it's always important to take care of yourself and others. Be there for them, do your own research as well so you can be educated more about it. To know what to do in those certain situations like panic attacks or anxiety attacks. Some mental illnesses can be deadly, and not paying attention to them can be really dangerous for them especially. Mental Health Awareness should be talked about way more than it is as of now. About 52.9 MILLION people in the world struggle with some kind of mental illness. We need to stand up and change the world into a more positive change, it doesn't have to be really big, but just a small act of kindness like a "you look great today" or "you are amazing" can really make a difference.

In conclusion, I'm very happy for participating and contributing to such a wonderful group and to witness greatness among my peers. This topic really peaked my interest and in my field as a future psychologist! Good job to everyone, they did amazing as always. Never a day in which they can't surprise me. I hope in the future, this topic will reach even greater heights and it would be something more accepting in this world. A positive attitude to make a change is the drive to make our future better.