Hailie Valdes Blog 2

 Hello everyone,

Thank you for coming back, and welcome to my second blog! These presentations covered dedicated change makers over multiple time periods. We covered change makers from the constitutional authors, the 1800s, 1900s, and 2000s to the present day. Each individual change maker and era represented a different time in history, which establishes how much growth we have had as a country. 

Group 1 began with the constitutional writers. This was a strong start since it established the history of our country. By starting truly at the beginning, the audience was given additional context and appreciation for the presentations to follow. Their presentation did an extraordinary job linking their change makers. Group 1 shows how much collaboration went into this founding document. They explained the why and how this document came to be while highlighting each change maker's individual works. The opening change maker was James Madison. I feel like it was extremely important to start with him since he is known as the father of the Constitution. I enjoyed learning all about how his advocacy for the Bill of Rights because the Constitution would not be what it is today if it were not for that vital part. I had also never thought much about his presidency before, and was glad that it was highlighted during the speech. Another important leader that was mentioned was Benjamin Franklin. I tend to forget all that he does as well, and I thought Fiorella did an amazing job sharing/representing his legacy. My favorite slides were from Angelina. I thought they were so fun and patriotic. I really enjoyed this shift in color since the rest of the presentation was mainly brown tones.

Group 2 followed up with the change-makers of the 1800s. The section on Clara Barton was the most interesting to me since I had never looked into the Red Cross before. Giuliana's interview was so creative to me since I would have never thought to interview an employee at the company. This was such a bold and inspiring move. I also did not realize how much the Red Cross does. I had no idea they also had a hand in disaster relief, restoring family links, and that they work internationally.  The way they are so diverse to me represents how much this company is dedicated to helping the world. Another part of the presentation that I learned a lot from was about Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. I already knew that they had begun many important industries. I remembered learning in high school how they built up and funded their empires, but I did not truly realize how savvy they were. It makes a lot of sense that the only way to grow is to put the money you make back in,  but it also shows their dedication to their craft. I also appreciated how Kevin and Krystian emphasized the ways their change makers gave back to the community. 

Group 3 discussed the change-makers from the 2000s to the present day. I want to start off by saying I loved Ricardo's video about President Obama. I had never seen it before and enjoyed how silly and lighthearted it was. That was my favorite part of the entire project. This group was the most organized and put together. I still believe that many of their slides contained a lot of information, but it does go to show how much time, energy, research, and overall hard work went into each individual slide. This group included very important political leaders, and I think that says much about this time period. My second favorite part of their presentation was their experiences from the events they have attended. The originality of this slide enhanced their entire presentation.

Group 4 discussed the change makers of the 1900's. This group focused heavily on women's rights. I believe it was unintentional, but I liked how they were represented.  In this presentation, I enjoyed Raquel's speech. The way she explained and delivered the information about Alice Paul was very engaging. I saw a major improvement from her first presentation and felt that she connected with her change maker. Sandra's presentation about Ruth Bader Ginsburg was full of valuable information, and I enjoyed the way she structured her speech.

In my part of the presentation, I had to give a summary about each era and the change makers. Midway through this speech, I realized how many topics I covered, and quickly realized it was too long to be a summary. There were so many parts of each group's speeches that I felt were super important to mention, and they were, but ultimately, I had to shorten the speech. While reading my first draft, I talked so much on the first slide that I had to take a sip of water. After shortening it, I felt much more confident in my delivery and realized I could comfortably get through it in one sitting. When it came time to present my speech, I got way too nervous and reverted to relying heavily on my notes. I was really disappointed in myself for a while because when it came to my own presentation, I truly wanted to give it my all, but that was just not the day. Once Cassandra started to present, I started to focus on what she was saying and completely forgot about that, which was nice. 

In summary, I really enjoyed how this project highlighted individuals. A lot of people believe that it takes a group to make a difference, but in my opinion, all change stems from an idea of a single individual.  I liked that I learned more about people that I was already familiar with and was able to add to that information. The different styles of videos that everyone chose were interesting to me as well. Overall, I think everyone had a good time, and I definitely saw some improvement from the last presentation, and sure, everyone will continue to grow from here. 

By: Hailie Valdes