Project Overview: In this mastery project, I made a photo essay on people in my life who contributed to who I am today. I wanted to photograph family/friends/teachers/and relatives. This wrapped up my senior year and the last year of a six-year journey. I also added written reflections and poetry to each of the portraits I took.
Driving Question: How might I grow my creativity during the COVID-19 crisis through exploring the science of creativity and innovation and experimenting with art?
Project Title: The World and Its Viruses
Location: Wuhan, China
What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them? I wanted captivate and express my creativity, something which I had been struggling with lately. So I decided to create a series of art pieces to express my perspectives and thoughts on the COVID-19 crisis through maps. By extensively researching my theme, receiving and applying feedback, as well as trying different techniques, I managed to express my creativity and perspectives through this unusual type of art.
What did you learn about yourself, your creative process, or your medium? I learned that creativity is not a state of mind, but an innate condition that people just do not cultivate.
Driving Question: How to grow in Spanish in a fun and unique way?
Project Description: For my project, I wrote a short story in Spanish using the skills I developed this school year. For inspiration, I used the nights spent under the stars in Patagonia and the odd assortment of dreams that came with them.
What were your goals for this project? How did you achieve them? My first and foremost goal was to learn Spanish, but I had no idea it would evolve to what it ended up becoming! To achieve this rather ambitious but straight forward goal I ended up employing multiple different techniques.
First I used the tried and true Duolingo learning app. While it did help it did not cover the topics I wanted to explore nor did it start at the level of Spanish I was at. For most of my Australia term, I ended up using the Duolingo stories since they contextualised the language more and were more interactive for my style of learning. I also ended up watching multiple Spanish language movies that were provided on Netflix with English subtitles. One that stood out to me was ‘El Hoyo’ about a futuristic prison.
Eventually, I ended up just writing and revising my Spanish with native Spanish speakers as they were able to answer my specific questions.
What are you passionate about that lead you to choosing this project? I wanted to challenge myself and as someone who did not excel in language studies in my previous school and even went as far as to quit Spanish and get a Pass in French to avoid my grade. I wanted to prove my past self wrong and to prove my present self that I could learn to love languages.
Did your project develop and change from your initial idea, if so how? My project changed significantly from primarily focusing on speaking to writing once the Chile term was changed. I previously hoped that my Spanish would improve once in an environment that forced me to start using the words I learned. However, later on I opted to focus on writing as it was something I could do more independently.
Driving Question: How might I create an uplifting documentary that shows how deafness adds value and diversity to our society?
Project Description: For my second mastery project, I decided to improve my filmmaking skills by making a documentary about deaf artists living in Melbourne. The main objective of this was to tell a story of a group that’s not often talked about and to portray it in a positive, inspiring way. The film sheds light on what it’s like to be a deaf artist in a hearing world and the struggles that come with it. But most importantly, it shows that deafness brings a valuable perspective to our society by showcasing the talent and passion of two Australian artists.
What are the biggest lessons you learned through the process of your mastery project? I think the main thing I’ve learned through this project is the importance of being adaptable and flexible when things don’t go as planned, and knowing that some things are just outside of my control.
My goals with this project have been to get people thinking about astrobiology and the possibility of extraterrestrial life, and work towards the general democratization of scientific thinking and knowledge. It is my belief that every member of society should have the tools and ability to conduct scientific investigations if they so wish, and to engage critically with new scientific discoveries and current events. Science isn’t something that should only be available to people who have a four year degree and a lab!
This is why I created a kit that can be used anywhere, by anyone, and bring the study of extraterrestrial life to their own home. I designed/adapted three experiments and activities to inspire critical thinking, scientific inquiry, and knowledge building surrounding biology, astronomy, and alien life. I also took a deeper look in my capstone paper at the reasons why there is so much misinformation about aliens in the media and amongst the general public, and along the way discovered a surprising love for science communication! The conversations I had that this kit inspired are the biggest proof that I met my goal of democratizing science; maybe if we all spent a little more time talking about life outside of earth, we’d be able to make life a little better inside of earth too!
What are you most proud of?
I’m most proud of the fact that even in the face of hardship, and people telling me that I couldn’t make this work, I chose to listen to all of the amazing people encouraging me to keep going and try another strategy. This project started out looking very differently, but I couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out. In fact, this product aligns far more with my original goals than the experiment I was planning from the start!
It was so worth it to stay true to my original intention, and put in the extra detail work to make this something I could be really proud of leaving as my TGS legacy.
What are the biggest lessons you learnt through the process of your mastery project?
I learned that the two keys to a successful project are a lot more subtle than you might think: logistics, and a whole lot of feedback. The biggest mistake I made at the outset of my Mastery was not leaving enough time for certain logistical processes to take place, meaning that eventually, I didn’t get the things I needed in time to do the experiment I had planned. Preparation is really nine-tenths of it, and is an essential part of making all the fun showy stuff a possibility!
Feedback is the other big piece of the puzzle. It’s so easy to get caught in your own little Mastery project bubble and forget that the reason you’re doing all this work is to create something other people will be able to interact with and enjoy! It’s essential to keep that factor in mind every step of the way and appreciate every pair of eyes you can get on your project whenever possible.
Driving Question: What is a meaningful community project that I can provide to meet the needs of my local community?
Project Description: In collaboration with a Belgian, a Kosovar and a Macedonian NGO, my friends and I turned an abandoned building into a socio-cultural space. We transformed a potential threat for a neighborhood and a city at large into an opportunity for personal and community development. This project aims to reinforce existing local initiatives of young people and to guide that sense of initiative into concrete results.
The building was transformed in a matter of two weeks, and although there are still quite a few basic necessities missing, we’ve been able to start projects, keep it open during warm days, and organize events. The center is located in the suburbs of Tirana, which is not ideal as it is far away from the center, however it really provides insight into the aim of this space as it directly faces the reality of a marginalized community.
Uzina is a socio-cultural space with the aim of empowering the local community to transform ideas into action. We hope to bring about a Decentralized Renaissance in art, the politics of life, and culture. The goal of Uzina is to cultivate and encourage empathy, compassion, altruism and prosocial engagement. We continuously work (and play) to promote love for people, nature, culture and learning.
What were your goals for this project? We wanted to bring to life an old industrial building and build a connection amongst different organizations/groups of people who share a common goal.
By bringing together a diverse group of young people from different countries, and by working together to build this new space, we wanted to create an educational and social dynamic. Through collaborative project management, the participants gained and shared skills, deepened their understanding of other cultures, and felt part of a bigger whole. By practicing collective group processes, participants had the opportunity to express themselves, and to experiment with ways of decision-making and executing them in joint cooperation.
What are you most proud of? I am proud to have persisted through unimaginable challenges while managing to adapt the project to different circumstances without changing the primary purpose.
The project was initially going to take place as a community program in a socio-cultural center, but then there was a risk of the social-center being shut down. I decided to transform the program into an after-school module that would take place in a classroom setting. COVID-19 occurred, which meant the module couldn’t be implemented during that timespan. And that led to the creation of a creativity module handbook, which can be used to design and facilitate an after-school creativity module for students 10-12 years old.
