Working in the Wonderful

Long time no post!

Long time, and a long interesting progression of events as summer has finally come into school season. I am at school. Physically, mentally, and emotionally at school from 8 in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon-- Every. Single. Day. In all honesty, the staff is doing an amazing job figuring everything out. Dealing with Covid, sanitization, the stress and anxiety of it all, MASKS (I swear those will be the death of me)- Even students are following directions... I know, I found that surprising too, lol! But I do have to say, one of my favorite classes this year has been my graphic design class. Not only is my soccer coach my teacher, but she is doing such a great job incorporating projects for people of all skill levels who have access to only a handful of computer applications. I'm an Adobe Illustrator girl myself, but Canva, Adobe Spark, even google drive have been awesome for many people this year! ANYWAY, in this class we have what's called a 'passion project' which pretty much defines itself, but the idea is to use an hour of class every other Friday to create or try something we are/might be passionate about. I've decided that I'd like to learn something new- learn something new but at the same time help others in the process. I got to brainstorming.

Something new that has come out of this year is that I am part of a Challenge Success team along with my wonderful principals, my amazing mom, an awesome fellow student, a couple of brilliant counselors, and a few incredible teachers. Our 'committee' I guess you could say is tasked with discussing problems and solutions that can be identified and fixed around our school. I just love this group and I love the impact that our little group has the potential to make! One of the problems we were discussing was confidence in students. The fear of students to be wrong, the fear of students to be themselves, just an overwhelming statute of fear that I truly believe stems from a lack of confidence among other things. SO for my Passion Project, I've decided to take initiative with a concept that I've briefly thought about and would love to experiment with. I'm calling it the 'Confidence Cast' (a better name to come), and the idea of it is a podcast that as a high school student I would create and share with other students around the high school. It'll be centered around girls as I can try but ultimately can't speak from a guy's perspective, but it's something that anyone and everyone can listen to and hopefully understand that they're not alone, that they are SO super special, and hopefully build their confidence! The goal is to inspire one person. Inspire one, then hopefully two- inspire two then maybe three, and so on and so forth.

I have a list of questions below that you guys can read through and see a little more of what this project is about! It's just a brainstorm outline, but It'll develop my Confidence Cast Idea further- hopefully make a little more sense!

• What is your project?

- Hopefully this is pretty self explanatory, but a podcast to inspire confidence in my peers... Maybe instead of calling it 'Confidence Cast' I call it 'Working in the Wonderful' that way I can touch on subjects like confidence, but also finding joy/ hope/ balance as well. That way it'll be a well rounded pursuit of inspiring goodness.

• Who will you work with you on this project?

- For right now I'm flying solo, but hopefully I can have a few episodes with guest speakers or other students!

• Who is someone you would like help from in the community or in the field of study?

- I do not quite know yet, but maybe someone who has a solution to helping others with their confidence/ creating joy everyday.

• Who is this project for?

- This is for society- for students in high school and middle school. Middle school is such a vulnerable time for so many, so to widen my audience to middle schoolers as well as high schoolers is very important!

• Why is this project worthwhile?

- If I can inspire one person to have confidence, and if that confidence can save their life, it's worthwhile.

• What do you expect to learn from this project?

- I'm hoping to learn how to create a podcast itself, how to promote a podcast, and I hope to find a greater sense of confidence in myself as well.

• What PRODUCT will you have to show at the end of the cycle? 

- I will have a 10-15 episode podcast series. The number I'm still working on!

• What sort of expenses will be involved in your project and how will you cover them?

- At the moment I'm thinking $0.00... but I have a feeling there will be some minor costs here and there.

• What sort of equipment will you need and where will you get it?

- After doing some research, I've found I need a microphone, a room without noise, and I guess Adobe Audition is what people use to edit podcasts- again though, I'm doing some research! If the school has everything, GREAT! If not, I have the Adobe programs on my computer and I found this microphone that seems affordable enough that can be plugged into the computer or my phone!

• What is your timeline for completing (or launching) your project?

- My goal is to have this done and published by Christmas time, so we'll see how it goes!

It's in the super beginning stages, but I've already created the first manuscript-- I'll keep you guys updated and get ready to listen to a fun podcast! #likeandsubscribe haha, I don't even know if you can do that for podcasts, but as soon as it's out, come listen!

Alrighty, I'm super excited and I hope you guys are excited too! this is going to be SUCH A FUN EXPERIMENT!! Something new, something I've never done before! If anyone wants to be a part of it, shoot me an email at missikate0902@gmail.com and we can inspire confidence together!!

I hope everyone has a Be-YOU-tiful week!!

Did I forget to say Happy Sunday, well HAPPY SUNDAY!

New day, new week, new school year, new opportunity for endless possibility!

Have a good one!

Mel