Culminating Blog Reflection

I had a really great time working with my mentor John Yap and the Filipino Mental Health Initiative. I learned a lot during my time there and through all the various projects that I did. I used my creativity skills with the photovoice aspect of my project. Taking pictures of things that answer a question is a lot harder than you think. At first, I thought that it would be a piece of cake, but I really had to think outside of the box and get creative. This is where the critical thinking part came in because I spent a lot of time just trying to figure out how to answer the question. Although it was a simple question, the possible answers were complex and difficult to capture as an image. Additionally, I had to really be on top of communicating with my mentor. He let me know when events were coming up that I could attend and was always there to help me along with my project in its entirety. If I did not communicate effectively with him, then my project would not have gone well at all. Lastly, I used my collaboration skills to help others throughout different events of my project. For example, in photovoice, we had to work with a partner in the beginning so that we could learn how to effectively answer a question with an image. At FMHI meetings, groups needed feedback or input on their projects so that they could be efficient and effective. One thing I've learned about community outreach is that it is not possible without the collaboration of many organizations and individuals.

The biggest challenge I had during my project was being comfortable speaking genuinely to people about my experiences with mental illness in the Filipino community. When I first went to an FMHI meeting, I was very intimidated. Most of the people in the room were experienced individuals that had some type of paying job in the mental health field. Here I was, a high school student with no work experience in the mental health field whatsoever. So I really felt out of my league. However, everyone was so welcoming and eager to help with my project that I gradually started to open up. I think I really grew when I talked about my experience attending the Jefferson HS Sala Talk at an FMHI meeting. I really opened up and spoke freely about what happened and how amazing I thought it was. At the end of the meeting, one of the women actually came up to me and told me how great it was that I had spoken up and was not afraid to do so. This really boosted my confidence and made me really proud of myself because speaking about personal experiences is a hard thing for me to do. Yet during this project I actually overcame that challenge and succeeded.

Overall, this project gave me a lot of insight into the field of work that I want to go into and helped me grow along the way.