Stephanie Dulany

Our project focuses on the aspect of keeping our oceans clean of trash and pollution. It teaches people, mainly children, the importance of clean water as it applies to all different times of sea animals. Our community of Springfield Missouri can learn the aspects of keeping the local lakes and streams clean of pollution. It ties in with the mission of Project Aware because all rivers and streams lead to the ocean, either directly or indirectly. The community does their part of keeping the local streams clean, which will, in turn, result in a cleaner ocean environment. This issue impacts me personally as a citizen of Springfield Missouri because, in the community partnership with Project Aware, I can do my part of keeping our local area streams clean of pollution. This impacts my life in a great way because I have been to the ocean several times on vacation, and I can experience the beauties of it and how important it is to keep it clean for the marine wildlife.

Heather Wharton

I have learned that the bodies of water in the Springfield area are not well-kept.  Even Norfork lake in Arkansas has issues with trash build-up.  This is tied to the mission of our community project because Project Aware's mission is to educate people on the importance of clean water.  This issue affects me personally because eighty-eight percent of the pollution in the ocean comes from run-off sources.  In order to improve society's awareness, we have educated elementary aged students and participated in lake clean ups in the Springfield area. 

April 13th-Abby Williams

Throughout the past year, we have worked with Project Aware to help educate school-aged children about the importance of clean water.  We have improved our communication and educating skills by working with the Boys and Girls clubs in Springfield, local Girl Scout troops, and local 4-H clubs.  I have learned that the youth of this generation are eager to learn and make a difference.  Even though Project Aware's main focus is to stop pollution in the ocean, we have made it our goal to educate others on the importance of keeping local waters clean.  88% of water pollution comes from runoff of smaller waterways.  This is how we have made a connection between our community partners larger goal, and our local community issues on a smaller scale.

Heather Wharton

My greatest communication strength is that I am a good listener.  I will always take the time to listen to everyone's view on a subject.  My greatest communication weakness is that it is hard for me to understand the way others think.  Although I listen to both sides of an argument, I usually continue to think my ideas are stronger. I respect their opinions, but we just see things differently.  To improve my communcation I can learn to keep an open mind.  My summit groups communication has improved this semester.  We write reminders on our white board and have weekly meetings to prepare for upcoming events.  One thing we could improve on is updates on time issues. We need to respond to texts or emails quicker for weekly meetings because many times they have been cancelled last minute.

Communication and Conflict Resolution

The class on 2/17 was focused on communication and conflict resolution.  This class was very beneficial to me because I am not a very assertive person and learning ways to communicate properly will help me in the future.  My greatest communication strength is that I am a considerate and polite person, so I do not usually offend people.  My greatest strength is that I am not assertive so I will often let things slide or not say things when I'm offended.  I do not have any communication issues with my Summit team because we are all very close and good friends.

Stephanie Dulany

Communication is key when working with a group especially when working on a project. Last class period we had in February, we learned just how important communication was with your fellow peers. Reflecting on that class, my greatest communication strength is the fact that I always want to find a solution right away rather than ignoring the problem. My greatest communication weakness is getting TOO involved when communicating my interests. Some issues do not necessarily need excess aggravation and other factors that my anger plays into. In order for me to communicate with my Summit team better, I need to be patient when I voice my issues and concerns. I also need to be able to listen to their concerns as much as I talk about my own. This improvement could help me be a better leader in the sense that I could possibly be the mediator to help with communication in order to resolve problems quickly and efficiently.

Delaney Sweeney

The communication and conflict resolution class was helpful in certain ways. I had already heard a lot of what the speaker discussed, but it always helps to be reminded. My greatest communication strength is that I listen to all sides and then make a decision. I do not base my decisions upon one story, I like to see the full picture. My greatest weakness is that I hate conflict of all sorts. I never want to get in the middle of an argument, unless is has to deal with some one hurting some one I love. I'd rather just pretend like there was no problem and move on. I think my summit team has done a lot better communicating this semester. We got a white board and write messages on it for each other as reminders and as notes if we can't make it to our weekly meetings. We also do mass texts and emails to one another. I think the only thing we could improve on is reposnse time when getting back to each other. I think I can learn to deal with conflict better so that I can deal with situations that arise more easily. I need to learn to deal with conflict because it happens everywhere, everyday.