Project Reflection

EDGE Project Reflection

Brianna Pugh

Initial Motivation

            The motivation for this project came from my ultimate desire to help others and to make a positive difference in this world. Helping others has always brought me joy. This is the main reason why I chose to use my creativity to help those in need. It is my wish to be known and remembered for making other people’s lives a little easier or happier. That is why I chose to donate cards to sick children stuck at Primary Children’s Hospital as my EDGE Project.

Steps to Complete

            To begin this project, I had to create an image in my mind of what exactly it was I wanted to do. I knew that I wanted to share my craftiness, but I wasn’t sure how to accomplish that at first. That’s when I began looking through some old projects and rediscovered that I really enjoy making cards. So that’s what I decided to do. First, I had to determine the shapes and sizes of the various cards. Then I had to cut them out, fold them, and then ink their edges. After this, came the hard part, the decorating. I ended up cutting out various flowers, cars, planes, ships, and so forth from cardstock to put on the cards. I then added little accents to make them look as good as I could. I then came up with the messages to write in the cards. I didn’t know these kids, so I wasn’t sure what to write. I finally came up with little messages that were short and sweet and could work for any of them. Then I started writing. It was hard to remember to make sure the writing was the same direction as the cards because not all of them were made in the same direction! After writing in them, I did a kind of “quality check.” It was then that I realized I messed up on a few of them. I cut out and decorated a few more cards to replace them and then I was set. I put them all in an envelope, and called the person in charge at the hospital. They gave me an address and I sent them off. Next came the waiting part to see if any of the children would write to me after receiving the cards. Finally, came the sense of accomplishment for what I had done.

The Overall Goal and How it was Achieved

            My overall goal for this project was ultimately to help others. I also wanted to learn how to better use my creativity skills to help those who are struggling in the world around me. I wanted to know that I had made a difference for good. I was actually able to achieve all three of these goals through this project, so I would call it a success!

Planned and Overall Outcome

            The two outcomes I had planned on for this project were to learn how to better use my creativity to serve those around me and to feel a sense of accomplishment for what I was doing. A few days after sending the cards, I received an email from a lady at Primary Children’s Hospital that included a thank you, and she said that the cards would be enjoyed by many. I hope she was right! Receiving this email made me happy. Although none of the children have chosen to write to me so far, I felt good knowing that I had really made a difference after all. At least one life would be brightened. The overall outcome of this project was that I was able to strengthen my desire of wanting to go into a future career in nursing.

Skills I Used

            In order to complete this project, I had to combine many skills. These included my skills of creativity, compassion, designing, writing, decorating, and lots of others as well. By using these skills, I was able to better develop a sense of self and exactly what it is that I want to go into for a future career, nursing.  

Why SUU has EDGE

I think that SUU has the EDGE Program in place for a specific reason. I think that reason is that the projects students complete while in the program are designed in such a way that they are able to give the student an “edge” when they begin to apply for jobs now and in the future. If you have an experiential learning project on your resume and another candidate doesn’t, then most likely, the one who has more experience will be the one who gets hired. EDGE was designed to give experience outside of the classroom, and that is just what it does.

Meaning of EDGE

            The acronym EDGE, when talking about the EDGE Program, means Education Designed to Give Experience. It is education because the student ends up taking three one-credit classes and learns a lot about themselves in the process. It gives experience that the student might not have had the opportunity for if they would have attended another college. That experience is what will give students an “edge” over other candidates they will be competing against in their future. The EDGE Program is for our benefit! I’m glad I was able to complete an EDGE project, and I’m sure it will benefit me greatly in the future as well as now.