The Challenges That We Faced

A senior exit project is about working together and solving problems. No one said that this project would be easy. Ours was no exception. We had faced a slew of problems from the beginning to the end. Here is a list of problems that we faced.

M Our was problem was that our project changed drastically from what it originally was. The project was originally to help the library by trying to get the community involved by going around town to have local citizens sign a petition about the library‘s situation. And we were very confused on how we should begin helping the library. Then another task was introduced. Mrs. Campbell, our senior exit project advisor, wanted us to advertise the library’s situation by going to the radio and other types of media. These problems were resolved by our alternate plan for our project, which was to gather information about the library’s funding and what it offers and do presentations at Upton middle School and Lake Michigan Catholic Middle School.

M Our next problem was scheduling everything within our first month timespan. We also had to make main contacts that could help us with our project. Some contacts couldn’t schedule that early because one, they didn’t think the library would have a problem by then, and two, some thought that it should be a media thing and that they weren’t interested in being a part of this project. But besides those complications; however, we were still able to continue with our project.

M The next problem was that we had to get our facts straight, so we interviewed board members of St. Joseph Charter Township, City of St. Joseph, and the St. Joseph Public Library. If we didn’t interview representatives from all three, we never would have gotten all the different perspectives of the library’s predicament. And within the interviews, we realized we weren’t ready to do our presentations at the middle schools because we got caught up in politics about the situation. What we did was we had to postpone our presentations to April, and that made rush finishing our project.

M Another problem that we endured was trying to get the winners of the essay contest have their papers published into the Herald Palladium. That didn’t go over to well. What happened was that The Herald Palladium wasn’t interested in doing this, so Mrs. Campbell suggested that we go to the Trade Lines and The Benton Spirit instead because she believed that they would do it. Neither of them were interested.

M Our next dilemma was getting prizes for the essay contest. We promised there would be prizes, but we didn’t have anything. We went to Targetä to see if they could donate some gift certificates or something, but they don’t do small donations. After that, we went to Meijerä and got a donation request form. Turns out it takes 30 days just to get a response from the Meijerä Head Quarters, and we didn’t have that kind of time. So finally, we went around to local businesses seeing if they were interested in giving a small donation. We received two $10 gift certificates from both Forever Booksä and Kilwinsä. That only would cover the second and third prizes awarded. For the first place winners we wanted to give them cash, so we’re going to have a bake sale and however much money we raise, that’s how much they’ll win.

These were just the main challenges that we encountered. These challenges also gave us some surprises as well, which also helped us learn more. Some of the surprises were:

¬ Don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper.

¬ Don’t follow one point of view.

¬ Everything won’t go as planned.

¬ Always be prepared for curve-balls.

¬ Always have alternate plans and ideas just in case some things don’t work out.

¬ And that no Senior Exit Project is easy.

These surprises will come in handy for those of you who will do a project of your own. Just follow that list and you might make it after all. And remember It Won’t Be Easy. Aggravation will be abundant and you’ll learn from it because learning throughout this project is the best way to accomplish it.