My Experience and Interest relating to Project Design

The position of a Project Manager is unique in the fact that it calls the Producer to take on many roles. These roles require an array of expertise and interest. These also include a willingness to adapt and explore untapped potential. These efforts combine to support, establish and generate game-changing ideas for local, and global issues.

Project design and management is a passion of mine. This passion comes from caring and wanting to help others. Throughout my life, I had spent time volunteering. These types of volunteering included working at soup kitchens and tutoring foreign exchange students. I had enjoyed these experiences, but I wanted to give more. Providing sustainable knowledge and improving on what is already there is how I want to give back. Assisting others in figuring out solutions to problems and exploring inventive ways of doing something different is the contribution that I want to make. The capacity building of organizations focuses on troubleshooting and designing tailor-made programs and projects that improve how organizations run their operations. The project manager guides organizations through the process of them generating their solutions their way. During my time in the Peace Corps, I had used methods such as Ethnography, Needs Assessments and SWOT Charts in project meetings with community members to look at their issues in the community and how we can come to solutions. With training in Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Course I what to use skills related to operations efficiency to improve organizations in sustainable practices. Furthering my education through innovation courses helps to expand my understanding of design thinking.

Culture has always been an influence in my life. Learning about and working with other cultures has been my goal in life. This type of learning and exposure to how others live gives me a better understanding of the world at large. It inspires and drives me to care more about others. Understanding other cultures and learning their stories is beautiful to me. After living in England and Malawi, I have learned a great deal about different cultural ideas, histories, and ways of life. With living abroad and studying Anthropology, I can use cultural knowledge in working with others toward achieving their goals. Ethnography has helped me to understand cultures through participation. One culture that I have done this kind of work with were Hare Krishna monks. Working in Kenya, I would want to learn more about the culture in hopes of utilizing this information for clients. Living in another country where English is not the only language I have found that learning any other languages spoken builds rapport, giving more insight into that culture. I am a second language speaker of a Bantu language known as Tumbuka. Right now, I am also learning French.

A valuable skill of mine is being a high functioning communicator. I see myself as a people person. I am interested in others and cultivating relationships. I have learned various techniques and methods of communication with a degree in Communication Studies. My focus was on Relational Communication, centering on how to build and maintain relationships. I also hold a certificate in Dale Carnegie: Effective Communication & Human Relations training. This training teaches problem-solving, persuasive communication, and organizational communication skills. I had used these skills to gain rapport with community leaders during my time in Malawi. I had organized meetings with community leaders to find solutions to their issues. Communication and collaboration in an organization internally and externally are crucial. In this role, I am interested in learning from and working with a Project Team. Strengthening communication between the Project Team and the Executive Team for studio objectives is a role that I can maintain. With that, building partnerships with stakeholders is essential for every part of any project as well.

I enjoy taking on multiple roles. For me developing various skills is exciting. Being someone with many interests, I like to be flexible in my work. In this role, I will be working with the Project Team and the Executive Team. I can also work alone with autonomy. My interest and experience have given me the ability to work on many different projects that focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

In this position, I can use many of my skills and interest in all aspects of being a Project Manager. My writing skills include writing articles and blogs. Writing is useful for reporting, record-keeping, and document creation. I was also trained in publication writing through Peace Corps training. An organization's internal functions should be maintained and improved. I am a detailed and dedicated organizer of events, planning, scheduling, and logistics within projects and operations overall. I had researched Behavior Change Communication methods to target sanitation and pollution in the Malawian community that I was living in. I was generating ideas on how to reduce, recycle, and reuse. My goal was to build recycling machines that could turn single-use plastic bags into sellable items. Also, I was able to provide a local institution with magazines on sanitation. Monitoring and evaluation are used to assess project performance and is needed to see what has worked as well as what should be improved. M&E shows how the project has had an impact. I had started projects such as income-generating activities to provide a sustainable source of income to the local community that I was in. The project involved orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. They are nutritious and an ideal source of food in combating childhood malnutrition. I had given these sweet potatoes to community members to grow more of, sell, eat and pass on a portion to others for no charge to do the same with. Educating and training others while providing learning aids and resources is meaningful in passing on knowledge and helping others to update their skills. I had worked with a community-led organization in educating community members on nutrition, HIV/AIDs, Malawi prevention. My teaching experience also included High School English for 45 to 60 students. Being an educator has allowed me to learn from others and help them inspire to do more.

People should have mindsets that nurture and embraces innovative thinking. I love using my imagination and being creative. I want to be able to embrace my creativity fully. This is how I can make a difference through my ideas. I want to think human-centered, with a focus on projects and ideas being driven with empathy. Projects create more impact in a bottom-up approach. I utilize holistic thinking, bringing different disciplines together in solving complex problems. I look at the issues of today and tomorrow. Generating ideas that create the world of the future now is how we create change. I want to create more than I ever thought I could have. I want to do this for a cause together with others. Ideas and change come from diversity and bravery and us reaching within ourselves and pulling out the boldest and game-changing concepts is the gateway to progress.