SENIOR PROJECT SELF-EVALUATION

Directions: Utilize this worksheet to help evaluate yourself and your project. Be as complete
and descriptive as possible. This self-evaluation should give the scoring team a clear picture of
what you accomplished in your project.

Name - Dana Almberg Project Start Date January 27, 2017

Title of Project A Bed Instead Project Completion Date April 8, 2017

1. In 40 words or more describe who your project benefited and how. In other words, what
was the impact of your project?

My project raised awareness of the lack of available psychiatric beds, which could
lead to better local laws regarding the issue. Many comments from my survey said they
didnt realize this was even a problem; my topic was related to issues that the public
tends to ignore, so getting an open conversation started is important. Because my panel
included lawmakers and I saw them exchanging information with my other panelists, Im
hoping the debate my panelists had influenced their opinions and may lead them to try to
improve the funding for psychiatric hospitals and programs. By raising awareness and
opening up conversation between the public, law enforcement, and lawmakers, better
laws and policies can be made to benefit the local mentally ill and their families.

2. In at least 40 words explain how the project challenged you. How was this a stretch for
you?

It was difficult to obtain professional, high-quality speakers and cultivate a purposeful

audience. Both of these goals required me to improve my networking skills because I had to
reach out to many teachers, politicians, psychiatric professionals, and law enforcement
professionals to bring people to my project. This project also forced me to improve my
speaking skills because I had to introduce my speakers as well as moderate the discussion
between my panelists.

3. List and then describe 5-8 fundamental ideas/concepts/skills of your project, which you
learned/enhanced during your project. Please use a table format as shown in the example
below.
New Skills:
Organizing an event
Attracting speakers
Advertising for an audience
Enhanced Skills
Public Speaking
Organizational Skills
Time Management

4. List and describe 4-8 problems/obstacles/issues you encountered in your project, and
briefly describe how you solved each.

Getting panelists: The majority of people I contacted never responded to me. I tried to contact
everyone on the Virginia Beach City Council and I had no responses, then I contacted all local
members of the VA House of representatives and I got one response from Del. Stolles assistant.
None of the psychiatrists I called ever called me back. Getting a representative from the Sheriffs
Department and a police officer took several weeks.

Coordinating the speakers: Every speaker that responded to me wanted me to already know the
agenda for the project, including the other speakers, a date and time, and a venue. However, I
was planning all of this at the same time so juggling all of the variables, including the schedules
of all possible speakers, was difficult because nobody wanted to commit to the project until they
were certain all other variables were secure. I dealt with this problem primarily by working
entirely around my keynote speakers schedule and creating an early loose agenda that made my
project look more concrete than it was at the time.

Getting an audience: My project was on the first Saturday of Spring Break, so most people that I
knew were out of town and unavailable for my project. I dealt with this problem by pulling
groups outside of First Colonial to come to my project.

Coordinating the project: I never spoke to any of my panelists until the day of the project. I never
even directly emailed two of my speakers because I was always going through their assistants.
This made it difficult to coordinate speeches, especially because three of my speakers wanted to
speak without any notes or PowerPoint, so I wasnt sure exactly what points they were going to
make. To deal with this issue, I had to keep my agenda very flexible, especially because one of
my speakers spoke far longer than we agreed on. The speeches everyone gave ended up
complementing each others well and the questions were able to fill in the gaps between the
points they were making.
 5. List materials used.

I used paper, cardstock, sodas, waters, cookies, and brownies.

6. List all people who helped you on the project and briefly describe the help given.

Ms. Van Schenck explained and was available to assist at all steps of the project.
Mr. Spruill was my advisor.
James Byng and Abby Butler-Cefalo helped me set up the room before my project.
James Byng took photos and videos of my project.
Lisa Dailey, Christopher Stolle, Rocky Holcomb, and Anthony Espinosa all spoke at my event
and participated in the panel
Ms. Younkin, Ms. Landas, Mr. Knoche, Mr. Sprill, Mr. Winn, Ms. Augustine, and Ms. Kopacz all
spread information about my project to their students.

7. How does your completed project compare to the picture you had in mind when you
started the project? Explain the reason behind any changes from your proposal.

Originally my project would be a seminar with guest speakers but it changed into a
panel because this allowed more discussion between panelists, which I thought would be
better to convey the multiple opinions and perspectives of this problem. My problem was
more complicated than I originally realized, so allowing people to ask questions and learn
what they wanted to know seemed like a stronger plan than having prepared speeches. I also
had more speakers and panelists than I originally planned because a panel requires more
speakers than a seminar. I was originally going to advocate for a particular law, but I decided
that presenting multiple perspectives and opening conversation was more important than
arguing for one specific perspective, especially because most of my audience wouldnt have
much background in this issue. I originally planned to have a psychiatrist to speak at my
panel, but no psychiatrists called or emailed me back and my Treatment Advocacy Center
representative could cover the same information.

8. If given the opportunity, explain what you would have done differently now that you
speak from experience?

I would have started contacting teachers earlier. While I contacted the TCC and ODU
professors and First Colonial teachers on time, I didnt think to reach out to teachers at other
high schools until it was too late to get information out to most students.
 9. Beyond the project itself, what did you learn about yourself?

In both the planning and execution of this project, I learned to be more flexible.
Especially when I have to speak publicly, I tend to like to know exactly what is happening and
Im expected to say, but with this project I had to work around more variables than Im used to. I
had to be able to change plans quickly without panicking and I had to be able to improvise for
unexpected changes. Because this project required relying on other people for their parts, I
learned more about how to manage others, including when to be persistent about getting
particular information and when to step back to allow others to do their jobs.

10. What grade would you give yourself on the project? Justify the evaluation of your grade
in at least 25 words.

Grade: 95%

Justification:
I believe my project went very well. I had a very professional panel that included two delegates
of the VA House of representatives, one of whom is a captain of the Sherriffs Department and
the other is the VP of Medical Affairs at Riverside Regional Hospital, the Legislative and Policy
Counsel of Treatment Advocacy Center, a national nonprofit that is running a campaign to
increase the availability of psychiatric beds, and a police officer that was an early member of the
Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) and who now provides CIT training for police officers
throughout the state. My audience was purposefully cultivated and was extremely active
throughout the panel discussion. I facilitated an interesting and informative discussion on a topic
that is usually ignored by the public.