Working out new thesis product idea

So like I said before, I'm having to come up with a new thesis product because of the Kids Club not getting their act together for me to organize and host the Spring Carnival in time... The idea we have at this point is that Dallas Children's Theater production/Pratham reception. I've been emailing back and forth with my mentor and one of my judges to coordinate a time where we can discuss this further on a conference call. She says that since they've done an event similar to this in the past, it shouldn't be too hard to put together... But we'll see what happens.

In other news, I got a response from the last of the people I emailed to be my judges! Both agreed to do it, but I only need one of them... So I'm going to email them both again and ask which of them wants to do it. I mean, I guess both of them could technically attend, and I could let one of them be a judge and the other just be there to watch the presentation, but I think I'll email them at the same time and see what they want to do.

I also requested a transcript today for a scholarship app and worked on getting a few of my other materials ready for that.

Judge Confirmations

Today, I filled out the thesis judges scheduling report. I have the two confirmed judges already, and I've emailed two more people in hopes that at least one of them will be available that day in April to come to TAG and view my presentation. Neither of them has gotten back to me yet, though, and I made that note on the report.

Afterwards, I went through all my interview emails again and prepared for the three upcoming interviews I have this weekend. I'm still waiting on a response from two of them, though, so I don't know exactly at what time those interviews will be held. If they don't respond by tonight, I'll send each of them a short reminder email. They should get back to me, considering that the date in question is in two days...

I've also scheduled a conference call with my mentor and one of my judges for Sunday evening; on that call, we're going to talk about my thesis product and brainstorm alternate ideas. My mentor emailed me another suggestion that I really like - in fact, I like it better than the Spring Carnival idea. She suggested that we have a small-scale fundraiser by selling tickets to one of the Dallas Children's Theater's shows, and hosting a short Pratham reception afterwards. Apparently the DCT has worked with Pratham in the past with these and other types of events (her daughter actually had her arangetram there), so like with the Carnival, the infrastructure to help me organize the event would already be in place. And this DCT event can be organized independently of the Kids Club, which would really help me get started with it already instead of having to wait until they get their stuff together and hold their first meeting (which honestly may not even happen until March). Hopefully our discussion this weekend will give me a better idea of exactly how we could go about organizing this event.

Presentations, Day 4 (sort of)

Today, I listened to one of my classmates give his mid-term thesis presentation. Afterwards, I checked my email for college interview updates and emailed my mentor and the people who I have confirmed as judges. So far, I have two people who have said they would be glad to serve as judge for my final thesis presentation. I'll email the last one in the next day or two, and hopefully I'll hear back from that person soon so that I can schedule my final presentation date and get back to all three of them regarding that.

I also just found out today that the Pratham Kids Club may not organize a meeting in time for the Spring Carnival to be held (because apparently I can't organize it independently, it has to be done in conjunction with the Kids Club) this year. So, we're on a search for a new product idea! Vineeta has suggested we have a conference call this weekend to discuss possible ideas. I know it's going to still be an event, whatever we come up with, and she actually suggested something in an email to me today. It seems like a pretty good idea, and it will probably work better since it can be done independently of the Kids Club. Hopefully it'll work out, but this weekend we'll hear from some other Pratham administrators to get their input and suggestions.

Presentations, Day 3

Today, I watched my classmates give their thesis presentations. With the little time we had left afterwards, I checked my email for updates on the alumni interview invitations I received. I plan to email my prospective Pratham judges tonight.

Presentations, Day 2

Today was the second day of thesis presentations. I watched four of my classmates present on the work they did over the past few months.

I also received emails for several alumni interviews, so I responded to those as well. I also drafted the email that I plan to send to the people I have in mind to be my judges.

Presentations!

Today in thesis, I gave my presentation. I rehearsed my speech last night several times to check my time limit and I was at 9.5 minutes every time, so hopefully that meant I didn't go over 10 minutes today. Personally, I think my presentation went pretty well; I definitely wasn't as nervous as I was last time, and I kept the stuttering and interruptions to a minimum (well, I tried to anyway. My mouth was incredibly dry the whole time, though, and that forced me to stop a few times). My PowerPoint ended up being 13 slides, so I decided not to display my webpage again. I thought that would be cutting it too close, anyway.

After today's presentations, we also discussed the judge search. I think I'm pretty lucky on that front: because I have so many contacts within the Pratham organization, I essentially already have my prospective judges. I just need to contact them soon and hopefully at least one will get back to me by next Friday.

I also updated my college sheet.

Happy New Year!

I'm going to miss winter break. It was really nice having time off from school to work on college apps (seriously, why don't they have something where seniors can just take 3 months off from school to get college app stuff out of the way? Like "apps leave" or something?).

It's also pretty nice to be back though. Now that college app stuff is done, I can concentrate on school stuff.

In thesis today, I reviewed the materials I had for my presentation on the 9th. My PowerPoint presentation has 12 slides right now; I'm still adding stuff here and there, but for the most part it's fleshed out. I also spent the class period typing out my entire speech - it helped me start memorizing what I'm going to actually say when I'm up there.

I think I have enough material for an 8 minute presentation, but I'm not sure. I'm going to time myself tonight to check again and if it's not, I'll find some more information. I might spend a bit more time elaborating on the problem that is child illiteracy.