Completed Journal Entries 1-5
Completed Journal Entries 1-5
Completed Journal Entries 1-5
Journal Entry #1
With the start of the second half of the capstone project, I’m excited to be working with
I believe that the best way to organize groups would be to start with assigning
responsibilities to each group member. From my personal experience, our team has run better
by identifying a group leader, as well as someone in charge of organizing meetings. The leader
of the group leads the group by organizing our direction, as well as meeting with the professor
or different occasions to ask questions about the project or discuss feedback. The main function
of the person organizing our group meetings is just that… speak to everyone in the group and
For this project, I was not leader or one who arranged meetings, but I do believe I have
been a vital contribution to this group by always pushing our group to get on top of deadlines
and get the work done. My contributions with connections that I have made over the years
The capstone project is a very serious undertaking. I have worked in groups for as long
as I can remember, and I am familiar with long-term projects as every year in high school I
worked with a group to create a year-long project. I believe that the capstone project is great as
I hope that this project allows me to experience working with a group on the same
academic level as me to come up with a university-level product. I hope that our project is able
to be learned from and motivate those that will come after me to create a great product.
The covid-19 pandemic, I believe, will pose the biggest challenge for us. It can be
difficult to collaborate on a task if the group cannot be together to discuss the different aspects.
However, I am more than confident we can still achieve a great result. On the bright side,
meeting through zoom definitely allows more flexibility in the times that we can meet.
Communication is key in any group environment, but I think it will be vitally important
to our capstone project. Our group needs to be able to communicate well, to the point where
we almost know what each other is thinking. We have to be on the same page. We also need to
be open to each other’s input on our work to improve it to the best it can possibly be.
Throughout the previous semester, we all got to know each other pretty well and I am very
I wanted to preface this journal entry by saying that the majority of our team was
affected by the winter storm, so not much work was done in the days prior to speaking to
professor on Friday.
This week, the project is really starting to take a new shape. We have decided on the
vision for our project, as well as established various tactics for how our interviews with industry
The Friday meeting with professor gave us a considerable amount of direction, and we
My contributions for this week included meeting with my group, as well as meeting with
professor on the next steps for our project. We were regrettably unable to meet with Evan due
to his busy schedule, but we were happy to be able to meet with the professor to discuss our
project. In addition, I was very content with my team this week for their quick and timely
responses, as well as their timeliness and readiness when it came to meeting with professor on
Friday.
I am very excited about the direction we are taking our project, and as especially looking
forward to interviewing industry professionals to ask about their experience, as well as attain
some information on their compensation/benefits. I believe our project will be heavily based on
the data that we can attain through interviewing/surveying different groups of people.
I have begun to formulate the outline for out interviews that we will be doing, and I will
be sharing that with my group as soon as it is completed, but I do believe that everyone in the
group has been working on lining up and scheduling interviews with professionals.
Our vision for the upcoming week is to begin and hopefully finalize our interviews, as
well as send out an online survey to student workers to gain their perspective as well.
Journal Entry #3
At this point in our project, I am very satisfied with our project so far. The actual data
collection is my favorite part, as we are getting to survey people and get their understanding as
to which benefits are important to them. I have been very surprised by some of our responses,
as it shows how people in different situations think so much differently from one another.
We definitely hope to expand on more of our project with the weeks to come,
specifically formulate clearer recommendations for our final project since at the moment they
are not where we would like them to be. Formulating great recommendations takes a lot of
time and thought, but I am confident me and my group can come up with some great
I have had some great contributions since last writing my previous reflection. I have
contributed to the surveys, as well as worked on writing various sections of our report. It seems
as though everything is coming along nicely. It has been very good to hear feedback from
The capstone project is slowly creeping toward being complete. I believe our team is
really good at working together at this point, and I am happy that we never face any issues
when it comes to being on top of our deliverables and meetings. Everyone in the group is
reliable and very easy to communicate with. At the time of writing this, we have just finished
wrapping up the rough draft of our report. We spend the past few hours reviewing all of the
notes that we had from meeting with professor, as well as the recent feedback that we had
received about our previous report. We have about two weeks until our final project is done,
and we seem to be on track. We are hopeful to hear professors’ thoughts this upcoming Friday
4/16 to discuss our rough draft and ask for feedback. On this final draft I was able to take some
of Professor’s feedback and redo/rewrite certain parts. I was especially happy to reformat our
charts to make them more appealing and easier to read. Our group leaders have been taking
our project in a really good direction, and I’m happy with what we have to show for our rough
draft. I have also been working closely with my teammate, Sean Close, to really develop our
It has been so gratifying to learn so much about my topic. Throughout two semesters
my team was able to analyze the benefits that are important to employees of different age
groups. The most impactful insight for me was definitely the research that we conducted in the
forms of surveys and questionnaires. We were able to gather so much concrete data by asking
our peers and people in industry to complete these surveys, especially the way in which
different age groups prioritize different benefits. In the previous semester, we learned a lot
about just a few individuals in interview me and my team conducted, but by sending out
For the most part, our project ran smoothly. Our team encountered a few hiccups along
the way, especially on the recommendations portion of the project. We were able to overcome
this situation quickly by speaking with our advisor Evan Vestal, as well as by coming together as
a team to tackle this obstacle. We were able to solidify our recommendations by finally hearing
feedback from professor, who told us we had come up with something really great (which was
fantastic to hear).
This experience has taught me a lot about leadership, teamwork, and commitment. To
start with leadership, it has taught me that sometimes everyone must be a leader, and to not
rely on one person. Throughout our project, we have all taken on leadership roles in the various
sections of our report, as well as to conduct research. Our actual team leader facilitated the
assignment of these responsibilities, but we all took leadership roles in our respective sections.
I have loved working with my group, I feel as though our communication just got better over
time and were at the point now where we always run through a rehearsal, a draft, or anything
of that nature without any hiccups, while still remaining efficient. This year-long project has
showed that me and my team are committed to getting the job done and using each other to
If I were to have changed anything, it would only have been to conduct more research.
We took quite a bit of time to collect our data, and we wish we could have gathered more,
however, it is very time consuming and we felt as though we had bothered our peers and
people industry enough at this point. We wish we could’ve had a larger pool to gather data
from, as the bigger the sample size, the more accurate the results become.
Although I am not accepting a job offer after graduation (I am starting my own business)
fundamental part of any business, and this experience has definitely developed my leadership
skills.
Throughout using zoom for meetings, google docs to manage our reports/presentations,
and other technology to do our work, we have developed great skills to manage a project such
as this one virtually. This project during a pandemic-situation would not have been possible 10
years ago, and I am grateful for the technologies that exist today to facilitate work from any
location or distance.
My team and I had an unwritten rule that we would not waste any time conversating
until the work was done. We would spend time working on our project, and once it was done
wed ask about how everyone was doing in school, etc. We managed our time really well by
staying on topic while working on our project. Personally, I did the same while working on this
project, I tried my best to always remain focused. Additionally, I always planned and made time
to work on this project every week, never letting more than a couple days go in between me
working on this.
It has been an absolutely phenomenal experience for me working with my team. I have
I thank my team for their help/guidance throughout and I wish the best for them in their future
endeavors as well.