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This week the focus shifted from research accumulation and prototype development, revolving around address community needs, to prototype acceptance and overall presentation of our experiences thus far. I would rdefinitely say the whole process of defining this experience in a digestable manner was quite valuable to me, with us breaking down the experiences of our user Lawrence and the overall acceptance of our prototype, albeit with reccomendations to improve. Using the layout shown in this class, wherein the breakdown of our experiences and our user's experiences are meshed together, we were able to start piecing together a narrative that fits our approach to communal needs in a positive manner. However, as inherent bias is present from us deducing communal needs, and the measures through which we stated the community accepted our suggestions, we have more time to present information in a direct fashion. In terms of learning more, it was quite a humbling experience to look back at this whole project, with multiple forms of documentation, and to regard how far we have gone and how much further we have to go to making this world a better place.

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This week we visited the Mona Center and the surrounding areas at Temple Hills, MD, testing out the prototype we had made. With our defined problem settled at bridging the information gap between the community, we made a storyboard detailing the formation of vlog series and documentary highlighting aspects of the community and the people within. In this experience, the vast amount of feedback from the community members we interviewed was highly valuable, as these people indeed reflected suggestions applicable to them. Furthermore, as we students are not personally from the community, the insider perspective helps us develop a solution to communal issues in a manner that is tailored specifically to them. The only real issue we had throughout this Mona Center trip was the difficulty carrying our prototype around, as it was quite large and the day was windy indeed. However, being able to present a bigger representation of a solution helped the communal members relate more, as the elderly individuals had biologically worse eyesight than the younger ones. One prime experience that stood out significantly was the second interview with Lawrence, from the Jova Wellness Center, who happily met with us and very upbeat about providing feedback to us.

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This week we discussed decided on a prototype to reach our intended audience, focusing on the issue of getting the general public to understand the presence of different people in the community, with emphasis on highlighting the necessity of development from a bottom up level. Using a storyboard model and approaching the issue of lack of understanding across social classes, we decided as a team to depict the creation of a video, overarching into a documentary and vlog series, focused on highlighting the components of the Temple Hills Community, with the keystone point of the video being Mona Center and the services they offer. In terms of value this specific week held to me, it was important to visualize an idea, a problem, and a solution, and tying all together in a simple infographic. Ultimately, we were able to tackle an issue of lack of information and were able to highlight the potential solution with a simple physical depiction of the electronic actions taht are to be taken. In terms of effectiveness, it was significantly simpler to physically depict an electronic interface than actually developing an electronic solution, in terms of pitching to the general public, and it was interesting to note how different age groups react to technology. Team wise, we split the work among us and each developed one component of the physical product, with divide and conqueror being the main strategy we utilized.

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This week, we focused on extrapolating our information from the gathering session in Mona Center, by discussing among ourselves and highlighting aspects of our users. It was interesting to see how our users matched with the other users surveyed at the Temple Hills community, as though our two users had similar problems, deduced as a lack of information of other social classes present, the other groups found users who wanted to decrease drug usage and glorification, bridge the healthcare gap with emphasis on providing for others, and general community space and services. Although the variety of issues highlighted were indeed polarly different and overaching into different aspects of community, they all were social issues, which are to be discussed and solved ultimately. In terms of what worked well and what did not, it was really interesting noting our team members on the users we interviewed, with each of us expressing a unique understanding of the users that were interviewed. Ultimately, it became evident that preconceived notions were present in our interpretations of the users we interviewed and in developing an understanding of what they would do to improve the community. All in all, extrapolating information from our users and adding a layer of understanding really required for us to step out of boundaries and into others perspectives, and in essence, as we each see the world differently, it became evident in how we approached the issue of identifying a social concern.

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This week we focused on switching from being data gathers, deducing community needs, to being actual problem solvers, pinpointing a specific problem to solve. As our experience at Temple Hills showed a huge divide between the well-doing public against the population requiring aid and community service, wherein the former lacked awareness of the latter. To combat this issue, many ideas were pitched, with us ultimately settling on using Mona Center as a platform for a visual learning experience. In all honesty, the prevalence of electronic aids and internet access became a particularly valuable aspect, as the bridge of information is done through the WorldWide Web, with this problem becoming a showcase of such. Although our team is good at being cohesive, there seemed to be aggressive when it came to deciding which particular idea to focus, albeit everyone coming to terms afterwards. In terms of learning new instances, approaching problems by having a similar problem and solving for such became a novel and intuitive manner of approaching issues. In terms of experiences, the entire brainstorming and narrowing session stood out, as the mannerisms in which we think have a HUGE impact on the novelty of solutions we come up with.

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This week we went out to Temple Hills, MD, to visit primarily the Susan Denison Mona Center, and the neighboring landscape. Although I have never been to this side of PG county before, I had only good impressions, from the infrastructure present, the stores available to the population, and the people I interacted with. This experience differed greatly from previous experiences, from the tour of the Mona Center, whose goal is to impact the society very deeply and positively, to the interviews conducted my new group, where we interviewed an elderly couple there and a cannabis shop doorkeeper. Being able to see an organizations key efforts in inducing change in society was truly a heartwarming experience, as we often hear of endowments, charities, and organizations giving back to the public without physically being the mechanisms of change. I was also lightened to the fact that for a cannabis shop to remain present, it must be co-sponsored by a wellness center, such as the Mona Center. Overall, I was thoroughly impressed by our group chemistry, from finding people, using the most relatable member in the group to conduct interviews, and leaving positive impressions of UMD and the Mona Center by extent!

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This week, we were assigned new groups with the task of developing an understanding of the sub-culture at Temple Hills, MD, done via statistical analysis and data findings. This experience differed from the previous few weeks as we were given new partners, with I get along with great, and we were asked to put ourselves in other people's shoes, figuring out issues that resonate with the community of interest. I found it a bit interesting since I am usually one who takes the leading role in teams, and in this group, I felt moreso of a partnership, which was good for developing and handling responsibilities in a differing manner.

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This week, we worked on the second set of individual interviews, focusing primarily on eliciting interpersonal information from our peers without scaring them off. This experience was different in the sense we had specific locations to focus on, and we focused moreso on dialogue that would help us understand each other. In terms of needs addressed, this activity was a continuation of the last week's activity and yielded similar results while focusing on similar skills. Overall, there is not much I could complain about, other than the fact that my personal procrastination can be improved on. I was actually a bit surprised to learn more about my partner during this session, as the emphasis on sharing personal information really conveyed how great of an individual she is =).

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This week we set out to do our first set of interviews, starting small and asking 2 students what stressors they have in life, and how they are working about to address such stress. I believe the experience of actually going out and applying the theoretical basis of approaching a user and getting them to open up themselves to essentially a stranger is valuable, both in terms of business life and healthcare approaches. As someone who is en route to becoming a physician, getting patients to honestly respond about their needs, and to address their needs in the proper manner is a skill that is practiced again and again. Overall being sof tin our approach and not pushing responses out of the individuals was effective, yet having familiarity with our interviewees was slightly ineffective due to assumptions resulting from knowing each other. In terms of standout experiences, being able to watch an interaction between two distant friends is quite unique, as both individuals have an underlying understanding of each other yet are still communicating to include a third in their conversation.