My Learning Experience: Group Projects (Blog Post #2)

Gerald Zerpa

Professor Sinkoff

SPC

3/13/2024

                                                                Group Projects: My reflection

    The three groups covered various important topics, each relevant to our modern society. Group 3 focused on the link between financial stress and mental health, which stresses the importante of affordable healthcare. Group 2 on the other hand, addressed the difficulties families face, such as the modern work-life balance, and the impact of technology within those areas. Group 1 focused on the relationship between happiness, and education and potential careers.

    To begin with, group 3 emphasized the usefulness of various aspects of communication in the workplace, as well as elements to enrich our presentations. This group presented the economy and mental health, which I consider a relevant topic in today’s world, and with inflation at a high, our work-life balance is being negatively affected; In addition, group 3 cited a study in PubMed Central, which found a connection between financial stress and increased psychological distress, matching the situation described above. They suggested that the government should make more affordable healthcare, which I agree with, since healthcare is really expensive in the United States, especially for low income families; A couple of years ago I needed to get surgery, and even with insurance, I still had to pay nine thousand dollars, which is by no means cheap; More affordable healthcare could really ease the stress that low income families often face. The group also suggested that it should expand to mental health by offering support in the workplace, and within MDC, which would be a great step in the right direction to help people get through tough situations in the modern world, at a more accessible price and availability. After all, I believe that group 3 presented topics that were very relevant to our modern society, since according to their data, our economy has a high correlation with mental health. One thing that can be improved about the presentation is that the speakers could engage more with the audience during the presentation, through eye contact, body language, as well as articulating their words a bit more with a slightly slower speech, since it can be a bit hard to understand at times.

    Regarding group 2, I was amazed that even though if they were a few members short, they were able to get everything together. The content they presented was very well put together and brought valuable information regarding our regular social environments. Their suggestions for MDC are on point; childcare services could lower the barrier of entry for student parents and make it easier for them to succeed in their academic careers at MDC, while financial support can alleviate the financial burden that raising a child could bring to the table in conjunction with college expenses.

    Finally, we have Group 1, the group I have participated in. We presented education and potential careers and its connection with happiness, underscoring how technology has revolutionized those fields with things like working from home. Technology is also able to positively impact our happiness by allowing us to communicate with others regardless of how apart we might be; however, it is not accessible to everyone. We also discussed how our self-perception can hold us back, to the point of missing out on academic and labor opportunities; challenges are a normal and essential part of human growth, so thinking we could never go to a certain height is an imaginary limiter caused by social media, and the fact that a lot of young people compare themselves to those people. Fortunately, Miami Dade College is working hard to help students financially, and to find the right career for them, as well as offering leadership opportunities like The Honors College. While we did present valuable information, such as, I believe we could have been more organized with the presentation's structure, had better communication and anticipation of issues that came up due to our methodology. From my perspective, our delivery has improved in comparison to our previous presentation, which I consider one of the many small victories we have and will achieve throughout the duration of this course.

    In conclusion, both group presentations provided valuable insights into important societal issues. Group 3 highlighted the connection between financial stress and mental health, which emphasizes our need for more affordable healthcare and mental health support. Their topic was extremely relevant to our modern times; however, their delivery could be improved. On the other hand, Group 2 seemed to be well organized despite the lack of participation by some of its members. In the end, it was admirable that Group 2 proved to be resilient under the pressure they faced during this project presentation.