Communication Skills
Our third assignment for our senior projects was to interview an expert in field close to what your project was about and write a reflection on what you learned. The first step was to find someone to interview. At first, I considered interviewing my internship mentor because he was the only contact I readily had in the architecture field. However, while doing research for my project I found out about a startup named Culdesac. Culdesac is building the first car-free neighborhood in the U.S. (since before there were cars) that's designed around community and sustainability, two of the main focuses for my project. I reached out to them and set up an interview:
Questions and answers from my interview
Reflection
This project heavily relied on my communication skills. I chose to stretch out of my comfort zone and contact a stranger for my interview because although it wasn't necessary for the assignment I knew I could learn more useful and interesting information from them. I also used information skills to find out more about Culdesac so I could ask the most informed questions I could. I also used my informational and communication skills to conduct the interview. I met with Erin Boyd, Head of Resident Experience, over Zoom. We had a good meeting and she was able to answer all of my question and give me all the informations, opinions, and advice I wanted. I'm proud of myself for doing more than the minimum and pushing through my comfort zone to get the best resources for my project. Coming up with the questions was challenging for me since I usually struggle with asking questions that I find redundant or that I could answer myself. Therefore, I looked for all the easy information and from there was able to construct more detailed questions to get answers that I couldn't find anywhere else. The skills I practiced for this assignment are invaluable as learning how to reach out and talk to someone new, especially when they can offer you expert insight one of the best ways to grow your knowledge and may offer new opportunities.