Andrea Hurtado
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POL Reflection

5/29/2014

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My heart was racing, my hands trembled, my knees were shaking and my stomach grumbled. 

How could I possibly get ready to present in 30 minutes with all this nervous energy running through my veins?

I don't know exactly what was causing the nervousness in me,  I knew my topic deeply and I had created and practiced the presentation. Honestly, it was just the fear of talking to a BIG audience that scared me. As I walked to the stage to present, my heart moved faster and faster. In any minute it was going to pop out. I had my notes in my hands just because I needed a little more confidence, it was more of a psychological thing.  I knew exactly what I had to say. I knew my topics and struggles because I experienced it.  I will not lie, our topic is extremely challenging and I have to admit that I didn't have a complete dominance over every aspect of it. However, considering our time constrains, I was proud of everything I managed to understand. 
Many people think that presenting in pair is much easier, but it made me even more scared. I was afraid to mess up and confuse Gisella, I was scared to mess up the changing of slides for her and I was scared that I might start rushing.  Anyhow I was starting so I had to keep my nerves down and confidence up. I begun the presentation by telling the story of Muhammed Yunus, after I finished saying my part and it shifted towards Gisella I felt a huge relief.  Without using the papers I was able to manage presenting and I was changing the slides at the right time, therefore, I had nothing to worry. My nerves begun to die. 
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As the presentation progressed my tone shifted from scared to excited and all the knowledge begun to flow naturally out of me. Why? Because I had lived every single moment, struggle and interview of this project. Additionally what allowed us to have a good delivery and power over our topic was the fact that our slides were EXTREMELY organized. The images were purposeful and the ideas of every slide builded up. Having the stories in one slide and then the learning out come on another allowed us to have a balance between anecdotes and reflections throughout. 
After I said the last powerful line to conclude our presentation my body could finally breathe. I did it! The pride and satisfaction I felt after sharing such bumpy journey and interesting topic with the audience  was incomparable. We managed to synthesize such complicated topic into 30 minutes.  BEAUTIFUL WORK. 
Even though I was happy with our presentation there some things that I would do differently. I need to learn how to breathe and relax before a presentation, when the presenter is not confidence it goes through the voice. As I was nervous my pacing in the beginning was TERRIBLE. I was speaking too fast and probably the audience were confused or weren't able to fully grasp everything I was saying. Additionally something that contributed to my fast speaking was the fact that I had too much energy due to the coffee I had drank in the morning. Also because  I was so stressed thinking of everything that could go wrong instead on focusing completely on what I had to say I was repeating some stuff.  Finally if I would of fully concentrated and spoken slower I would of probably have shared more  things with my audience in a concise way. 
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Coming to an end with the DOCUMENTARY

5/26/2014

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Understanding microcredit lending has been one of my BIGGEST challenges so far. In many occasions Gisella and I thought we were almost finished, but then we realize that we were still missing supporting information and we had to start over. Even though this was frustrating at first in the end we didn't regret fixing all these things. We had worked so hard on making this documentary that it was pointless to create a video that had biased information and that we were't proud of.
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I will not lie, creating this documentary has been very hard and it took us more time than what we thought. It wasn't as simple as going through every stage once 

D⟳CUMENTARY CYCLE↴

📈🔎RESEARCH📊📰
⇵

📁SYNTHESIS📁
INFORMATION
⇵
📋OUTLINE📑
⇵

📃SCRIPT📄
⇵

🎥FILM📷
⇵

💻EDIT📼

We were constantly coming back to the research and synthesizing stage as we discovered new information while interviewing and new perspectives arrouse. While filming and editing the video we realized that there wasn't one answer because giving one answer meant biased. There is no one correct answer for 
HOW EFFECTIVE IS MICROCREDIT LENDING 
IN PERU? 
There are several perspectives and arguments that can be made about this topic and none are 100% right. When we did the script for the third time we were always finding new supporting information, but we also found other things that backfired our evidence. We were STRESSED. Once again we though we had to repeat the script, however, we then realized that we had to create our own conclusion based on what we learned and our experience. This didn't meant that OUR conclusion was the final answer or thought, NO. Instead it was the opposite, we decided to understand and review  all the information and evidence we collected and to formulate our own conclusion. However, this might change in the future as new things happen in the microcredit sector in Peru and further research is released. For us it was important to evaluate all the perspectives we faced and make our own point about how effective is microcredit lending in Peru. 

#MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES

 In our POL we have brought all this sweat, tears, stress and excitement together and have reflected about the process on creating this amazing documentary which we are extremely proud off and how this topic has multiple sides and a volatile conclusion. Even though, we aren't completely finished editing we are extremely happy with this new third script we've created. We believe it exemplifies everything we have learned in a more transparent way with evidence that supports out thought and a good balance of anecdotes and reflections.  
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Through out the POL we also explain some permanent skills we've acquired through this project that can be applied in the future. For example it is important to be skeptical instead of believing everything you are told. Also we have learned how to film properly and have a clean audio using the microphones or yeti. Furthermore I've finally surpassed my iMovie stage and now progressed to Final Cut Pro which is much better. It's easy to use and the things you can do are very cool, it's almost like you have no limits. Additionally I have learned to listen to others and accept that my ideas are not always the ones that should be applied. Sometimes you need to know when your ideas should be implemented and when others ideas should be used instead, it's been hard but a very important tool to have. Finally I have learned how to be critical with sources and understand that not everyone will tell me everything how it is but how they want me to see it, so it's important to identify bias and unbiased.
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#FINISHEDNAKEDECONOMICS

5/12/2014

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"A BOOK FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF BASIC ECONOMICS WITH LITTLE PAIN AND MUCH PLEASURE" 
-BECKER

After a long journey with NAKED ECONOMICS we have arrived to an 
E N D. This week we read the last two chapters of the book and we concluded with two amazing discussions. I remember the first day we were assigned the book, aside from feeling smart like every teenager  holding a new book, I promised to myself I was going to read it. Typical me, starts a book but never actually finishes it. When I first grabbed the book I had no idea I was going to fall completely in love with it.  I took it everywhere, it became my best friend and best companion. I would read it during my knee therapy, in the car every morning and even during my free time. I actually FINISHED it, from start to end.  
💵
💵
💵
💵
💵
💵

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Last semester, when we had to choose our three IB classes I was so sad I wasn't going to be able to take economics. My mom and dad both love it and everyone doing the IB have struggled but loved it as well. However, reading this book was no different to taking an economics class. We STRUGGLED, LEARNED and ENJOYED it as a class. 
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📈 📉 📈 📉

We read the book slowly and as we progressed we learn little by little about economics. Literally, when we started I had no idea of any economic concepts or vocabulary. Nonetheless, through the book we learned all the terminology and basic economic concepts and during the dissuasions we were able to synthesis the most important things read in the chapter and then ask questions. Also, for all of those people who think that economics can't be explained without graphs this book will prove you wrong, it explains the most important concepts without lines or curves. This book has made some of the most scary topics very friendly. Charles Wheelan makes economics fun and interesting through stories, statistics and reflection. He has mastered the economics world by "teaching the most innocent readers how to think like economists". 
Even though many thought that reading a single book won't allow us to grasp all these concepts and actually learn them. We proved them wrong. Discussing, synthesizing the ideas and annotating the book actually made me think each chapter so in depth that I feel I can explain most of the concepts in this book. Additionally Mr. Akin entered the class one day while having a dissuasion and he told us about CHUNKING information. Yes, taking notes and saving them will help you remember what the chapter is about but what if you drew something that with a single GLIMPSE you can remember what the whole chapter is about or what the main concepts or ideas are. So, I tried it for one chapter, chapter 12, I drew some pictures that would help me remember the MAIN IDEAS about the wealth and poverty of nations. 
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DRAWINGS for CHAPTER 12

 📷 S P E C I A L I Z A T I O N 📷

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📱💻 TECHNOLOGY 📱💻 REPLACING 
LOW SKILLED WORKERS

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🏂SKILLS🏄 = VALUABLE  → INVEST IN 
HUMAN CAPITAL

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💰MONEY💰 = POWER

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BEAUTIFUL WORK needs time 

5/7/2014

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The past two weeks have been INTENSE. I haven't been able to balance out my life as I wanted to. This week my goal was to sleep early everyday but since I had so much to do it was impossible to balance out my school work, my personal life and sleep. As I followed my schedule there were two or three thing I left out, since I couldn't complete them, so I could sleep early. 
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As the D E A D L I N E of the video approached I was getting very desperate because I knew for a fact that Gisella and I weren't going to have the video done for Thursday. We had spent more or less a month working in this documentaries and it was going to be a shame to ruin all our work with the editing because we had to finish the video on time. For me it wasn't about getting it over with, I wanted to create a powerful video that exemplified the hard work and cool things I have learned and done throughout the project and Thursday was not an ideal deadline for us. So, Gisella and I talked with Mr. Topf and we explained him that we had too much work from all of our classes and that we were not going to have the video ready for Thursday, and if we managed to do it it wasn't going to be a quality video. We sat down and looked at our schedules, our progress and we realized that Thursday was not a good deadline. Not because we hadn't been working hard but because it was hard to know from the beginning how long creating a documentary from scratch was going to take us. As an Academy we want to create BEAUTIFUL WORK and if this involves working on the video for longer then we will do it. 
Moreover, we sat down and worked out a solution. As we discussed we realized that after Tambopata was a reasonable moment to have the video due. We planned out the classes we had until that week to divide it amongst POL working time and editing and everything worked out fine. We also included some deadlines that will push us to work to the video periodically instead of the day before. Finally I was able to breath. 
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Furthermore, changing the deadline of the video was a BIG RELIEF because now we were going to be able to create a documentary we were proud of, embracing every cool aspect of the project. Additionally I was happy because as we received KIND, SPECIFIC and HELPFUL feedback from Mr. Topf we realized that there were somethings that HAD to be changed in the video and script. 
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Our initial idea was to start off the video with dreams and aspirations people have, then transition into what is microcredit lending and how is it given, next state the pros and cons and finally have us give our own conclusion about how effective is microcredit lending in Peru. Part 1 and 2 was going to have clips of interviews with clients, experts and a little bit of us and finally in the end we were gong to come out actually talking and giving our thoughts. However when we talked to Mr. Topf we realized that this was not effective because in the beginning everything was going to be crunched with no flow. To have a good movie we needed to B A L A N C E out between moments of anecdotes, which are the interviews, and reflection, which is us talking and giving our opinion. The moments of REFLECTION are the important parts that will make our video special and unique. Anyone can create a documentary about microcredit lending but what will make us different is our own perspective, thought and tone about the topic. So after the meeting we went  to a quiet place and revised our script. It took us the entire day but at the end we came up with a better video and script that exemplified more our journey and what we learned about microcredit lending.
Yes, it's true that receiving feedback and improving work you think is polished can be hard, but it WILL CERTAINLY make a difference in the end. In the beginning Gise and I were a little stressed out but in the end when we IMPROVED our script and made changes using the feedback Mr. Topf gave us. We liked it so much more because it was more personal to us. I feel that now our script evokes our experience and finding much better. One of the greatest challenges  was finding the "right" answer to our question: how effective is microcredit lending in Peru. The different people we interviewed has biased opinions so it was hard to make our own conclusion. With this script Gisella and I have been able to bring all everything people told us, synthesis it and give out opinion based on what we researched and listened. We use the interviews and clips to support what we think instead of using them to build OUR story and make up OUR video.  I am so much happier with our new script, yes we have to film more but it's completely worth it if we want to create BEAUTIFUL WORK. 

GET READY FOR OUR UPCOMING DOCUMENTARY! COMING SOON JUNE 2, 2014

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SLEEP DEPRIVATION

5/5/2014

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HAVE YOU EVER ANALYZED THE COST AND BENEFITS OF SLEEPING TOO LITTLE? 

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 ⌚   ⌚   ⌚   ⌚

After a long weekened of TECHO and a stressful week of work I realize that I haven't been sleeping enough. Not only has my body been asking me to rest but my mental state has not been good,  today I was stressed, sad and frustrated.  Even though we had three days off last week I had no time for myself nor my family or friends. I had been too busy doing school work, I was waking up early and sleeping too late.  I thought that the more time I worked, the more stuff I was going to get done.  However, today I learned that this is NOT the case.
Here I am after a week, with sleeping ACCUMULATION. I am stuck in the same place. I have tons of work and all those hours I spend up at night thinking it made me more productive weren't good, they didn't get me anywhere. I still have the same or even more things to do and I haven't gotten any GOOD rest. The first thing we did today in class was read over the negative effects of poor sleep. I was SHOCKED. Sleeping deprivation doesn't only make you body and mind less PRODUCTIVE but it has many negative health impacts like heart disease, diabetes and weight gain; it can even get to a point that it can cause death. I felt scared, in fact everyone did. This weekend, especially, we all sleep really late as we were editing our documentaries and completing other class homework's. All this time I was wrong, I didn't listen to my parents nor my teachers who told me to SLEEP. I though that by staying awake and working as much as possible in a day I was going to get more things done. In reality, it works the opposite way, you are more PRODUCTIVE as you work for less hours. WHY? Because while sleeping you body processes all your information, synthesizes it and lets go of all the useless stuff. It also allows you body, muscles and organs to rest so they can perform better the next day. 

PRODUCTIVITY = LESS TIME WORKING

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"The more you work, the less effective and productive you are going to become over both short and long term." 

-Science Work Hard, Work Smart

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I had never worried about getting a good rest or making sleeping my priority. However, it is a must, your body won't perform good and this will affect you. The reason why I couldn't focus as much during the days off was because of sleeping derivation which causes loss of concentration. I LOST TIME. This is why I was less productive, as I stayed more time up I was making myself even less efficient. There is a study that shows that sometimes even drunk people perform better that those who lack sleep. 
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CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

Really sleep is EVERYTHING. How can you be a successful at work if your body and mind doesn't work properly or effectively.  This is why I will challenge myself for the next month to sleep tight for at least 8 hours. The trick to productivity is not a VENTI coffee at Starbucks but a good night rest. Finally the best way to feel unstressed and have enough sleep is by keeping a plan that will allow you to keep organized. Even though I keep one and it's already part of my routine I need to improve it so that I maintain myself healthy. 
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