PERSONAL PROJECT HIGHLIGHT: MANDY | RAISING AWARENESS FOR SCHOLARS

What was your project about? Why did you choose this topic?

My project was a website that aimed on raising awareness on scholars and scholarships here in the Philippines. I wanted people to understand the importance of education, and the fact that we have a lack of it within the country. It also included a "donate" page, that referred and discussed very reliable scholarship foundations, so as to encourage people to donate to these foundations, to help students receive the education they deserve. I chose this topic because it's something that I've been very passionate about, since I was younger. For years, my family and I have been donating to scholars from the Tapulanga Foundation (which was also featured in my website). I have a scholar that's my age, and I've been helping pay for her education. Through seeing her succeed in school, I've realized how important it is to help these children get the education they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford. 

What was the most challenging part of the project?

What challenged me the most was the creation of the website. Prior to this, I had never created a website, so I had a bit of difficulty figuring out how to go about it. To alleviate this,  I did some research on web design, and strategies in creating a successful website. I took note of colors that would be most attractive, and how exemplar website designed theirs, so as to gain inspiration on how to create mine. After creating the website, I made sure to get feedback from people in marketing, publishing, and others familiar with web design. Through their comments, I was able to further improve my website.

What was the most rewarding part of the project?

The most rewarding part of the project was receiving comments from my target audience, talking about how they learned something new from my website, and that they were encouraged to donate to the scholarship foundations I featured. It gave me a sense of hope that more children would receive the education that they deserve. 

What did you learn from doing this project?

I learned a lot from doing this project, from truly understanding how crucial it is that education be available to everyone, to how to design and create a website. For each subpage within my website, I had to conduct extensive research. Through doing that, I was able to learn about how education can really change people's lives, but how unfortunately, it's not accessible to everyone. With that, I also learned about how these scholarship foundations are not only beneficial to scholars, but they're imperative. Most of the foundations I had included in my website were new to me, however through my research I was able to learn how reliable they are in helping students receive proper education. Through all of the help from said foundations, and donations from outside parties, they’re able to gain their fundamental right to their education. Additionally, I learned how to create and design my website. In order to do this, I also had to conduct quite a bit of research. This included finding how to properly layout information, what colors to put together, as well as how to format information. This was all in hopes to create a website that would be easy to navigate, understand, and pleasing to the eye.  Other than learning through my research, I was able to learn a lot by creating my website. 

How did this project help you develop your Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills?

Through the process of creating my project, I was able to develop my research, self-management, and communication skills. In terms of my research skills, I was able to improve upon this through the exploration on my topic. I searched and read through a variety of resources to learn about the importance of education, and how it is lacking in the Philippines, scholars and scholarships available here in the Philippines, and those foundations that support them. I developed my self-management skills through balancing the various tasks I had to complete throughout the project, and ensuring that I did these within the time frame we were given. Lastly, I especially developed my communications skills when writing the different web pages. I learned how to write in such a way that would cater to my target audience, and make them feel a certain emotion.

How did this project connect to your personal interests and passions?

I’ve always been passionate about scholars and contributing to helping them receive the education they deserve. Through my project the passion for this topic has grown exponentially. For years, my family has had scholars in the Tapulanga Foundation, and I've personally had a scholar that is my age. Keeping in touch with her, I've been able to see how beneficial these donations have been in helping her receive education. I wanted to give other students the same opportunity, and so I came up with the idea of my project. Through my website, I hoped to encourage other people to donate to the various foundations that will help plenty of children get the education they deserves, and otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford. Through seeing people feel encouraged to donate to these students and foundations, my hope and faith has grown that more students will receive this necessary schooling.  

What advice would you give to other students who are working on their Personal Projects?

Overall, I would advise other students to focus on a topic that they're passionate about. Working on the Personal Project spans quite a lot of time, so it's important to enjoy what they're doing. Other than that, to ensure that everything gets completed on time, I would advise keeping a calendar and to-do list, and constantly tracking the progress of all tasks. This way, procrastination could be avoided, and they would be able to thoroughly enjoy working on the project as a whole.