Originally, when doing research and creating our website, my target audience was the residents of Cahokia. I\u2019m now realizing that water equity is an issue many people face in this area, including Cahokia residents. I want my target audience to be anyone who could benefit from what my group has curated. My page on the website was about grassroots organizations and non-profit organizations that help and support residents in Cahokia and low-income areas. Instead of targeting my research solely at Cahokia residents, I want to look at a bigger spectrum and curate my research and work for low-income residents in the Southern IL area. Places such as Belleville, East St. Louis, O\u2019Fallon, Collinsville, Fairview Heights, Alton, etc. The list of organizations that I curated can help with other issues, not only the water equity crisis. To revise my work, I will research other grassroots organizations in the area and get information on their mission, benefits, and employees. If possible, I want to reach out to employees of the grassroots orgs and nonprofits to get a firsthand account of what they do and how they have helped people in the past. For secondary sources, I will look at news articles, newspapers, and websites to compare the issues the different communities are going through and also use those sources to gather information so I can analyze what organizations can best benefit residents of each community. Also, using our community partners as a source for future work, and this semester. Looking at what our community partners do and how they benefit and help the community and using insight from our partners to see which step would be best to take with our website and work this semester. Also, getting a second opinion from our partners can help revise work and shed light on things we didn\u2019t include or didn\u2019t think about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I want our project to be able to reach anyone with similar issues because I know the citizens of Cahokia Heights aren\u2019t the only residents in a community dealing with a water crisis. Even if we can\u2019t directly help other residents in other communities or areas, I want our project and website to be a tool and guide they can use. A resource to help with their situation, or even a resource to inspire college students like us, or anyone to use their voice and knowledge, just like we are. If more people know about these issues and they\u2019re able to reach others, we\u2019ll be able to bring more attention to them and get more people to pay attention. For the project, our stakeholders will be Heartland\u2019s Conservatory. At the beginning of the fall 2025 semester, I was interested in partnering with other organizations to consider them as potential stakeholders. If we can get in contact and make a connection with these other organizations, they will also hopefully be potential stakeholders in this project & if not stakeholders, they can be used as a guide or resource. Currently partnering with Heartland as our stakeholder were able to use their guidance to shape how we move when communicating, reaching out, and creating different things for the residents of Cahokia. We were able to use their feedback and connections to improve our website, ethics, and collaboration skills. A potential stakeholder I was looking at was a grassroots organization based in the southern Illinois area. This organization does work in St. Louis, East Saint Louis, Believe, and other surrounding areas. This organization has also partnered with SIUE and the Kimmel Hub for volunteer tasks and community service for the students. If this stakeholder were a part of our project, I believe we could collaborate with Heartland to organize an event that can impact the community or draw more awareness to the issues. Also, I believe they can help us shape our website into something bigger and better, making it a widespread resource for many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The process of giving and receiving feedback can always be different and look different for me depending on the assignment. Sometimes I believe I can be too critical when giving feedback to others. Giving feedback and receiving it can be crucial. You have to know how to take creative criticism and change things based on the feedback received without feeling any type of way. When giving feedback, especially in our group, I always look at their work and the effort that\u2019s put in. Mostly, the feedback is just grammatically incorrect or just changing minor things around. When receiving feedback, I don\u2019t let my emotions or personal feelings cloud the feedback that I receive or who I receive it from. I analyze my original piece of work and then analyze the feedback that\u2019s given to me and decide what needs to be changed. Sometimes, depending on who gave the feedback, I take in all the feedback that was given to me and then talk to them and ask what I can do better. When giving feedback, I make sure it\u2019s meaningful, honest, and specific, trying to point out areas that need change without being too critical or rude. Focusing on not just what can be improved or changed, but how it can be improved so that the same mistake isn\u2019t made more than once. In order to give better feedback, I can focus on being constructive and not vague. Give a good and clear description and explanation of what needs to be changed or what can be done better. Making the feedback feel collaborative instead of having one feel as though I\u2019m just talking to them or being rude. To improve how I engage with the feedback I receive, I can practice cognitive listening skills instead of being defensive and quick to respond, actually listening and processing what\u2019s said, so I can get a clear understanding. Asking clarifying questions so I can reflect and fully understand before I respond, and also so I can know what direction to go in from now on. Feedback is essential when it comes to any work, especially in CODES, as it can help build a productive, engaging, and respectful experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout this semester, communication has been a very important factor within our project and group. I personally feel as though communication could have been strengthened across the board so that we could get better feedback and better results within our project. Within my research teams, class interactions have heavily shaped our work. Being able to communicate and interact in class has helped us break the barrier of a lack of communication. With everyone having different majors and different schedules, it\u2019s sometimes hard to communicate with each other outside of the class setting. Now that we had an allotted amount of time to interact and discuss within class, it had positively shaped our work because we were able to set clear expectations for everyone within the group. It helps everyone know what responsibilities and tasks they have to take on, so the work doesn\u2019t just fall on one group member. Even though we don\u2019t meet with our community partner or mentors often, their input has still helped shape our ongoing work. Giving their opinions, feedback, and advice has helped our group make the group project come together.
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From the very beginning of CODES until now, I feel like I have grown so much as an individual. There are multiple things I took away from this semester and CODES. Use your resources, ask for help, time management & organizational skills, embrace uncertainty, communication & collaboration skills, & prioritize mental health. This has been the first semester in CODES where I have taken on multiple tasks. Along with being a CODES scholar, I\u2019m also a resident assistant, a member of the Black Student Union and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., a student worker, and I’m taking five other classes. As you can see, this is a lot for a college student, and many don\u2019t take on as many tasks as I have, but these takeaways were key to my success this semester. I learned to use the resources around me, it\u2019s so many resources on campus and within CODES that can help students succeed. CODES has a very supportive staff, and Dr.Hildebrandt has been an amazing professor. Asking for help has helped. When I first came to college, I wasn\u2019t as vocal. I was very shy and uncertain, not as confident in a classroom setting as I should\u2019ve been, but growing with my cohort and CODES professor has helped me become more vocal and confident in classroom settings. Now, you can\u2019t get me to stop talking. Time management and organization were big takeaways for me because they stopped me from being stressed out about things such as a calendar, reminders, and a planner to help me organize certain tasks while also not overwhelming my plate. Being in CODES has taught me how to collaborate with others from diverse backgrounds while also respecting and acknowledging others’ perspectives. This is a takeaway I know I will have to use further in the future. Prioritizing my mental health was one of the most important things and takeaways for me. At the end of the day, I\u2019m human and can only handle so much. I learned that it\u2019s okay to take a break and recuperate. I learned that it\u2019s okay to slow down and let the motions flow. Being in CODES and specifically 320 has helped mature and shape me into a better person, and as I continue to grow and evolve in my college career & community, I will take every talk, experience, and memory with me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reflection 1 Originally, when doing research and creating our website, my target audience was the residents of Cahokia. I\u2019m now realizing that water equity is an issue many people face in this area, including Cahokia residents. I want my target audience to be anyone who could benefit from what my group has curated. My page…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_sb_is_suggestion_mode":false,"_sb_show_suggestion_boards":false,"_sb_show_comment_boards":false,"_sb_suggestion_history":"","_sb_update_block_changes":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-590","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/sadae-cooper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/sadae-cooper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/sadae-cooper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/sadae-cooper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/sadae-cooper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/sadae-cooper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/sadae-cooper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/590\/revisions\/671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/sadae-cooper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}