Final Assignment : Track Your Trash 

 Design Thinking for Innovation ( UVA Darden ) 

 Before you read : Currently , I am a university student . Therefore , I have not had the chance to   implement a tool as people working in an organisation could . As a solution , I have implemented a   tool in my student career and would like to ask you to view my assignment in its context . Thank you   very much for your time and understanding . 

 Challenge   I am a first - year student of Media Studies from Europe . As part of a course about data projects , the   instructor required each of us to make up a project and give a project pitch about it . The project had   to function as a response to a call for proposals by a non - profit environmental communications   centre . This call stated that it would provide a grant to an investigative journalism project on   environmental crime . 

 The project I made up , Track Your Trash , was about issues with plastic waste from western countries   exported for recycling in developing countries : A considerable portion of it is not recycled and ends   up in incinerators or dumping grounds , causing severe environmental damage while being labelled as   recycled in the country of origin . To track down the parties involved , my project would put GPS   transmitters with a connected thermometer in export containers containing plastic waste . The   movements and temperature , which is interesting for the last few seconds before it enters an   incinerator , would be accessible for everyone through a website . This website would allow everyone ,   especially locals , to add further information when the transmitter is in their area . 

 Selection   The goal of the pitch was to inform and convince my audience of Track Your Trash ’s potential .   Imaginatively , it had to convince the non - profit organisation that my project was the most interesting   and deserved the grant . Not surprisingly , I decided to use the storytelling tool which was introduced   by Andre Martin in the second module of this course . 

 This tool aims to take listeners along a journey . First , it must get the audience in the right state of   mind . Like any other presentation , data , hard facts , and recommendations should be introduced , but   now , it all has to be a part of a compelling story . The attention of the audience is a key point of   storytelling . Therefore , the story must build suspense : e.g. by asking questions of which the answers   will be revealed later . Another useful method to involve the audience is by creating tensions which   can spark interesting debates around aspects of the project . 

 Application   When the idea for the project was finished , it was time to start preparing the pitch . The pitch was   structured according to the storytelling tool . In the introduction , I introduced the recycling problem ,   partially by referring to everyone ’s daily experience with throwing away plastic waste . The idea was   that they could relate to the problem and as a result , be more interested . Going on , I used data and   hard facts to indicate the severity of the issues with plastic waste exports to get a common view on   the problem in the minds of the audience . Moreover , I put question tags at the end of some   sentences to make people think for a second . 

 Then I told them I had a plan to get to know more about these practices and the parties involved .   Next , I started to ask questions which all revolved around one main question : How are we going to   get to the bottom of this with the help of data collection ? That was when I started explaining the 

 strategy of the project . Although creating tensions is one of the storytelling methods , I purposefully   did not make use of it because I simply had to convince my audience that my project is the one that   deserves the grant . Disagreement would probably have lessened my chance to reach that goal . 

 Insight   The pitch , at least the way in which it was told , turned out to be a success . The audience seemed to   be more engaged than with all the other pitches . Moreover , my pitch was praised by the course   instructor for being engaging and he even said that I had a clear grasp of how to do these pitches .   Unfortunately , one issue he did point out was that the project would be way over budget . But luckily ,   that does not have much to do with my aim to become a good storyteller . 

 Based on this result , I have gotten the feeling that storytelling serves its purpose very well . By   implementing this tool for my studies , I have realised the importance of creating engagement and   getting the audience in the right state of mind . 

 Approach   Next time I get the chance to implement the storytelling tool , I will try to focus more on the   stakeholders . In this pitch , I could have tried to indicate a connection between my project and the   non - profit organisation for which the pitch was meant . What possibilities the results of my project   would allow them for example . Furthermore , to prevent such a painful mistake again , I will focus a   bit more on the project itself , rather than the structure of the pitch next time . 

 Bahar 

 7 - 5 - 2021 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Bahar
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Final Assignment : Track Your Trash 

 Design Thinking for Innovation ( UVA Darden ) 

 Before you read : Currently , I am a university student . Therefore , I have not had the chance to   implement a tool as people working in an organisation could . As a solution , I have implemented a   tool in my student career and would like to ask you to view my assignment in its context . Thank you   very much for your time and understanding . 

 Challenge   I am a first - year student of Media Studies from Europe . As part of a course about data projects , the   instructor required each of us to make up a project and give a project pitch about it . The project had   to function as a response to a call for proposals by a non - profit environmental communications   centre . This call stated that it would provide a grant to an investigative journalism project on   environmental crime . 

 The project I made up , Track Your Trash , was about issues with plastic waste from western countries   exported for recycling in developing countries : A considerable portion of it is not recycled and ends   up in incinerators or dumping grounds , causing severe environmental damage while being labelled as   recycled in the country of origin . To track down the parties involved , my project would put GPS   transmitters with a connected thermometer in export containers containing plastic waste . The   movements and temperature , which is interesting for the last few seconds before it enters an   incinerator , would be accessible for everyone through a website . This website would allow everyone ,   especially locals , to add further information when the transmitter is in their area . 

 Selection   The goal of the pitch was to inform and convince my audience of Track Your Trash ’s potential .   Imaginatively , it had to convince the non - profit organisation that my project was the most interesting   and deserved the grant . Not surprisingly , I decided to use the storytelling tool which was introduced   by Andre Martin in the second module of this course . 

 This tool aims to take listeners along a journey . First , it must get the audience in the right state of   mind . Like any other presentation , data , hard facts , and recommendations should be introduced , but   now , it all has to be a part of a compelling story . The attention of the audience is a key point of   storytelling . Therefore , the story must build suspense : e.g. by asking questions of which the answers   will be revealed later . Another useful method to involve the audience is by creating tensions which   can spark interesting debates around aspects of the project . 

 Application   When the idea for the project was finished , it was time to start preparing the pitch . The pitch was   structured according to the storytelling tool . In the introduction , I introduced the recycling problem ,   partially by referring to everyone ’s daily experience with throwing away plastic waste . The idea was   that they could relate to the problem and as a result , be more interested . Going on , I used data and   hard facts to indicate the severity of the issues with plastic waste exports to get a common view on   the problem in the minds of the audience . Moreover , I put question tags at the end of some   sentences to make people think for a second . 

 Then I told them I had a plan to get to know more about these practices and the parties involved .   Next , I started to ask questions which all revolved around one main question : How are we going to   get to the bottom of this with the help of data collection ? That was when I started explaining the 

 strategy of the project . Although creating tensions is one of the storytelling methods , I purposefully   did not make use of it because I simply had to convince my audience that my project is the one that   deserves the grant . Disagreement would probably have lessened my chance to reach that goal . 

 Insight   The pitch , at least the way in which it was told , turned out to be a success . The audience seemed to   be more engaged than with all the other pitches . Moreover , my pitch was praised by the course   instructor for being engaging and he even said that I had a clear grasp of how to do these pitches .   Unfortunately , one issue he did point out was that the project would be way over budget . But luckily ,   that does not have much to do with my aim to become a good storyteller . 

 Based on this result , I have gotten the feeling that storytelling serves its purpose very well . By   implementing this tool for my studies , I have realised the importance of creating engagement and   getting the audience in the right state of mind . 

 Approach   Next time I get the chance to implement the storytelling tool , I will try to focus more on the   stakeholders . In this pitch , I could have tried to indicate a connection between my project and the   non - profit organisation for which the pitch was meant . What possibilities the results of my project   would allow them for example . Furthermore , to prevent such a painful mistake again , I will focus a   bit more on the project itself , rather than the structure of the pitch next time . 

 Bahar 

 7 - 5 - 2021
### Output: 