Example Reflection – Storytelling

Challenge     I am a member of the food team in my university’s largest student-run event in my country, and  my/our challenge is to transform the usually held on campus event into a successful virtual  event due to the infectious disease, COVID-19. To do so, we must come up with projects  activities that can be virtually implemented yet have a similar impact of joyfulness on people as  if it were held on campus. The project is limited to a certain budget, because of the bad  economic situation in our country and should include even distribution of working hours for all  team members.     Selection    When we casually have our brainstorming meetings, I spend a lot of time finding ways to inspire  people and encourage them  to interact regardless the fact that the meetings are held online. I  tend to share stories of my life to keep them engaged and in the loop of what we want to  achieve as a goal. Me sharing stories with my teammates is very impactful because it renders a  better understanding of what’s need to be accomplished as stated in the story telling part of  the lectures given.    Application    I applied the storytelling tool, when I shared with my teammates about a personal experience  that I had three years ago, when I participated in a food competition held on social media. The  competition required from us to cook one of the very well-known dishes in our country and  serve it in a unique representable way. I told them about how fun and impactful my  participation in this competition was, especially after the final prize. I shared this story to give  them an idea about the activities that we could implement in our virtual event, and to be  presented as an example of what impact we want this event to have on the participants.     Insight    This story  gave us an insight to a better idea and led to an extraordinary one, which is to  benefit from the fact that the event will be held virtually, and let it include a wider range of  people, rather than just locally resident people. This was the first time the event goes  international.     Approach    I also applied storytelling, to encourage inactive teammates to participate often in the casually  held meetings. During exams period, students tend to focus more on studying and lack  participation in what they have committed to as in terms of extracurricular activities. I used to  share with them my experiences about how I was able to juggle multiple responsibilities at the

same time and still deliver excellent results in everything I do. This used to be their source of  encouragement to not give up and success in every possible way.  This course made me see this as a tool that is proofed to be very beneficial and impactful in my  life.

