Reflection-Story Telling

Challenge & Selection

Story telling is a great tool that is like using because it puts human beings and their experiences  front and center. Am a bachelor’s degree student and at school I interact with fellow students from  allover Africa but few are from western countries. The school fee is quite expensive to some  students and therefore they have to pay in installments and the same students usually have less  funds for upkeep while in school and this leads to some students dropping out of school. At some  point some students fail to pay the whole school and they end up missing some exams whereby  the school administration does urge them to take the exams any semester when they will have  gotten the money to pay. I spend a lot of time “opening people up” and finding ways to inspire  them to improve their circumstances so that they cope up with the situation and also stay happy.  When am with my fellow students we share stories for different reasons. Often, they seem  depressed while alone and they become so happy to share stories of their lives with me to connect  and they find meaning in sharing these experiences as a form of teaching after I have told them  my story too. When am with my financially unstable friends I share stories of my life in order to  help them visualize a state of independence, I use their feedback against the context of my story  to ascertain their goals, and sometimes we use stories to better understand their interests and  thought processes. I use this information to develop different strategies to try and find a way that  works for them to gain more independence in the areas they find lacking in their lives.

Application.

I told them a story about how I manage to pay school fees yet am financially unstable. I use story  telling when discussing with my friends how they can take advantage of national government,  county government and local government sponsorships through a sponsorship program enacted by  our national government that is meant to assist students from poor backgrounds pursuing higher  education. As a citizen of our country (Kenya) you can benefit from both sponsorships provided  you do the applications appropriately. When discussing with them I also remind them of the two  sponsorship initiatives offered in our school (with the sponsorship initiatives at school any student  is eligible whether Kenyan or not) for best performed student of the semester and sponsorship for  needy but bright students in school. I normally encourage them to remained focused with studies,  work smart in academics and also to remain positive throughout. Two of my friends were surprised  about how I managed to benefit from three sponsorships simultaneously, they only knew about the  sponsorship offered by national government and the school sponsorship program of the best  performed student.

Insight and Approach.

It was time for me to tell my story to my two friends. I told them how I benefit from three  sponsorship initiatives simultaneously. I told them how I made the application for the national  government sponsorship program (you get sponsorship until when you finish your course), county  government sponsorship program (though I benefited once) and local government sponsorship  program whereby applications are made once every academic year/semester. I told them how I  was recruited at a construction work site when I was seventeen years, to work so that I could get

money for my school fees and for upkeep while in school and the money was also to cater for  transportation to government offices to deliver the application forms. One of my friends looked at  me and told me that my story was bigger than his so he had no reason to be stressed a lot because  he realized that people have sad stories to tell than his story.

This course made me see this as a tool in a new way. Back in high school teachers could tell us  stories of how successful people made it in their lives and they were using the tool to encourage  us work smart despite the challenges we were faced. (thanks to technology (YouTube) for  providing me with good real life examples, whereby I follow and watch videos from Tuko Talks  on YouTube whereby the host interviews people to tell their stories about how they managed to  tackle something despite the challenges they went through)   but now I can prepare ahead and think  of stories that will assist me in presenting my ideas and best illuminate them.

I am so very grateful that I have achieved a design skills and I know it will be a great asset in my  life for I will use it together with other design tools to achieve change and impact other people out  there.

