Impact of EE: Teamwork and Communication

Last semester, I did an internship
at a radio station – a French radio station called Choc FM. We always worked as a team, so it
was a very team oriented environment. Every project, we’d have to run
it by our supervisor. We’d all discuss it in our open office. Normally, I prefer to work on my own,
I like working in my own little corner. But these experiences sort of forced me to
get outside of my comfort zone and work within a group. To work with other people and assure
that we can all achieve a goal together. I took the Rome and Spain History and Archeology course, and it was located in Cabrera de Mar near Barcelona,
Spain, for four weeks on an archeological site digging. There was a fabric material that was covering
the site from a previous dig So we all had to face this challenge together
and use teamwork to overcome this challenge. So we all had to pull the material and
pieces were falling off, ripping apart. But finally we were able to expose the
area to actually start the process. So it was really rewarding to know that
we all had this challenge together but we overcame it.
And we were able to succeed. I came up with training material to
train people on how to use this software. So it involved getting feedback from this team,
but me leading the whole thing, and me scheduling sessions,
sending out invites and then actually delivering
communication sessions on this training. I was given a big role, but at the same time I was given support from all these
people who helped me do a good job. We all had to be on our A-game in terms of
reaching deadlines and just helping each other out. Sometimes certain members of the team couldn’t
accomplish specific tasks for whatever reason. And so, for instance, as public relations coordinator, sometimes I would do things that
were related to logistics, or media. That was something that I learned
about working in a team. You have to be able to be available for your team
members, always be whiling to help each other out and stay serious and disciplined.
Really just having each other’s back. It was the first time that I actually went
out in a professional environment and was speaking French. So building that confidence was
really, really important. It was actually pretty shocking for me because
you would think when you’re going to a meeting you’re going to go walk to a meeting. Where as these meetings were on the phone. So the first time that I walked into my manager’s
office and she goes “We’re going to a meeting.” and I’m like “Okay, let’s go.” And she’s
like “Well it’s right here…”. So, you know, and then she would be on the phone
telling me if I was talking, doing presentations, “slow down”. That was one thing that I always had
to keep in mind is to slow down. I speak really, really fast, and, you know, working
in an international environment you have to think that these people are
listening to you and then thinking about what it means in their language. I had two difficulties during this experience. The first was preparing for the interviews, because French is not my first-language. I needed to prepare a lot more, so it
took almost double the amount of time because I needed to look over
all of the vocabulary. But in the end, it all worked out. My workshops would focus on the local realities.
I would talk about environmental issues, and frame it in a way that these children
from primary schools would better relate to. And then we would plant trees at
the end of these workshops. We had this slogan: “Stop talking, start planting!” Then all of the kids would chant together:
“Stop talking! Start planting!”. We would dig out this hole and plant these trees. It was just like this wonderful
celebration of environmental stewardship and I think I got my point across fairly well.

Written by Raul Dinwiddie