C5’s First Presentation

One busy training day in our C5 training we were given an assignment by our supervisor, Sarah. The assignment was for us to choose a podcast from the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health Covid-19 Mental Health forum series, and make a short presentation on what you learned. Each podcast was about an hour long and gave so much information. I was extremely nervous because this was my first time creating a powerpoint presentation. I was nervous about giving too much or too little information, and not being able to spread awareness like the podcast did. We all shared our presentations and boy were they good! As each member presented, the others were able to gain knowledge. We were then told to combine our presentations so we could present as a group. We did it without knowing who the audience would be or when we’d be able to present, but we did know we’d be able to nail it together.

During this process, our cohort gained another member. She stepped right in and was able to give us a fresh set of eyes on our presentation. Shortly after we gained a member, we lost another. Soon after these changes, we were finally given an audience. We would present to the Public Allies, another AmeriCorps cohort. My cohort had to think on our toes. How would we incorporate the new member’s thoughts without completely changing the presentation? How would we flow together having just met? We decided to give her a chance to listen to the podcast and make adjustments as she felt; Trusting that it would all come together, just as it did the first go round.

Now with a date in the books for the presentation it was crunch time. We continued to work to perfect our presentation. The big day approached and we all threw on our office best and got on Zoom. As we prepared for the meeting and waited for the Public Allies to join, we listened to music to ease our nerves. Going into the presentation, even with all the practice and confidence, we were worried about feedback and if our audience would get our message. But we were worried for nothing! Our presentation went great. We were able to open our audience’s eyes about sensitive topics and got some positive feedback to boot. Our cohort was filled with joy knowing that we were able to reach people and spread awareness about mental health. From that day on, we have been ready and excited to take on our COVID-19 Public Health Campaign. Nothing can stop us now.

 

Written by Briana Davis