About me
Hello! My name is Taylor Diggs and I am a Junior majoring in World Languages and cultures. This is my second time in Innovate Monarchs and I can say with confidence that it was one of my best decisions this semester. Having a second opportunity to impact my monarch community has been invaluable.
I was interested in participated in Innovate Monarchs for a second time because I wanted to help create a new solution to a new problem with the skills I had developed previously. I was excited to see what new things I could bring to the program as well as practice leadership skills.
My hobbies are learning new languages and cultures, talking to people, listening to music, traveling, and spending time with family and friends. I also enjoy volunteering in my free time.
Once I graduate, I would like to start my own business and travel around the world. I want to volunteer in various communities and also help find ways to aid communities in implementing sustainable agriculture and renewable resources.
The Innovate Experience
My teams idea was to builds a program that allows various personnel at ODU to learn more about the cultural and historical ties to mental health and higher education within the African American and Latinx community. Our idea promotes having a safe place for students of minoritized backgrounds to have a place they can go to to comfortably open up about their struggles. Our vision was for the students to have a support team whenever they need something at ODU.
In order to create such a plan, we used the design-thinking process. This process combines, analytical, social, and critical thinking skills with empathy to help bring the ideas of others to life!
During my Innovate Monarch experience, I practiced Empathy. Empathy taught me to remove my own biases and wants from a design and fully engage my audience in order to design something that they envisioned. It taught me to listen to other people and to always keep them at the center of the prototype.
Brainstorming and ideation were big aspects of my experience during Innovate. It taught me to never rule out a possible idea and to encourage others to share their own ideas, even if they seem hesitant. I removed any sense of judgement and made sure to create an open space for all ideas to be welcomed.
I practiced a lot of team building as well. Team work was a big part of my program and it taught me to adjust myself to my peers in order to create the most successful teamwork possible. I learned to frequently check in with my teammates, and make sure everyone was on the same page as we moved further.
Project management was another skill that I learned and utilized. It taught me to monitor our progress and to make sure that we were hitting every deadline we had. I made sure we stayed on schedule and that our product was looking clean and professional.
Overall Experience
Overall, Innovate Monarch has been one of my most memorable and fun experiences since entering college. The kinds of skills you get to learn and people you meet are all invaluable. This program has opened me to a new way of problem-solving and a new way of interacting with people. Finding programs like these are rare and I am so grateful to have been apart of such a program twice!
Being in Innovate Monarchs allowed me to see what goes on behind the scenes of building a new product/program. I got to be a part of every aspect and build something that I was proud of.
I faced a few challenges during my time in Innovate Monarch. One of my challenges was readjusted to change. My team lost a great team member during our program and trying to readjust the pitch speech, website, PowerPoints, and more were a little overwhelming at first. Luckily, I had amazing teammates that helped redistribute everything smoothly.
My most powerful learning experience was giving my speech and sharing my experience during the pitch event. I had to overcome my fear of public speaking as well as overcome the worry of lacking confidence during my pitch. I successfully beat both of my fears and was able to offer a special prototype handmade specifically for my fellow monarch peers to a range of ODU professionals who can help bring it to life for us.
After being in this program twice, I can say with confidence that I could teach this problem-solving process to someone else. Now that I got to learn and sharpen the skills over the course of a year.
The most important thing I learned with Innovate Monarchs is to believe in myself. I would have never thought I could have created the things I did in Innovate Monarchs. This program taught me to always believe and work hard for what I believe in. I am proud of the person I have become after this program.
Credits:
Created with an image by FelixMittermeier - "night photograph flashlight ray"