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Teamwork 2020

Teamwork is something which requires the contribution of all members of the team in order to work. Good team work requires contribution, communication, and preparedness of the material so as to be effective and efficient during a group activity. I have learned a lot about teamwork in my courses in Agnes, especially from my physics classes. This semester, my group and I have done a good job in creating a good team environment.

I have always known that teamwork is something which requires the contribution of all its team members, and I was able to see that in my team. Sometimes it is intimidating to share ideas in a group in the fear of being wrong. However, in my group, I was not afraid to ask questions and be wrong because these were learning experiences for me and the rest of my group. We were able to clarify and get a better understanding of our material through our confusion. So if someone was confused, another member would step up and explain and clarify, ultimately helping the rest of the group understand the topic.

I have learned that as I have been working in groups, I have gotten better at communicating and working together with my group. When in groups, it is easy to stay quiet and not voice an opinion in the fear of being wrong. However, from my group experiences, although I might be a bit hesitant to express my confusion, my group members have been very supportive and tried to better help me understand the material and clear up my confusion. I also try to ask questions so that we as a group can move forward and consider other ways to look at a problem. When asking clarifying questions, it helped us work out some of the kinks in our understanding of the topics and helped another team member, who understood the topic, to teach the rest of the group and clarify some things.

From the Catme surveys, my teammates have said that I am good at creating a good visual for understanding, whether it is writing notes on the board or creating diagrams. Since I am a visual learner, i believe that this helps me understand things more clearly, and in turn helps the group as a whole.

From the feedback that I have received from my team members, I will make sure that I always voice my opinion, even if it is a question to clarify my confusion. I want to work on my contribution skills, and make sure that I am a good asset to the group and provide my input. I want to keep working on starting to prepare for the group work and group discussions so that I know what is going on in the class and am able to contribute to my full potential.

When comparing my ratings to the ratings that I have received from my group members, I feel that I am underestimating my contributions to the group. At times I have believed that I do not contribute so much to the group discussions or am confused a lot of the time, however when looking at my group members’ comments, I see that my questions also help them clear misunderstandings of the topic and can help us get on the right track. My group members had also stated that I do a good job trying to keep the discussion flowing and on track, which I do believe that I try to do.

I hope to use my teamwork skills in the future to be a good team member. I know that when I am put into a group, it is important that I contribute my ideas and questions even when I am a bit hesitant to do so. This will be the only way to clear up any confusion about the material. I will continue to try and communicate with my team members so as to let them know what is going on and have a better understanding within the group. Finally, I will always make sure that I am prepared for the group. Preparedness is key to having a good team.I will use these team skills and apply it in the future to my career as well as to build better relationships. The key skills that I took for teamwork is contribution, communication, and preparedness which will help in any situation.

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Teamwork

A team is something which must work together. All team members need to be able to freely express their opinions because the team should be a judgement free zone. If there are disagreements, the team must come to a consensus by discussions, explanations, and compromises. However, this can only be done if everyone in the team is an active member of the team. “Two is always better than one.” This saying can be applied in a team as well. If everyone provides input, and expresses their opinion, then the team is more likely to achieve the right answer or come to a better conclusion. Every person in the team will be able to provide something different to the team, and by combining all these things, the team can try their best to succeed.

Something that I believe that I contribute to my team members is my knowledge about the topic. Although I might not be the most knowledgeable in the team about a certain concept, I am able to provide what I know so that we can come to a conclusion about our discussion. I also believe questions are also something that I contribute to my team. Whenever I don’t understand something, I make sure to ask my team members, this allows them to explain and shows and understanding of their knowledge as well. Something else that I contributed to my team are my leadership skills. Although I am a shy person, I feel that I am a good communicator in my group and am a reliable person. This is some of the feedback that I have received from my team members as well. In my team, I always try to keep the group on topic and try to move us forward by asking questions so that we have some direction during our discussions.  I make sure that everyone’s opinions are heard, and then we all come together to come to a conclusion, or we compromise as a group and decide on what step to take next.  

I expect to use my teamwork skills in the future by applying my skills in teamwork settings, whether it be in a team for classes or for careers. Teamwork is a large part of a career. It is important to be able to work with other people and contribute to the team. I will use my teamwork skills to build better relationships with my team members and contribute to the team however I am able.

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My Beautiful Question

My Beautiful Question: How can we as young women change/inform other’s perspectives to be more open minded and be more willing to accept differences of minority groups?

According to Berger, “A beautiful question is an ambitious yet actionable question that can begin to shift the way we perceive or think about something—and that might serve as a catalyst to bring about change.” (Berger 8) I believe that my question is “ambitious yet actionable”. It is ambitious because it is questioning why we don’t take stand against unfair “societal rules” . These “rules” are created by society and are upheld through stereotypes and labels. The question asks what we as a society can do to take stand against the injustice created by “societal norms”. Although the action that the question encourages is ambitious, it does encourage the society to take a stand towards fixing, or changing, these societal norms and to become more open minded so that their opinions and judgements are not based off of stereotypes.

I created this question because it is a problem which has been going on for such a long period of time, and the question relates to me specifically as well. Minority groups are constantly fighting for their rights, they are continuously fighting to be treated equally and to be accepted into society. Although people participate protests and movements, these are changing society little by little, but not changing people’s views overall. I believe that if people were to be more open minded and accepting, minorities would be accepted in society, and there would be less oppression. People would be less ignorant of the differences of the minority groups, and would be willing to embrace them them instead.

While going through the different subject rotations in my Leadership class, the rotations of communication and Asian studies were the two topics that connected the most with my question. During the communications rotation we talked about how our whole world is able to communicate through social media, through pictures, more specifically through memes. Ultimately our perspectives are also shaped by the media. What we see and hear online or through the news, influences the way that we recognize the world around us. We tend to jump to conclusions and even develop stereotypes about some things that we remain ignorant about, but we do it because that is all that we learned through the media. Stereotyping can be very dangerous, as it can lead into discrimination. In the Asian Studies rotation, we learned about how stereotypes can lead to misunderstandings about people’s race, religion, culture, etc. We, as a society, need to be careful about how we interpret the things that we see and hear about different people around the world.

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Martinique Journeys Reflection

Credit: “Sunset in Martinique (Links to an external site.)“
by Mahzuza Rahaman is licensed under CC BY 4.0 

Travelling to Martinique was an amazing, eye opening experience. However, this was not my first experience abroad. The first time I had travelled abroad had been to Bangladesh. This is the country that my whole family is from. The first time I had visited Bangladesh I was too young to actually remember much of my experience there. The second time I had visited, it was very interesting to see how different it was to what I usually experience on a day to day basis living in the United States, it was such a culture shock. Even though I have lived in the United States for my whole life, and the fact that my parents have been here for longer than that, it is amazing that we kept a lot of aspects of our culture and traditions, such as clothing, food, holidays, etc. When I had went to Bangladesh, it was easier for me to adapt to some parts of my culture than others. For example, it was easier to adapt with the language, clothing and some of the traditional dishes because these were things that I was familiar with and used to. It was harder for me to adapt with things such as transportation, air conditioning and some foods, because these things were so different from what I was used to, and had taken for granted.

When I had travelled to Martinique, it was the first time that I have been without my family for a stretch of time. My experiences in Martinique were somewhat different from when I went to Bangladesh. I still had a sense of culture shock, however it was mainly due to the cultural differences. Although the language barrier was quite a bit difficult at times, my experiences in Martinique has taught me so much more than when I had visited Bangladesh.

I believe that GBL 102 has better prepared me to travel as a traveller and not as a tourist. When I had went to Bangladesh, My family and I did things that all tourists would do, such as visiting waterfalls, going to visit the amusement parks, the big shopping malls, taking pretty pictures, and did all of the other touristy things, however I never really learned much from my experiences there. I believed that I knew the culture and the history of the country and that there wasn’t anything else for me to learn. When I went to Martinique, I had a better idea of how to be a traveller and to be mindful and open minded of the different culture and traditions of a new place. Although we still visited the places that all tourists would visit, I believe that we were more immersed into the Martiniquan culture. We got t experience it first had when we went to see Carnival and when we got to explore Fort- de- France by ourselves. Although the language barrier was the most difficult part of the trip, I believe that I was able to experience the culture fully when I was travelling like a traveller and not a tourist.

While in Martinique, globalization was something that could be seen intertwined with Martiniquan culture and traditions. The intermixing of different people and cultures was especially evident during Carnival. During the Carnival parade, there were groups of people from the Dominican Republic and from Haiti holding up banners and their flag to represent their country. They were proud to show off their own culture. Our guide during the trip, Julie, had told us that the people of the island were very accepting of others despite the cultural differences and such.

When travelling, the reason that we travel and the mindset we travel in can provide with new experiences and new perspectives. We are constantly learning about new things through our experiences, and if we travel like a traveller and not like a tourist, we are able to fully understand these new things. When learning about the theme of why/ how to travel, we are reminded to be mindful, open minded, and accepting towards the differences we encounter during our travels. People all around the world are different, there are different factors which make up their identities.  Our identities are made up of the places that we are from, the experiences that we have had, and cultures and traditions that we may follow.

My goal before going to Martinique was to actually travel and become a more global person. There is more to a place than what we see on the news and in social media. In order for us to be more global, we need to experience these cultures and these differences first hand. I believe that My experiences in Martinique has changed the way that I perceive the world. My experiences from Martinique has helped me become more open- minded and willing to try new things.

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Leadership Reflection

What is leadership? The dictionary definition of leadership is the action of leading a group of people, however, I believe that leadership delves a little bit deeper than just that. Being a leader is about how and individual can influence others, whether it be good or bad. It is about how they have the ability to and are willing to compromise when need be. A good leader is one who has the best interests at heart for the people that they are leading.

In Cronan’s paper, “Only connect… The Goals of a Liberal Education”, Cronan delves deep into what a characteristics and qualities can make up a good leader.  Some points that Cronan makes are that good leaders “ they listen and they hear”, “they practice humility, tolerance, and self-criticism”, “they understand how to get things done in the world”, and “they nurture and empower the people around them”. (Cronan, 3-4) It is important for a leader to listen to the people, and understand how to help them and empower them. It is important to see how the actions of the individual help the people and how their leadership qualities shine through their actions.

Throughout the Leadership course, we learned about how leaders are identified. I think that Roller’s model of exemplarity does a decent job of creating an outline for leadership. It model is as follows:

  • Action
  • Audience
  • Commemoration
  • Imitation

This explains how an exempla, or a leader-like figure, must do an action which is memorable to others. It can be an action which is seen as good or bad. The audience are the people who directly witness the action of this exempla. The commemoration portion of the model talks about how the individual is rewarded for their honorable or memorable action. For example, the story of Cloelia follows this model. Cloelia was a Roman women who, along with many other Roman women, had been abducted by Porsena, an enemy of the Romans. She was said to have bravely led the hostage women across the river in which they were bathing, to get away from the enemy. She had snuck past the guards and led all these women to their freedom. In this story, the audience are the women who were led to freedom by Cloelia. She was commemorated by the narratives that were written by her and an equestrian statue. Although her story was not imitated at that time, due to the social hierarchy of men versus women, her leadership qualities, such as bravery and virtus, were imitated. Roller’s model does a great job in explaining how leaders were in ancient times by fitting them into the model through a memorable action that they did. Although Roller’s model does provide an outline for leadership, it is not a great way to explain leadership. Not only is the model constructed for men and the ways that they display virtus and other Roman characteristics, it does not leave room for women to display their leadership abilities as women were not supposed to break the stereotype of a woman. Leadership goes past just a single action and reward for that action, it is about how the individual leads the people to a better part of a whole.

When my group and I worked on our final project, I realized how differently leadership could be seen. The topic for my group project, my final exemplum, was Cleopatra. While studying her, I realized that Roller’s model of exemplarity was not entirely correct. When looking at Roller’s model, it can be interpreted as leader is defined by a single action that they carry out. However, after doing research about Cleopatra, I believe that this statement is false. A specific action does not define an individual, it is the qualities and the characteristics that are constantly portrayed that create an actual depiction of the type of leader a person. While Cleopatra is known for her affairs with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, she is mainly known as one of the greatest rulers of ancient Egypt due to how she had ruled over the vast country.

When working on the group project, I feel that I embodied the qualities of what I believe to be a good leader. It is important that everyone in a group is heard, that they know that their input is just as important as that of the others in the group. I had too the initiative to make sure that everyone had a say, and that they were comfortable enough to freely speak their mind. Being a good leader is more than just about commanding, it is about taking the initiative to get the work done, and making sure that the work gets done effectively. I realized that I am the type of person who takes the leader role unconsciously. I am the one who will make sure that everything gets done effectively and according to plan. I also tend to pick up the slack of other group members who may not be putting their absolute best into a project. I realized that need to be more confident in my leadership abilities and ideas. I need to make my voice heard and not be seen as someone who will do everything and not say anything about it. As a leader I hope to be more confident and embrace my role as a leader.

 

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Five Strengths

When I had taken the StregthFinders test, my top five themes were input, consistency, adaptability, relator, and communication. When I first saw these themes as my top five, there were some which I was surprised about because they fit me so well, and some which I thought did not fit me at all. Out of these five strengths I would like others to see me as consistent and as a relator. Consistent is when “there is a consistent environment where the rules are clear and applied to everyone equally.” (Gallup, Clifton Strengths). As a woman, especially as a muslim woman, I understand when there are a separate set of rules set when working together. Not only is that unfair, these “separate rules”, the inequality, does not let me perform at my best. These restrictions are what hold most people back when there should be no restrictions at all. There needs to be a consistent environment, an even playing field, for everyone. People should not get judged because of their gender, their race or their religion. Everyone should get an equal chance no matter who they are.  I also want people to see me as a relator because I value relationships, old as well as new ones. I am a really shy person, and it takes me a while to become comfortable with others. However, once I am comfortable with someone, I can be really outgoing. I care for those who I am close to and am invested into that friendship. I want what is best for my friends and my teammates, and want to push them to be the very best that they can be. I hope that others can see my consistent and relator characteristics within my work style and contributions.

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Martinique- Le Féroce d’Avocat

Le Féroce d’Avocat

Photo from www.196flavors.com

 

Le Féroce d’Avocat is a traditional dish in Martinique which translates directly to mean “fierce avocado”. It is made from avocado, lime juice, cassava flour (known as ‘manioc’), chillies mixed with spinach leaves and salt fish. It is considered “fierce” for the spices that are added to the dish. This was a dish traditionally eaten by plantation workers for breakfast, and is now widely eaten as an appetizer. (Rabikowska 2015)

Martinican cuisine is a mixture of African, French, Caribbean and South Asian traditions. From the spices, meats, fruits and vegetables, Martinican food is a diverse mixture of all these cultures.  These different traditions have been fused and integrated into the culture of Martinique after colonization by Europeans. I had specifically chose this food because it is something which I can eat in Martinique. Most traditional meals in Martinique either include fish or meat. Not only is this dish halal, it sounds like something which would be interesting to try once I get to Martinique. Most of the time I am afraid to try new things because of cultural differences in foods; however, this dish seems like something which I can try which is not to drastic a change from things I would usually eat. I am not the biggest fan of avocados, but I love it as guacamole. I am excited to try this dish when in Martinique.

Socio-economic and Environmental Dimensions

When looking through dishes to write about, I had noticed that most of the dishes had fish as one of the main ingredients. Le Féroce d’Avocat also includes fish, more specifically salt fish. Fishing is a strong aspect of Martinican culture. Not only because Martinique is an island, but also because it is an ingredient for other cultural foods. While fishing is a big part of Martinican life, the fish which are caught are mostly for local consumption as it is easily accessible to the Martinicans. The agriculture industry is a big part of the Martinican economy, more specifically the production of sugarcane and bananas. Unlike the agriculture industry, the fishing industry does not impact the Martinican economy in the same way. It is not a good which is exported, but it is a delicacy widely distributed to the the locals of the island because of how easy it is to obtain as Martinique is an island.

Fish is something which is readily available to those in Martinique, however in order for the seafood to be edible and healthy the water/ocean must be taken care of. If the food source is harmed, then the consumers, those who eat that food, are harmed indirectly. For example, the pesticide situation in 2013. While the pesticide was used for the banana crops, not only was it harming the soil, it was also contaminating the sea, which is the source for all seafood. THe pollution of the soil and the sea was hurting everyone, especially the poor people in the country. Many farmers still sold these contaminated products, however those who depended on the fishing to earn money for their families were unable to do anything because the the fish is non consumable due to the chemicals. However, when the people were demonstrating, the officials in the government took a long time to propose a solution. (Valo 2013)

This goes to show that there is so much more to foods and the food process than we care to think. While the foods that we eat are a part of our environment and our culture, there are also economical factors, political factors, etc.

 

Pledge

I pledge that I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this assignment.

Mahzuza Rahaman

Sources

  • Abitbol, Vera. “Feroce D’Avocat – Recipe from French Antilles.” 196 Flavors, 13 Feb. 2018, www.196flavors.com/french-west-indies-feroce-davocat/.
  • Cornevin, Robert. “Martinique.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 29 May 2018, www.britannica.com/place/Martinique.
  • Rabikowska, Suzy. “Top 10 Martinican Dishes You Just Have to Try.” Culture Trip, 30 Mar. 2015, theculturetrip.com/caribbean/martinique/articles/top-10-martinican-dishes/.

 

 

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