In the Hawaii-Nanzan Short Exchange Program, one of our biggest projects was the Joint Presentation. Students from Hawaii and Nanzan worked together as a team and completed this big project. We started to work on the project before we went to Hawaii. Students were divided into five groups and I started the project with an e-mail to my buddy in Hawaii introducing myself. I remember I was very nervous to contact her since I had no idea what she was like and if we can get along well. However, contrary to my worries, I am amazed how much we got along as a team and built a strong bond with each other throughout the project. Because our topic for the presentation was about family, my team members treated each other as family.

When we completed all the preparations for the presentation, we rehearsed once and realized how much practice we needed to do before the actual presentation day. First, it was too long and we needed to cut some parts to adjust timing. I was a little disappointed to cut parts since we all worked hard to get all the information and made many slides. However, as we worked on adjustments, I felt we grew stronger in our relationship as well. Since we only worked on gathering information in Hawaii, we never had enough time to discuss how we should do the actual presentation to attract the audiences’ attention. We all had a same goal to present our ideas and persuade audiences to rethink about their own family through the presentation. So, it was very nice to have some time to discuss and it made our presentation much better. After we adjusted the timing, we were all very confident and ready to give a presentation.

Although we were excited, we still felt very nervous on presentation day as we waited for our turn. Usually, I cannot concentrate on other people’s presentation as I wait for my turn, but I decided to enjoy the others’ presentations because I knew everyone spent a long time and put a lot of effort in completing this presentation. I realized I was actually enjoying other presentations and it was nice to learn about other groups’ topics. When we waited for our turn back stage, we did many silly things to get rid of nervousness. We secretly danced back stage and told jokes to each other. That made me less nervous and I knew I will enjoy every minute of our presentation. It was the first time to feel that I am enjoying giving presentation in my life that day. I think that is because I was very confident that we will do great and also I was very comfortable working with my two buddies.

After the presentation, we hugged and complemented each other. I was very proud of my team and also myself for completing the project. I achieved not only the presentation itself, but also leaned important lessons to work as a team and trust ourselves. This project gave me big confidence and I was very happy to be part of Hawaii-Nanzan joint presentation team.

By Mei K.