Project Highlights

BA 101 Project  

    Description:  A thirty page business plan to start a hair cut service booth called Sharpee's was produced by a five person group.  The whole process of gathering all the information, record, interpret, writing the business plan, and then presenting the plan to a venture capitalist took about a month.  Our group met at least twice a week at the beginning of the month and then gradually as the deadline moved closer we met more frequently.  We were all given special sections of the business plan to do on our own.  At the end we would put it all together and revise the whole plan as a group.

   Goal:  The goals of the project were to were to make a business plan and come up with a presentation for a venture capitalist by a certain deadline.  The business plan could be any type of business that we wanted to operate and bring to the UT campus.

   Role:  I was in charge of gathering the information on the consumers and the competition.  I needed to decide a reasonable hair cut price while looking at the prices of the competition.  I also was in charge of getting the prices and quantity  needed of all the equipment that we needed.  I also was in charge of compiling the business plan at the end and making sure the it was turned it by the deadline.

   Lessons Learned:  I learned about the how people tend to move towards specific roles of their personality.  Some people tend to be more outspoken while others were quiet.  I learned how to tone down the outspoken ones while encouraging the others to be more opinionative.  Cooperation is key in team environments.

Statistics Experiment

   Description:  We were given a project in which groups of three would develop and idea for an experiment that could be tested among the students of our high school.  We needed to come up with a problem as well as a hypothesis.  Then we needed to make surveys to gather information.  We conducted the experiment on stratified random samples of students.  They were separated by grade and gender.  At the end we needed to interpret the information and submit a report as well as make a presentation.  The project lasted  about half a semester.

   Goal:  The goal of the project was to apply the knowledge of statistics of real experiments on a real world setting.  We had learned the information; now we were going to use it.

   Role:  My role was to gather the information from the freshmen and sophomore students at my high school.  Then I was to interpret the information and make graphs and charts that displayed the information.  Also, I came up with the idea of making our presentation a skit to make it more appealing.  In the skit, I was Stat Man, the defender of numbers and statistics!

   Lesson Learned:  I learned many statistical knowledge that had to do with the survey.  Poorly worded questions and response biases needed to be watched for, otherwise our experiment would be jeopardized.  The presentation portion was informative because I needed to find a way to clearly present my information in an interesting yet effective manner.

Chinese Club Red Cross Charity Fundraise  

   Description:  Every year the Chinese Club puts on a dinner and cultural production showcasing dragon dances, talents, and a play for everyone.  All the proceeds go towards the Red Cross.  The whole process of writing out a play, casting the roles, making the props, and rehearsal took a total of at least 6 months.  All of the 70 members would be delegated to a certain part of the production and they would work on that till it was completed.  Usually the meetings would be about a week.  There meetings would become more frequent the closer the performances and eventually end up daily.

   Goal:  The goal of the production is to put on a culturally educating as well as an entertaining performance while raising at least 500 dollars for the Red Cross Foundation.  

   Role:  I was given the leading role as an actor in the production.  I also came up with the idea of putting a humorous pre-show.  I was put in charge of organizing the shows and transitions.  The pre-show became an audience favorite part of the show making the night complete with a mixture of dancing, food, humor, and drama.

   Lessons Learned:  This was the ultimate experience of organizing and being in charge of a large group of people.  I learned how hard it was to gather a large number of people at a certain time.  Communication and concentration were also hard to control while rehearsals went on as well.  Fortunately, I learned how to get everyone working together in an organized fashion.  The production of the was both a relief and fun experience as everyone enjoyed the show and we met and went beyond our target fundraising mark.