What is your Project?
My project is the Richmond Terrace Esplanade Beautification/ Katherine Walker Statue Memorial Project, both of which are on Staten island. Our objectives for this project are to beautify and add more activities to the esplanade so that people can have a better experience, and so that we can attract more people to the esplanade. As for our objectives for the Katherine Walker statue, we aim to make sure that the people know who she was and what she did by dedicating a statue to her on the esplanade.
Who is/are your stakeholder mentor(s), what are his/her/their Professional titles?
My stakeholder is Manager of Communications and external affairs at Staten Island borough hall, Colleen Siuzdak.
What are some suggestions the stakeholder mentor(s) has provided? ( be specific!)
During my first meeting with Colleen Siuzdak, although I didn’t have a lot of work to show her since I came into the project late, she was still able to give me helpful feedback that I found useful. One point she made was the clarification on the location of the Richmond Terrace Esplanade, which I found helpful since I was a little confused on where the site was as there were two places close to each other that could’ve been the esplanade. Another interesting thing she had mentioned was an exhibit of Katherine Walker that they had at the museum, The Noble Maritime collection. By looking into what the museum offered about Katherine Walker, I could get to know more about her. Something new I found while reading the exhibit of Katherine Walker was that she stayed at the lighthouse for 29 years, which I did not know before. I also found the feedback that I received from my mentors, Ms. Butts, Mr. Rodriguez, and Ms.Moos really helpful as well. During the design process, Mr.Rodriguez was especially helpful since he taught me how to use Rhino and gave me feedback on how to make my model better by showing me commands and programs like Twinmotion that I can use. He also gave me ideas on how to make my design look more lively. My mentors also told me stuff like how to improve more on my presentations by putting fewer words and visuals so that the presentation would focus more on what I wanted to show and how to expand more on the ideas that we had by showing examples and different versions of additions that we thought could go onto the esplanade. During our most recent meetings, the feedback Colleen gave was now mostly positive, and she was impressed with the work I’ve done and the ideas that I had. With confidence I can say that it was all because of the helpful feedback that I received from my mentors that my presentation was a success.
How have you implemented the feedback that you have received? ( be specific! )
Since I got the location of the esplanade wrong the first time, I made sure I confirmed that the location of the esplanade was on street level instead of sea level. I also decided to check the exhibit about Katherine Walker that Colleen had mentioned to see if there were any new details about her that I had missed, and while I already knew most of what was there, I did learn at least one more thing and it was nice to see that there was at least an exhibit for her where people can go to learn more about her. As for the feedback Mr.Rodriguez, Ms.Butts, and Ms.Moos gave me, I was able to organize my slides and information better by rearranging my slides based on topic and relevance because of what they told me and was able to learn how to elaborate on my ideas and figure out what works and what doesn’t.
How has the feedback from the mentors affected your professional process? For instance, when reviewing your data, what have you learned from mentors that you now look for in the data?
I feel like that feedback given to me by my mentors and stakeholders helped me grow as a person and helped me understand how to be a better project manager. When they gave me positive feedback, it made me feel like I was doing something right and it gave me motivation. When they gave me critical feedback and told me things that I could do to improve, it also gave me motivation and made me want to do better. The feedback I received helped me understand that not all ideas will work and that some ideas are better than others. For example, one idea I had was to have a boardwalk, but after going over this idea with my mentors, I realized that this wouldn’t be a good idea. Now when I think about a new addition that could go on the esplanade I take into consideration the environment and how these new additions have an effect on them. I take into account what I think people will do with an idea I have and then also think about how it will actually be used. I also take into consideration the placement to see where it will get more attention and where it will get the least amount of attention. One addition I had that took these factors in place was the addition of a bulletin board. With the addition of a bulletin board, I thought of where on the esplanade it would get the most attention and how people would respond to it. I welcome any critique because anything is better than nothing at all. I’m just so thankful to have such great mentors and stakeholders like Mr.Rodriguez, Ms.Butts, Ms.Moos, and Colleen who can provide me great feedback and guide me so that I can do better and am grateful to be a part of this program as well.
To view highlights from Richard’s presentation, click on the video: