Reflection

What did you enjoy about this project?

I enjoyed that this project gave me the opportunity to connect with Trinity alumni. If this project didn't exist, I would never have been able to meet some of the alumnae that I've met. This project allowed me to develop relationships with people from my sorority and also has allowed me to reflect on how time alters everyone's experiences. 

What surprised you about this project?

The most surprising aspect of this project was how willing everyone was to participate. I might have lucked out with the participants I had, but I didn't think that everyone would be so enthusiastic about participating in my research. After posting one thing on Facebook, I had five (or more) people reach out to me offering to meet up/talk over the phone. Everyone was more than excited to talk about their own experiences and how intramurals and Greek life have shaped their lives. 

What was the most challenging aspect of the project, and how did you manage it?

The most challenging aspect of this project was keeping track of sources and setting up interviews. I was able to find a huge amount of resources that would prove to be beneficial to my project, but I had to work very hard to keep everything organized. I organized things by saving each article as a PDF and titling it with a relevant name, so it was obvious to tell what articles were important. Setting up the interviews was also difficult, as everyone has really different schedules (especially working adults). I managed this by planning my interviews weeks ahead of time and reaching out as they approached to ensure that participants were still available.

If you could start over, what would you do differently?

If I could start over, I would collect my sources earlier into the project. I didn't realize how sources would help me complete the project until the second/third progress report. Keeping track of these sources from the beginning would have saved me a ton of time.

What did you learn about history and/or the historical process through this project?

This process taught me that everyone’s perspective of history is extremely different. For example: all three of my interview participants attended Trinity during the same time period, were in the same sorority, and played a lot of the same intramural sports. Despite all of these similarities, all three women told very unique accounts in regards to their intramural and greek life experience. Each woman had a different perspective on greek life - some of the women loved being in Greek life, while others didn’t care nearly as much about it. Each woman had a different perspective on intramurals - some came to Trinity just to play intramurals, while others quit varsity sports and played intramurals to itch that ‘competitive scratch’ that varsity level sports filled. I believe that having different perspectives in regards to history can be beneficial and detrimental. Different perspectives are beneficial because they give us a more holistic view as to what actually happened; different perspectives can be detrimental because they can make it difficult to determine what actually happened.  

What did you learn through this project that can be applied to life outside the classroom?

This project allowed me to practice interview skills, which can easily be applied to life outside of the classroom. Whether it be participating in an interview or conducting one myself, this project allowed me to practice talking to different people, and challenged me to work on my 'people skills'. Each interview participant had a different personality, so I was able to use my emotional intelligence to know when to ask questions, what types of questions to ask, and how to communicate with different types of individuals.