Hello all!

For this week's blog post, I'll be talking briefly about what excites me and the type of people I enjoy working with and what kinds of partners I'd want on my team for this semester.

I consider myself a pretty accommodating person, and I am open to working with a variety of different people. However, there are two traits that I really value in people when working in a team. First is the willingness to listen to others, as well as the willingness to make your voice heard. It's hard to find a balance between the two, but if either is neglected, the group will suffer for it. It's obviously bad to take over a discussion and not let anyone else speak, because you'll never know what potentially brilliant ideas have been shut down. It's equally bad to not voice your own concerns when working in a team, because an idea that you have could be extremely valuable to the group, and they won't know unless you share. Second is having an open mind. Simply put, I really value group members who are willing to drop preconceived notions and be open to new ideas that they hadn't considered or given credence to before.

As to what excites me in terms of projects, I really want to work on an idea that is somewhat technical in nature (e.g. engineering, biotech)and will have a widespread impact. That's why the idea of the Natural Disaster warning system that I discussed in my last post really caught my attention - it's simple, but has an impact that could affect millions, even billions, potentially. Projects like these will definitely be amongst my top choices when it comes to discussing ideas.