On June 16th, I had the pleasure of presenting with my friend and colleague Michelle Cao ‘25 during the 2022 EcoLeague Retreat held at Dickinson College. Our audience consisted of deans and faculty from the six EcoLeague schools, a consortium of ecologically-focused liberal arts colleges from around the country. This group includes Alaska Pacific University, New College of Florida, College of the Atlantic in Maine, Northland College in Wisconsin, Prescott College in Arizona, and, of course, Dickinson College, here in Carlisle, PA.
Michelle and I put quite a bit of preparation into our presentation. We were given a timeframe of approximately 10-12 minutes to explain, to a group that was not familiar with us, who ALLARM is, what we do, and why our work is important. After preliminary planning, a meeting with EcoLeague Coordinator Katie Schweighofer, some time together to create the presentation itself, and several rounds of practice, Michelle and I were prepped and ready to go.
When presentation day came around, Michelle walked everyone through who ALLARM is and I discussed ALLARM’s role as a community science organization. We then reflected on our most recent Stream Team workshop in Susquehanna County to further give a glimpse into what we do. After having practiced the presentation so many times, much of it felt second-nature, and we were able to flow through our talking points in the allotted time and work off of each other as we did it! Our audience was receptive and supportive, nodding along and smiling throughout the presentation.
I was quite pleased with the final presentation and felt confident and prepared, and Michelle shared these sentiments. “Preparing for this presentation gave me an opportunity to reflect on the fun and memorable moments I have had at ALLARM thus far, but choosing my favorite aspect to hone in on was difficult,” Michelle later reflected. “The work we do here is expansive and exciting, and it felt good to be able to channel that energy and give our audience a glimpse of what working here means to us.” Overall, it was rewarding to not only receive such positive feedback from our audience, but to enjoy that feeling of satisfaction knowing that all of our preparation was well worth it. Thank you, EcoLeague!
