Adrian Calvo - Post 2

Adrian Calvo

The second set of presentations that our class had was the topics of self-care, paying it forward, and good eating. These are all different things that most people would like to do in their day-to-day lives. Overall, I think the topics are a bit more interesting this time around. I found myself to be more engaged with the presentations since this is a much simpler thing to implement in my life. The study guides before the presentations were a practical way to digest the chapters. The brochures worked in a similar way since they would provide a quick summary of what would come in the power points.

The first group to present was group three with the topic of good eating and covered chapters four, eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen. Out of those chapters I thought the most compelling one was chapter twelve which went over how to organize a speech. The chapter goes over how to develop the body of a speech and how to make your message clear. I think this is vital to any speech since you can easily go off track and start rambling if you don’t have a clear purpose with what you’re saying. It also helps to have a proper order of what you’re going to say so that your speech is easily understandable. If what you say isn’t in the correct order, you could confuse your audience with lack of information due to an unorganized order. Their study guide was well put together and properly explained the chapters. They then presented their power point which was also great. I found the power point to be more interesting since I think that having a healthy lifestyle is a key part to a good lifestyle. It was disappointing seeing American diets compared to other parts of the world. Its truly shocking that the average American consumes 36 pounds of cooking oils. This being due to Americans having bigger meal portions which leads to more calories being consumed. It was also interesting seeing a doctor talk about how food affects mental health. I truly believe that if you don’t eat well, it negatively affects both the body and the mind. Overall, the group did a great job at making both the study guide and the power points understandable while also going in depth on the subject.

The second group to present was group two, which had the topic of self-care and went over chapters five, fifteen, and sixteen. I thought chapter fifteen was interesting since it goes over how to deliver a speech. Things like rehearsing and being intelligible are very important to giving a good speech. Another important thing is how you present yourself both verbally and nonverbally. The way you enunciate words and how you posture yourself and your movements can have big impacts on how your speech is perceived. Their study guide was very informational with a lot of essential definitions for the chapters.  Their power point went over self-care which I think is an area that a lot of people don’t think about in their daily lives. Self-care is interesting because of how complicated it can be. There are many different things that people would consider self-care and others would find annoying. A part I found interesting in the presentation was how simple self-care can be. Something as mundane as hygiene is a form of self-care that I think most people don’t think about since it’s a core part of their routines. I don’t think about brushing my teeth as a form of self-care since it’s so ingrained into my daily life that I don’t see it as anything other than that thing I do twice a day. A crucial part of self-care is taking care of your mental health. I think this is something that most people don’t put enough attention into. Many people have undiagnosed mental disorders because most people either can’t afford it or don’t care about going to see a psychological professional. Another important thing that I have a hard time with is having a healthy sleep schedule. I found it very interesting that proper sleep reduces the frequency of being ill. Overall the study guide was very informative and the power point was well researched with interesting information.

                The third group to go was my group which had the topic of paying it forward and went over chapters two, six, seven, and eight. I’m glad our group got this topic since I found this topic to be the most interesting. In the process of doing research for this project I found many philanthropic groups that I had never heard of before and was able to get a better understating of how these groups function. I watched the movie “pay it forward” which had a great understanding and explanation of how paying it forward works. Out of the chapters we had I think the most important one is chapter six, which talks about listening. I think listening is just as important if not more important than talking when it comes to a conversation. You also need to understand the person that is listening to you, so that you use a more effective way of communicating with this person. Something as simple as a nonverbal feedback cue can give you an idea of whether or not what you’re saying is being understood by who you’re talking to. Overall I was very interested on the topic because philosophy has always been something that has peaked my interest and philanthropy is a core basis to paying it forward.