My Reflection (Alvaro Castillo)

My experience at the symposium presenting in front of at least 30 people was a little bit nerve racking. At first, I heard 200 people and I automatically had butterflies in my stomach but, each group will have only 7 minutes max to present their presentation. I felt relieved and was more confident about this presentation. The main thing I focused on was practicing on the main presentation in my speech class since it had to be at least 30 minutes or more on our presentation day. If I practiced more on a speech that is almost five times the amount of time we have in the symposium presentation and perfect all my lines and share the information clearly for the SNAP program. A quick inside on the SNAP program before I continue talking about my experience about my time at the symposium. The SNAP program is a fancy way of saying food stamps. It is short for Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program and it is a federal nutrition program that supports low income families or independent people. It is provided by the government with an EBT card and the money is given each month. It can only be used on groceries and cannot be used on hot foods or pre-made meals. For example, when I used to be on food stamps, I couldn’t use It to buy a toasted Publix sub because it was toasted. It also cannot be used to buy things like Alcohol, pet foods, cigarettes, ETC… The amount you get per month is solely based on your income.  In order to apply for SNAP there is a list of how to be eligible and the income limits varies between each state in the United States. For more in depth info about the SNAP program just check your local office or look up SNAP program on Google. Now back to my personal experience about the symposium and how my group presented. The same day we presented in class, we organized it to the exact time that was required for the symposium. It was kind of difficult to shorten a 30-minute presentation to 7 minuets or less. Luckily one of my group members managed to explain how we should shorten it. She gave each of us a section of the presentation to talk about and only add key points or key words to the presentation. After figuring that out everything felt in place and ready for the event. The day the event arrived I felt prepared yet nervous to present part of the presentation my group and I made. Once I entered the room, I surprisingly saw less people inside and some were people I knew from other classes. Once we got up the panel, I went first in my group to introduce myself and give the beginning portion of the speech to the audience. Our speech went smooth like butter and we all felt accomplished and relieved that we didn’t show any sign of anxiety. We were professional throughout the 7 minutes that was given to us to explain to the audience the importance of the SNAP program. We were the first group in our class to present and after us went the other 4 groups who had very interesting topics to share to the audience as well.  My overall thought about my experience was genuinely amazing to get out of my comfort zone and meet new people and speak about interesting topics to them. I hope I get another chance to attend to another great opportunity just like this one.