Blog #6: How to Maximize Your Hawken Project Experience

The Hawken Project is an unrivaled opportunity for students to take their own initiative and, with Hawken's support, craft an amazing experience for themselves. For me, I've had many eye-opening experiences with my Hawken Project and been able to do things that I wouldn't have even thought of when I first conceptualized my Hawken Project. In my eyes, there are a few ways to ensure the maximum from your Hawken Project experience. I'll list them below.

First and most importantly, clear contact and communication with your mentor BEFORE your project are extremely important. I think one of the reasons for my success in my Hawken Project was the fact that I had a clear and candid conversation with my mentor before we had even locked in the details of the project. I believe, from that conversation, my mentor was able to get a deeper understanding of me, and what I wanted to do. I think this allowed my Hawken Project to be efficient, and I believe this helped my mentor help me in what I wanted to do with my Hawken Project.

Secondly, I think that another thing that is important is being clear with yourself about what you want early into the process. For instance, with my Project, I struggled towards the end of the deadline because I was a little late in asking the Alumni Office for help. The reason for my delay was because I struggled with deciding a set direction where I wanted to go with my project. I wasn't sure if I wanted to focus on AAPI issues or something else. There's no problem with not being sure with your Hawken Project, BUT you must make a concrete decision early enough so you have enough time to plan out your Hawken Project, instead of scrambling to make it a reality. 

Finally, I think that one thing that has helped me a lot is my blog. For me, my blogs have been really helpful as a way to process information. I view my blogs as more of a reflection rather than a retelling of what I've done. I think that treating your blogs as a way to condense what you've learned rather than what you've done is a much more effective way of gaining information from your Project. Instead of treating your blog like a chore, treat it as an opportunity and you might gain a wealth of knowledge about yourself from it.