Performance Reflection

For my performance piece, I am going to use the presentation that I created at the Irving

Transportation Summit during the summer of 2018. A group of students from Manara

Leadership Academy participated in this competition called “Future Leaders Student

Competition”. My partner was Ahnaf Ahsan and I am going to present our work to you that was

awarded the winning title by the panelists. After winning the competition, we were given the

opportunity to present our findings at the Irving Transportation summit in front of 300 people

that consisted of city officials and businessmen. This was a great personal challenge to as I

already struggling in front of six panelists at the The Study USA. Therefore, my presentation at

the Transportation Summit represents by growth in public speaking.

After learning about the competition last year, I had to decide If I want to participate or

not as it was related to engineering which was not my major or something I was interested in

pursuing a career choice. I was convinced by my peers that it would be helpful to me as it would

involve public speaking and other skills I needed to improve. After making the decision to

participate, I started working on the task. We had to redesign the Diamond Interchange and

present it to a panel of six people that consisted of engineers, businessmen, and architects. We

worked on our model for about three months and came up with a presentation.

It was a challenge for me to present not only because I was lacking confidence regarding

my public speaking skills but also as there was so much to cover in five minutes. My partner and

I practiced first and then presented it to our mentors who helped us with our model. We modified

our presentation according to their feedbacks and practiced again before presenting it to the panel
of six. After making the presentation in front of the panel, I became even more nervous about

presenting it at the Transportation Summit in front of 300 professionals. I had a month to

practice,by the day we had to present, I felt I had greatly improved. I was very proud of myself

and handled myself in front of such a crowd.

In all, I want to say that presenting at the Transportation Summit has boosted my

confidence as a person. I feel much more comfortable talking to my teachers and every

unacquainted person. It has helped me a lot in personal life as I do not get nervous when given a

hard task involving oral presentation in front of an audience. By practicing, I have improved by

public speaking skills and now I am a better public speaker than ever.