At the end of each semester MFA students are required to present a formal summary of research and creative work to all members of the MFA Committee. I had my review today and it went really well. I enjoy having opportunities to present but can’t help but feel nervous. I talked too fast and ended up with dry mouth constantly causing me to have to pause for a sip of water. It’s so weird because that never happens to me. I need more presentation opportunities so I can work through it.

I created a keynote presentation of my work from both Art 625 and Art 640 and included an extracurricular slide of my trip to the AIGA National Conference. I was going to include more extracurricular slides to show the other things I’ve worked on this semester but I didn’t need them. I went over time with just the content that I had.

Since this was my first review I had no idea what to expect or what information was wanted so I just talked about everything I did in each class. I spent too much time talking about my research project, which I was really excited about, and was told to be more concise and conscious of time. I was also told that I don’t have to explain each group members role in group projects. They’ll ask if they want to know the specifics.

Things I need to work on:

  • being more conscious of time
  • being more concise
  • talking more slowly, and taking pauses so I don’t get out of breathe or suffer from dry mouth