Project Utopia for me was an amazing opportunity to not only have a say in what the new Fremantle Port would look like but also to collaborate with my classmates to create a sustainable, liveable and environmentally friendly place for people all around the world to enjoy. However, this just doesn’t happen overnight. It mainly took collaboration, organization and communication. Those are all part of our Capabilities wheel at All Saints College.

It may seem really hard to collaborate and click with other people but for me I find it easy to break the ice or make a funny joke that sparks a conversation. For a group to mesh together I think there needs to be something or someone to keep it light and fun. I may not always enjoy my group members work ethic or I may not even like them as a person but in the end, I must work with them for a grade that will help me achieve great things in life. My example of collaboration is when we all first discussed our thoughts. In my head I was feeling like my group members may not like my ideas or that maybe they wouldn’t listen, but I was wrong. Each of us slowly but surely went over each other’s ideas and ping ponged off each other to create an idea that was really incredible.

Organisation is a huge part of anything in life, especially something that has research and things to remember. This was unfortunately one of those things. I am generally good at remembering things and at the start I thought that my group would be as well but then later in the project people started to forget things and then people were off school sick, and I felt like we may not be organized for the actual presentation. I remember walking in on the day looking around to see if my group were all here. We met up and I asked where the vision board was in a panic but luckily one of my group members got it from the classroom. I felt relieved. We looked around our area just before the parents walked up the stairs and we congratulated each other as it looked amazing.

Finishing this off is communication. Communicating for me is listening 60% of the time and talking 40% of the time. By this I mean that listening is more important than talking and I feel that this is especially important in groups. I was in a group of five so listening was especially important. The main time we used communication was when we were reading out our speeches to each other and giving positive feedback. We were all listening carefully and building our speeches and confidence for our presentation. I remember Katherine said to me that I needed to walk around more during my speech so in return I did that during the actual presentation.

In conclusion, we have gained plenty of invaluable knowledge; from learning how to give and receive feedback to learning all about sustainability around the world. Infrastructure was another key aspect that we had learned through this long but rewarding process. I wish to say thank you to my team members and teachers for all the feedback and help.