Hello

My final goal for my project was to not just improve the way the foster care placements could be but to bring light to the foster care system.Through my research and connecting with others I realized many people don't realize becoming a foster care parent is something they can do. Foster care parents are so needed to fix this system. People need the education to help fix this problem. I had created a website for the STEAM Expo to bring light and awareness to becoming a foster care parent along with resources on how to do so. My project developed from being just something focused on the placements themselves to something that could be used to in from people as well. My table at the expo had a few visuals that included a laptop with my website pulled up, my poster, a monitor that had a video of an interview I conducted with 2 foster parents, a bowl full of suckers for people to enjoy, and 2 jars. One of the jars contained the exact number of foster care kids in minnesota and the other contained the exact number of licensed foster parents in Minnesota. People really enjoyed the visual pf the jrs because it was an easy clear way to show the problem at hand. 

Challenges

This project had many different types of challenges. When you work on the same project for 6 months so many problems and challenges present themselves. I really had to work hard on research with the questions I had in the questionnaire. I wanted to make sure the questions had meaning and that they weren't redundant. Finding a good way to structure the website in a way that made sense for what I wanted to convey. It needed to be in a way that flowed nicely but also look pleasing to the viewer and cause them to be engaged. Overcoming the issues of reaching out to others was definitely a struggle for me. I was so focused in on my project and feared the judgement someone would give to the work I did. When I finally di pen up others about my project the advise I was give was extremely helpful. I wish I could've opened up my project to the criticism and input sooner. 

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Rewarding 

This project came with many rewards. Having break throughs in research and information was so amazing. It made me feel very accomplished in what I was doing and it made it feel real. Seeing peoples reactions to my project was a los an incredible reward. Seeing how proud my parents were of me with the hard work I put in made it all feel worth it. Knowing that others saw my hard work and valued it made me know it was worth all the hours I spent. After working on something for 6 months seeing the final project was a reward in itself. The feeling of accomplishing it was so rewarding just for me. The best reward was feeling so proud of myself and feeling so accomplished of what I did.  

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Connect to the future 

The STEAM program has taught me so much and has been such a huge part of my high school career. I will take away all of the problem solving skills that I have developed over the past 4 years. Having to work around issues and re evaluation situations was very stressful at the time but will help ,me so much in the future. When problems arise in my future that I will need t re think I will already be familiar to those feelings of stress and will be a little more comfortable with them. I I'll take away the fact that eve if you are working on a project by yourself you don't have to do it completely alone . STEAM has taught me that others views and opinions can greatly help you even if you re working on something alone. I have learned to open my work up to criticism because I now want that criticism to be able to make whatever I am woking on better. The STEAM program has given me so much and I hope I carry these skills and values its given me forever.