Well it’s the end of the week, another workshop basically in the bag, and today we sat down to do the final edit and make the slideshows for the graduation. Not a ton of excitement to report for today except to gush about how well the students have done, but we did have one pretty cool new element to add to the experience for the students. A couple days ago Fred had a piece of inspiration based on a documentary film he’d seen recently. The idea was to have the students come over to our hotel in the evening on their prep day, after they’d finished practicing their speeches and we were at a stopping point in the big edit. Once the students arrived we laid out all of their prints on a big table, and Fred gave them all a bit of a pep talk about how good their work was. Looking down at a table of prints that all looked fantastic, we reflected on the week and then they were asked to sign their prints. Fred talked about the importance of owning their work and we encouraged them to take pride in what they’ve done and to put their names on it. It was great to see them take the ceremony of it very seriously and I think as an act, it was incredibly powerful. That’s definitely staying in the playbook for now on!
After the print signing, Mike and Kevin finished the evening by making the last of everyone’s slideshows at a reasonable hour; instead of having to stay up working until 2 in the morning. We finished early, at a good dinner and are heading to bed…tomorrow is going to be a super long one!