During the dragon dan session, experts Dominic stone and Emily Zak provided a lot of valuable advice on my project, which provided me with different perspectives and pointed out areas that I had not considered thoroughly.
Here are some key takeaways of their advice and
- How to measure the success of the intervention？— Dominic pointed out that maybe it’s hard to measure the success of my intervention in the scope of this project, because there’s not enough time, but it’s worth focusing on anticipating long-term outcome.
- Value of Guidance and Mentorship — As Emily pointed out, my project seems to be missing opportunities carving out opportunities for people to connect and create mentorship. She describes the industry as learned through hands-on experience, which is different from fields where skills are primarily acquired through formal education, and that’s why mentorship is so important. Graduating students are hungry for mentorship but don’t know how to get it. The podcast community is good, but lacks real-life interactions. She advocates for a platform connecting transitioning Chinese students with mentors.
I think the opinions of experts are valuable. Mentorship is also something I want to provide to my target audience, so I actively contacted various related organizations within UAL scope like gems, color association. I also hope to provide some perspective to my audience by creating a podcast where graduates who are in their early careers or even those who are struggling with their transitions can share their experiences on their journeys. But as Emily said, my current approaches still lack some opportunities for people to establish face-to-face relationships with mentors. How to combine mentorship with existing paths requires further consideration.