Reflection​

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This was my first major assignment in the MET program, and I felt way out of my element. When you feel this way in a graduate program, you only have a few options. Fake it until you make it, dig in on your own to try to figure it out, tell yourself it's too hard and you can't do it, or ask the professor for support or clarification.

 

I had the benefit of being able to access others' work and the opportunities to discuss this material with coursemates via commenting on posts and learned a great deal from others. But I also had to push myself to understand a lot of new business-related concepts and ways of analyzing ventures on my own by reading and researching outside the course to learn more about how to write about or present this new information in the form of SWOTs, executive summaries, and pitch decks. I quickly learned to ask questions and seek clarification when I was stuck and needed support and guidance.

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As an educational venture, there is evidence that Girl Effect is successful in reaching their target market of girls and women with innovative, engaging programs that affect change. However, most of their content is delivered through "free" social platforms that are almost certainly gathering information and data on users in previously unreachable markets. The more I have researched social media, data collection, and surveillance capitalism, the less confident I am in supporting educational ventures that trade access for data, and this is a research interest that has emerged through my MET coursework.​