These past 8 weeks were spent collaborating with the NobleReach Foundation, specifically InnSure and Charlie Sidoti. Our team focused on interviewing professionals in the wildfire mitigation and recovery space, gathering their insights, and synthesizing that knowledge.
A key success of this project was the opportunity to connect with and learn from industry veterans. From those interviews and research I believe everyone in our group learned a ton of information. And as all of our group members reside in California, some with very recent first hand knowledge of wildfires, this topic was very near and dear to us. I think we all came away feeling that we can have a impact on the effects of wildfire mitigation and recovery, that it is going to take all of us to help fix the issues people confronting wildfires face.
I think our biggest challenge we faced in this project was just the ambiguity as to what our final project or deliverable would be. I think that led to us to be unsure at times of the best way to proceed forward in the course.
I would advise future SL students, specifically NobleReach Foundation students, to not be afraid to reach out and talk with the industry veterans you're interviewing. All of the people I interviewed were extremely positive and in fact were more than overjoyed to help and share their knowledge. The other piece of advice I would give is to be upfront with your advisor, not to hide anything struggles you might be having, or clarification you might need. It's better to ask earlier rather than later.