Senior Project Reflection

For my senior project, I worked as a sound technician for The Movement Labs summer

dance show. I was there during the rehearsals and actual shows. During both I had to

communicate with the director (my mentor) and the other student technicians in order to make

sure everything was going the way it was supposed to. I monitored sound levels and played

songs on cue during shows.

My mentor, Bernadette Alverio teaches dance and runs The Movement Lab. She also

teaches dance at other schools and colleges. She helped our team run through everything and

make sure our cues went smoothly. Anytime she wanted a change, she communicated it very

clearly, and if we ever had any questions she responded to them quickly and thoroughly.

Because Bernadette was such a good mentor and the other students around me were very

good at their jobs, there were little to no challenges throughout the process. A few minor

challenges were learning to work with the other technicians and distinguishing the multiple

shows from each other, but after the first day or two everything was running smoothly. The main

challenge for me was how long the hours seemed sometimes. We were in a small, dark room for

sometimes up to 8 hours multiple days in a row, so it was tiring if we were not able to take a

break and go outside. Overall, all of these small issues did not matter because everything ran

smoothly.

Throughout this process, I feel that my work ethic and motivation improved. Being up in

the tech booth for hours can get boring, so I had to push myself to stay alert and keep working

even when it was not exciting. I knew that the dancers and other technicians were relying on me,

and that was a motivator, but there was also a lot of self motivation involved.
 The improved work ethic and motivation are definitely transferable skills that could be

applied to any career. I learned that sometimes it is necessary to push yourself to just do your job

even when it can be boring. The individual job may not seem rewarding, but it is necessary to the

overall projects success. In the future, I can apply this knowledge to projects in which I have a

small or uninteresting part.

Going into this internship, I was not completely sure what I would be doing. Overall, I

was pleasantly surprised. I kind of discovered that I am not a big fan of doing tech unless the

team I am on will keep me entertained. Without the right people or show, it is not a job that

interests me very much. I may consider pursuing it in the future, but maybe only under certain

circumstances or as part of a larger project that I am more invested in.