There’s No Such Thing as Perfect By: Izzy V.

Since 6th grade, our teachers have promoted project-based learning as the best way for their students to learn not only the required curriculum, but also teamwork, problem solving, and many more skills that we will need to succeed after we graduate. This year, we are working on our DAP project, which allows us to solve real problems while using the skills we have learned from our experience in BioMed class.

With a team of myself and three other people, we will embark on the task of helping the Mothers Milk Bank with creating a pamphlet designed to orient new volunteers to the facility. As you may know, the Mothers Milk Bank will soon celebrate the grand opening of their new facility on Dillard Circle. The space is much larger, and they hope to increase the production of processed breast milk that will be sent to hospitals so that it can help more babies in need. I am very excited to see the completed new facility, and the members of my team, Team Flo, are happy to be working with an organization as important as the Mothers Milk Bank Austin.

To get a better sense of the space and the process for making the milk safe for babies, we toured the current Mothers Milk Bank facility. The place was rather small, and even the several volunteers working there had trouble getting through the racks of thawing breast milk and refrigerators. It was clear that the Mothers Milk Bank did need an upgrade. After watching the scrupulous process of processing milk, we returned to Ann Richards and began to schedule our next tour to the new facility. This facility was still a work in progress, but one could easily tell that it was much larger and grander than the original facility. Although we could hardly hear over the sound of construction, we donned our hardhats and attempted to interpret the layout of the rooms where walls were not yet installed. Nevertheless, we got a good understanding of where everything was meant to go, and the members of Team Flo are more prepared to explain it in a pamphlet for future volunteers.

Although creating a pamphlet for the new volunteers may seem like a rather straight-forward task, projects never come without their obstacles. At the start of the project, we thought that we were going to organize the various machines and equipment in the new Mothers Milk Bank facility, however, after over a month of planning this process out, we realized that creating a floor plan of the facility did not quite fit the solution. Instead, we were told to create a pamphlet that informed volunteers of how the process would work at the new Mothers Milk Bank Facility. With less than a month to go before we present the project, we have to quickly design a pamphlet and create a presentation about our process. 

Many of the people on my team (myself included) could be considered “perfectionists”, which can be a blessing or a curse. It tends to mean that we take a lot longer to make things look nice, but we end up with a nice result. Hopefully we’ll be able to use this perfectionist side to our advantage, and with some hard work and extra hours, we’ll be able to create a pamphlet that is both beautiful in design and informative to the new volunteers at the Mothers Milk Bank. It is wonderful to know that our contribution to Mothers Milk Bank will help volunteers produce milk for babies in need, and may actually save lives.