Unconventionality

      My freshman year, we read a book called “A Curious Mind: A Secret to a Bigger Life“ by Brian Grazer, director of many famous Hollywood movies like The Davinci Code, Apollo 13, and even How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  He is good at what he does because he holds what he called “curiosity conversations:” meetings in which he sits down with someone who he finds interesting and asks questions that offer him insight into their thinking. For him, this unusual idea to meet strangers and learn about their lives was what contributed to his success in making movies. From this book, I learned that finding a way to discover information is different for everyone, but it is the daring and unexpected ways of learning that benefits us the most. Unconventionality can create a gateway into a new way of thinking as well as create added perspectives. In my experiences contributing to my Graduation Leadership Distinction pathway of professional and civic engagement, I have come to learn that thinking outside of the box can be exactly what you need to open your mind to new ways of thinking. This is something that can be of great aid when working with others or making decisions since we often have to come up with unusual ways of solving problems. 

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        One of the courses I took while studying abroad in Paris was FASH 220, Luxury Retail Branding, and during this class we discussed the idea of branding a one of a kind product experience. One concept that we discussed was that all brands that are associated with prestige have one thing in common: their uniqueness. Brands are constantly looking for ways to break the boundaries of what is expected in order to present themselves to consumers in a way that is unlike anything they have seen before and will offer them an experience that is individualized and therefore special. This class encouraged constant consideration of what it takes to create an experience for consumers that stands out from competition. We had the opportunity to visit an exhibit on the history of Dior, which is a brand that is unmatched and remains timeless through the eyes of consumers even though it was founded over 70 years ago. Dior can be recognized by many purely because of its uniqueness and high regard for the idea of standing out. 

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        The concept of forming an image of unparalleled quality in a consumer's mind is something that I saw first-hand at the Masters Golf Tournament which I had the opportunity to work. During the week, there was an older gentleman who was there for the first time at the age of sixty. Since tickets to the Masters Tournament are typically hard to come by, this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. He was full of excitement at the fact that he was finally fulfilling his lifelong dream to see this world class event and told me that he couldn’t be more thankful for how special all of the employees made the experience for him. This sparked my interest in how Augusta National does such a great job of making this experience special for its patrons and maintains an association with prestige in their minds. Augusta National holds to their motto of “a tradition like no other” which shows in their carefully crafted plan to make each and every patron feel welcome to the point where they associate the Masters Tournament with being a unique experience truly like no other. During my experience at the Masters, I had the chance to hear a speaker who works in club operations. He previously worked at the Olympics and has a vast knowledge of working at world class events.  Artifact 1is a reflection of his speech in which I explain the importance of making a memorable experience for the patrons that attend this unique, and for many, once in a lifetime event. Having the opportunity to use my knowledge of luxury brands contributed to making this guest’s experience all the more memorable. As I move forward in a retail career, I know that I possess the knowledge to understand factors that add to consumers’ experiences and how they perceive these because of the course information and experience that I had at the Masters.

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        Another unique experience I had while taking courses abroad was when I was assigned a group project during FASH 100, History of Fashion, in which I was grouped with two others, all of us from different countries. One of the things that was highlighted during this course was the importance of doing the unexpected within fashion. Our group pairings were an intentional decision by our professor because she wanted us to understand how to work with a diverse group as this is something that will frequently occur in our careers. This was something I had never encountered before, and I learned that we all had very different ways of doing things. We had to learn to work through and come up with different ways of getting the work done that fit all of our skills. One thing that we did often was get together as a group – not to work on the project, but to understand how we all worked in a more social setting, as simple as getting coffee, before beginning any work. This way of working is unusual for Americans, as we are usually just looking to get the work done. I learned to recognize our differences and discovered that there is a great benefit in getting to know your project members on a personal level prior to completing the project to understand how they work. Understanding and recognizing cultural differences takes much exploration and there was a lot of finding balance that we had to do in order to create an effective project, but this opened my eyes to different ways of task completion: working as a whole rather than dividing and conquering. The presentation we completed ended up being a good mix because of the different information we all possessed. For instance, one of our group members was French and therefore had much more knowledge about our topic of fashion during the French Revolution. Since I did not grow up learning about this, I was able to add more about the interpretation of her knowledge. Artifact 2 is the PowerPoint presentation that our group completed and presented. You can see that some of the slides are more factual and some are more interpretive, based on who created the slides. Although the project did not go how it would have had I been in a group with all Americans, I learned a great deal about having to complete work in a new way. 

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        Having to come up with unexpected ways to complete work is something that I used during my time as a peer leader for University 101. I found that often times the unconventional activities that we did were the classes that students benefited from the most. There was one class that fell during a busy week for most of the students that we decided to take time to go to the meditation center in the health center. We did not learn any factual information during this class, but I had multiple students come to me after to tell me that not doing anything during our class helped them because their mind wasn't foggy with stress. Although this may have been a different way of looking at health, it was important to focus on the mental health of our class during a busy week. Presenting our U101 class with the idea of thinking outside of the box was something that was important for me to share because it was one of the standout elements that I learned in my U101 class my freshman year. Creating a strong foundation of unvoncentional thinking will be something that the students benefit from moving forward.

 

       An unconventional idea can spark interest in a new topic, encourage a new perspective, or create value in other people's minds. Unconventional moments that we experience are what contribute to our learning and make us more curious people.