My character
So to get a better look into refugees we were given a partner and a certain person to research an article about. I was first given a character that was relatively blank he did not give out any personal details at all, not even a name. I did research on him and he was pretty basic not really anything any other refugees story did not have in it. He did have a very interesting way of telling his story as he gave insane amount of description and detail to each thing he talked about but it was never enough to really make his story a highlight of the other ones we read. So being my character was pretty much a nobody I ended up not doing a event sequence as it was nothing really interesting because it seemed like a generic story.
This is the most impactful piece of work to me. This sheet did not change my life, and it is not the sheet that I put the most work into. However it is the piece that made me think about this situation in a whole different light. You had people from different religions different ethnicities, completely different people in almost every way imaginable. Yet they all chased the same thing and all had struggles and hardships in their own way might it be losing a family member leaving their jobs and lives behind them in search of a newer more safer one. Everybody in the video we watch had something to say something they were working towards and all had a story to tell. After watching the video and completing the questions about it I soon understood that I actually genuinely cared about these people, people I had never met before. It was crazy for this to happen but it did and I will say it did positively change my opinion and thoughts on this project as it did make me want to raise more awareness.
Seven Simulations in 1 day
This day was filled with work, I am not talking about a decent sized packet. I was in shock looking at 17 page document that was due by the end of class. It was actually a little bit more simpler than that however, we went through a few different things, we first played through 3 refugee games getting a feel and vibe how it might be with having basically almost no say in anything you do and being locked down. Then we moved to reading some articles and so on, we finished with some paperwork which was more or less looking at what refugees characters might be and what there background and current details might look like. The video games for sure stuck out to me being that we got to actually get involved and see what a refugee might come in contact with as far as decisions and choices, as well as got a good look into what kind of ruthless things can happen to someone if they make the wrong choice.
Station research document |
Here is the station research document, here is what my group being the UNHCR did and the research we got done as well as what we overall covered. The blue text in the document is mine
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and as you can see I covered some of the questions and gave my personal answers and of course factual answers some from articles and some from the UNHCR website it self. I also looked into what refugees might need as far as documentation, mostly looking at what they need if they would like to seek asylum and the things they will need to legally be transferred and put into another country.
This is a document can be found here,it is based really off of what we wanted our station to look like, function, and overall perform. I gathered pretty much all the photos seen in the document as well as answered a few of the questions.
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This document compared to our actual simulation is honestly very different. Firstly I was no security guard like the document makes it out to be, I actually turned out to be just a normal journalist. However the huge difference is that we did not even remain the UNHCR, instead we turned into a debrief room, so we would ask them questions and get information on how they felt about the simulation and get a better insight on how it worked for each person and how each person reacted. It was pretty interesting to see different peoples opinions on it! I would say although we did not end up being anything like our vision doc makes it out to be I feel like it turned out for the better.
Station design document
This document pretty much describes how our station would work its in my opinion a more finalized version of the station vision document. I did a scenario which I described what would happen if you were rejected and sent to Serbia. My character I choose to be was a fairly basic male reporter, named Fidel. My outfit was pretty lack luster to be honest. I felt like a suit was to much so I put down just a little bit more upper dressed because it would not make sense for me to be wearing super fancy clothing in a place where I am talking to refugees. Our design was pretty different from when we first started this document to when we actually did the simulation. Firstly we were the UNHCR when we did the simulation we were broken down into a debrief room instead of handling where and how refugees would get split up we would be asking people clarifying questions on the refugee experince.
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This play test was honestly the most forgettable of out all of the ones we did it is obvious that this one had the most errors and the most issues. However from what this was to when we did our final play through is like night and day. We fixed everything that didn't work and made new things work that we did not even think of at the time. |
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Final Play Test
This was the last "play test" before the official unveil of our simulations during festival. We did this to our peers (sophomores) so it was different as we would be acting in front of our friends, not teachers or lower class men. This one was definitely different for most groups as they were really pushed in their acting abilities to go further then we had previously I remember a lot of them being impressed with the acting they had seen and most had already known about refugees but them having a more hands on experience really showed them what they go through. Most people seemed to have been impacted by this very few were uninformed or did not care about the situation afterwards.
Essay Quiz
The essay we were given felt a little bit out of no where if I am honest. We were told about it to get ready but it still felt a little random. With that said I decided to write a story about a young boy witnessing his family get murdered directly in front of him, then follow him through the rest of the night after this as far as his next footsteps after what he had saw and what he had gone through. I thought I did a great job on this despite the limited amount of time.
The Real Simulation
This was what we all were working to. This was it we had spent almost 3 months working to this day. It started out smooth no issues was happening, there was not real students or teachers instead it seemed like most of the people going in were parents. I could immediately feel the difference in the vibe of everything. Everything felt so much real, everybody took this very seriously and you could just see the amount of work we put into this over the weeks. I would be lying if I said this day didn't push me to learn even more about the refugees. I had already knew more then most people and more then most of the other students but seeing peoples expressions going through the simulation, made me want to dive even deeper than I already have. This project taught me that even though they're multiple situations going on across the globe from you, you can still get informed and inform others on the matter.