Melissa Miller Reflection

I attended an event which was held at Bowling Green University. The topic of the seminar was "Nine Lives Later: What I've Learned About Getting Stuff Done" which was by Dr. Melissa Miller. Dr. Melissa is an expert on American Politics; her career is full of achievements. Besides, she is an associate professor at Bowling Green State University. Her speech was motivating and enthusiastic, she amazed us by giving her rules for completing our tasks successfully. She used many proofs and examples to prove her points, which I liked the most because her method was exceptional to make her points memorable. The majority of her audience were undergraduate and graduate students, and that made it perfect to give Dr. Miller the opportunity to focus on our demographic.
Dr. Miller is an expert on American Politics, and she is focusing on voting behavior, public opinion, women in the politician field, and politics relation with media. She is an associate professor who teaches in several areas such as political parties
and voter behavior, research methods, women in American politics and American government: processes and structure. She was hosted by famous media interviewers such as CNN, Fox News, The Guardian, and The New York Times. She also worked on several projects, for instance, she did a quantitative-qualitative study of the coverage of newspapers of the presidential campaign of 2008 and its effects on public opinion. She got an A.B from Cornell University with a major on government, and a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University with focusing on the press, furthermore, she got a Ph.D. in Political Science from Northwestern University. She is a fascinating person who would give pieces of advice about doing difficult tasks. The event was a lecture which was held in the Union Theater at the BTSU building on April 4th. In addition, the audience was about 50 people, and most of them were college students. The event was significant for me as a college student because I need the advice to improve my ability to finish my homework and my daily tasks, not to mention finishing university as I'm preparing to complete my graduate studies.
College Students are the majority of the audience in the lecture, and that can be justified by the need for mentoring which those people need. In my experience, I was a student at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia; I studied there for a year. That year was the most challenging year that I have experienced. I couldn’t survive that year, and one of the causes that lead me to struggle was that I couldn't find someone who can guide me through the difficulties and teach me how to organize myself and be a successful student. I'm sure that 80% of the audience came voluntarily to learn essential tips that may guide them through there struggles. The other minority were seniors who came to learn from Dr. Melissa and get benefits of here experience.
The lecture is consisting of three main points, and the main points were stated as an essential three tips to get work done. Starting with the first primary tip which is as said by Dr. Miller "Use What's at Hand." She gave more than an example to clarify her meaning and support her point. Her illustrations were appropriate, but they weren't useful because they weren't challenging or surprising at least for me, but the use of the stories she mentioned for this main point was enough to use. She needs to have other stories to support this point, and I'm sure she has great stories to use.
The second point was "Start the Caffeine drip" which was mainly about butting the hours and working hard on your projects or tasks. Dr. Miller evidence was a story about a job she had as a political consultant in Manhattan in the early 90's after she got her master's degree. She did a lot of tasks for that jobs. She described it as a "nightmare" because she was working six to seven days a week to finish up their campaigns and poling. She built a relationship with a co-worker there, and they became regular customers for a bagel shop, and she said that she and her friend were playing a game at that shop which was called "what would it take to get you to stay" and they were throwing out dollar amounts. And they ask each other "would you stay for another year at this job for a $1.5 million dollar, and they were answering with no, it's imposable. She described that they were in a miserable situation at that job. But doing that job made them realize that drinking coffee and working hard and butting the hours will make them finish any task that they face in their lives. She also mentioned an example about her graduate school and how she struggled to complete her study. Dr. Miller gave exceptional cases, they were appropriate, effective and ethical. She thoroughly explained how to ignore all the facts about how your task is hard to do, or impossible and but the right time; therefore you will indeed finish it.
Finally, the third point which she called "phone a friend." That point was what I liked the most because it included another active element which is other people. She used great examples for that point. One of them was that she needed to succeed in Astronomy 101, and her friend from the sorority helped her to pass the course. Her example was fascinating; she made me realize that I must help my friends when they need help, and use others help when I find difficulties with my projects or my work. Her point was appropriate, practical, and accurate.
The speaker used many methods and techniques that were mentioned in the e-book.
For instance, she used humor frequently, and it affected me and gave her a privilege to convenes us to follow her advice. The book advice in chapter 4 section 2 that a public speaker should use humor to make it easier for delivering her/his message. Another point I want to make relating to the e-book which is that Dr. Miller did like the book stated in chapter 6 section1 which is the audience analysis. Her topic was targeting her audience, and that means that she knew what evidence she should use, for instance, when she gave us the example for her Astronomy class which is a reality that we are facing at this point of our lives. The lecture was excellent even though I didn't like it at the beginning, but overall it was great and exciting. The speaker was beneficial and knew what she is doing, she took some time for reviewing her notes, but that didn't distract the lecture, so it was
okay.
The lecture was useful for us because it was targeting us as students who are struggling at this stage of our lives. I learned that using what's at hand, using the help of a friend, and putting the time and the effort on something will make me finish it successfully. The points were clear, and the examples were suitable, except for the first one, it wasn't effective, but overall the speech was something essential to recall every day. That was the first lecture that I attend outside the walls of a classroom, and it was a great experience. I will do it again, and I hope that next time will be fun as Dr. Miller was.