Group Process

Lauren Kessler

3-2-08

WMST250 Sec. 0108

For assignment two, we were asked to illustrate a collective definition of feminism within our discussion groups. As a whole, our section worked together very efficiently and creatively with equal effort of and representation by each individual in the group. Conversation was easily stimulated within the group and brainstorming for ideas was a natural and effective process with each person doing their best to participate and share their ideas. Some spoke more than others, as some are naturally more quiet or timid to express their opinions, but everyone was involved whether they were talking a lot or just listening and thinking. Some were more aggressive than others in influencing group decision, but everything seemed to be harmonious as a whole. I personally took care of editing and revising the ideas we drafted for the flyer. I re-designed the layout for the flyer and finalized what the group and Delilah particularly brainstormed for it. Delilah also had a part in defining feminism for the group and recording during meetings. Andria thought to create an outside event and a movie, and contributed to the definition. Alicia thought to include food in the event, and ideated including men and their contribution to feminism. Daniel brought up the idea of Title IX and stimulated conversation. Krysten decided our event should include a co-ed baseball game, which was the focus of our flyer. Rosemond contributed to the definition and idea of feminism. Rhea helped develop the definition as well, and decided the game should be played at Shipley Field and provided a map. Anne was in charge of writing the detailed description of the event and its intended audience. Brenda helped with the definition of feminism. Everyone contributed to the overall discussion and helped to stimulate conversation and brainstorming in one way or another. The group functioned very well, allowing us to successfully and thoroughly complete the requirements of the assignment.

Evaluation....

For our group assignment most of the group work was done during the discussion session that was given to us to accommodate time for our group to get together and work on this assignment. Our group was fairly on track and very easy to work with. The discussion began when Delilah Khalaf took charge of the discussion and took out her laptop to begin recording ideas from everyone as they came. As everyone threw in ideas she organized them and then with that came up with the overall definition of what our group thought feminism was. Alicia Misci helped come up with the idea that men should also be included in this event and there should also be a focus on their contribution to feminism and contributed to the overall discussion. She also threw in the idea that this event should have food. Daniel Kelly brought the conversation and spotlight on the issue of the Title IX legislature and contributed to the overall discussion. Krysten Eshelmann contributed to the overall discussion and came up with the idea of the co-end baseball game. Andria Bowman came up with the idea of an outside event and the movie event. She also contributed to the definition of feminism and the overall discussion. Rosemond Boateng contributed to the overall definition and idea of feminism and also contributed to the overall discussion. Rhea Torreon supplied to the definition and idea of feminism and the overall discussion. Lauren Kessler took charge and helped edit and finalize the flyer, making it look very professional and nice however, she never sent the final flyer to the rest of the group. Brenda Njinjoh helped with the definition of Feminism and also contributed her ideas to the overall discussion. I composed the detailed description of the event and also contributed to the overall discussion and the definition of feminism.

Description of the Event

WMST250 Discussion Group 0108
Anne Zhao, Andria Bowman, Alicia Misci, Daniel Kelly, Krysten Eshelman, Delilah Khalaf, Rosemond Boateng, Rhea Torreon, Lauren Kessler, and Benda Njinjoh.



TERPS for WOMEN and SPORTS is an active on-campus organization that focuses on feminism in relation to sports. They are hosting a Co-Ed Baseball Game on Saturday, March 15, 2008 from 5pm to 10pm, hosted at the Shipley Field at the University of Maryland College Park Campus, followed by a free showing of A League of Their Own, a movie featuring Tom Hanks, Gina Davis and Madonna about an All Women Baseball team in World War II. The purpose of both the baseball game and the movie are to spread the awareness of Title IX, a bill passed on 1975, that states “No Person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”. This bill has caused a lot of controversy because a lot of male sportsmen do not believe that sports teams like tennis should be cut so women can also play in sports. As we know feminism is a practice of cultural and social equality between genders in society. By using baseball as the focus, we will work towards breaking the barriers between the images of women in the sports.
This particular event is aimed women and particularly men who do not have awareness for women’s rights and the feminist movement, more specifically the title IX Legislation. Fliers for this event will not only be distributed within the University of Maryland but also at local high schools, churches, libraries and even office buildings, in order to have a more diverse outcome.

Group Project

To broaden our knowledge about feminism participating in a group discussion was very useful. Through a group discussion, it enabled each member to speak from a different perspective and teach other members possible something they did not know. Participating in groups is something that I’m familiar with ever since my early years as a student. But unlike previous group participations, the feminism group participation was different because it was my first time communicating with all of the members that I really didn’t know. Yet, overall, we had a great discussion about feminism and learned a great deal about the concept through communicating and expressing our thoughts. In the beginning, because we weren’t familiar with each other, speaking out was a something that each member did not really do. In addition, we understood what it is we were suppose to do but felt unsure about how we would be able to form a definition about feminism. At the end our group came up with a fantastic idea that in order to help others in the community to learn about feminism, our organization, Terps for Women, would sponser an activity on campus dealing with feminism in relation to sport. The event includes both a movie and a baseball in hopes of spreading awareness about Title IX. This event is intended to be both a social and educational for those who participate. Although we came up with a great event, at the beginning it was not so easy. Each group member had ideas that they brought up and I think the fact each group member participated lead to the creation of the final event. During our group discussion I mentioned that we could spread awareness outside of the country because there are so many conflicts dealing with women all over the world. Andra Bowman said we could do something about girls in South Africa and the Always commercial. She was the one who decided that a social, outdoor event could be a great way to reach out to people. Then Daniel Kelly talked about title IX and how it affects females who participate in sports. During the discussion Delilah recorded our thoughts and ideas and helped the group they on focus. Krysten Eshelman mentioned Idea of the co-ed baseball game during the event as a way to attract more people to come. Rhea Torreon helped in the development of the definition and said since it would be great if the event took place at the Shipley Field. Alicia Misci said the event we should have free food to attract more participants. In addition Rosemond Boateng and Anne Zhao contributed to the overall discussion and gave great suggestions about the project. Lauren Kessler contributed to the group by editing the flyer and decorating it. Overall I think the discussion was great, everyone cooperated well and were able to accomplish what was intend which was coming up with a definition of feminism and planning and event to spread awareness about the concept.

Group Analysis Paper

Personal Analysis of Group Work

In working with my discussion section, I was surprised by what I had discovered about our strengths in working as a group. Before beginning, I had assumed that it would be difficult to start discussion or find a common ground between all of us. But after Delilah Khalaf and I had sparked a bit of conversation, everyone began participating and giving their ideas on what feminism was and how we could apply that to an event open to anyone. Even Daniel Kelly, the only boy in our discussion section and someone not interested in Women's Studies, was involved. It was a very productive session because everyone contributed their ideas and gave our event a feel of organization and unison work commitment.

Before concentrating upon the actual event, we determined that it would be most helpful to determine our collective definition of the word feminism. This conversation instigated so many different ideas that we brought together to begin organizing our event to promote it. We each said one word that we thought of when we were expressed the idea of feminism. Each word reminded us of social issues and injustice in many fields for women. After putting everyone's ideas together I came up with the thought that feminism, to our group, was a practice of cultural and social equality between genders in society. After expressing this to the group, they all agreed in using that as our definition. We also determined that after expressing that on our event flyer we would elaborate how this definition would relate to our event through the ideas and causes we would be promoting to the students at UMCP through an outdoor baseball game and an outdoor screening of A League of Their Own.
After finalizing what our group determined to be the definition of feminism, we began brainstorming ideas for what we could do to promote feminism, through this event, for both sexes. In deciding who did what exactly, everyone did participate in discussion, but specifics are as follows. Alicia Misci presented ideas about involving not just women but men also, as well as becoming involved with the discussion of the event and what feminism's definition was, as well as the presence and importance of food at our event. Daniel Kelly suggested involving the Title IX law which helped to ground equality for women in all sports, he was also apart of the overall discussion and determination of feminism's definition. Krysten Eshelman was partially involved with the idea of a co-ed baseball game to promote equality and its presence at College Park. Delilah Khalaf recorded information we discussed and determined together as a group, created a rough draft of our flyer while we discussed our ideas, and she was heavily involved with the discussion overall. Rosemond Boateng was involved with Daniel's thoughts on Title IX and the discussion overall in determining what feminism was and how it would relate to our co-ed baseball game. Rhea Torreon gave her ideas on where the game should be located as well as the outdoor screening providing a campus map to discuss convenience and how the location might grab attention. Anne Zhao was heavily involved with the determination of the definition and discussion but she will mainly be responsible for composing our group's detailed description of our event and meanings of feminism determined to fit. Lauren Kessler had attended discussion for the first time on the day that we had talked about our group project. I feel as though she did not involve herself at all except when she asked what she could do to save her grade. As a group we decided that she will be responsible for finalizing the flyer and editing the details to fit our event and definition for a final draft. Brenda Njinjoh presented a lot of ideas to the group before we had determined should be our main cause for the event. I determined the rough definition of feminism, the idea of an outside event to bring everyone together, the movie, and I was profoundly participated in discussion and idea sharing.

I felt as though everyone indeed was involved but that the three of us were producing the most in terms of this actual discussion group. I believe that, in the culmination of this project, we all did our part to complete the assignment fully and properly. Our idea of a baseball game and outdoor movie screening had a unique feel to it regarding the detail we placed into the event itself. In critiquing our work together, I believe we did a great job incorporating both sexes and feminism into a constructive idea that would present feminism and what it really is versus what society has us thinking that it is.

Group Assignment

We began our assignment by coming together as a group and discussing the idea of feminism. Everyone seemed to have a slightly different idea of what the word feminism meant to each of us. To many, feminism meant equality and to others feminism meant community. However, we all managed to combine our thoughts and beliefs to establish a workable definition of the word. We all listened to each other’s opinions and ideas, ultimately combining and eliminating certain aspects until we all agreed. Everyone played a different yet significant role in contributing to the final outcome of this project. Andria Bowman, Rhea Torreon, Rosemond Boateng, and Brenda Njinjoh helped formulate our final definition of feminism. Andria, Alicia Misci and Krysten Eshelman came up with idea of our actual Feminist event, a co-ed baseball game and movie relating to an one particular aspect of feminism. Once the idea was established, we all contributed to the discussion, composing a detailed description of our event and all that we wanted incorporated to promote a better understanding of feminism. We decided to focus our definition of feminism on the idea of women in sports. Once we chose to relate feminism to sports, Daniel Kelly contributed the idea of stating Title IX, which we clearly detailed on our flyer. Title IX was established in 1972 and clearly states that no person, based on their sex should be excluded from the participation in activities, including sports. Including this aspect in our project was very important. It allowed us to pinpoint our definition of feminism to one particular aspect that we believed to be of great importance. I also contributed in various ways to help our group. Throughout our discussion, I chose to contribute by looking up actual definitions, adding details to the actual event and recording our ideas throughout the discussion. It was much easier to form our flyer, using my laptop during our discussion so that we could contribute as a group to the format and details of our flyer. Once we had a rough draft of our flyer, Lauren Kessler was assigned to review and edit our flyer. She formatted and added details, allowing for a more appealing final product. Anne Zhao took the role of putting together our final description of the event, which was necessary to hand in. All in all, I believe my group was successful in producing a final outcome. Though we did have a few minor altercations, we managed to come to agreement and settle for what we thought was best in portraying our beliefs as a group.

A Definition of Feminism

Rosemond Boateng
WMST250 section: 0108
Professor King
March 03, 2008

As my section and I considered the definition of Feminism we found out that it meant different things to different people. To some people it meant equality, to others it meant community. We decided that the best way to create a definition that each individual liked was to combine all our ideas about feminism together. Our group’s definition became: feminism is a set of practices of cultural and social equality between genders in society. Next on our to-do list was the flyer.
We had several great ideas about what should go on the flyer. We decided to do an imaginary event because we would be able to adjust it to whatever we wanted. I helped in coming up with the definition of feminism. Andria came up with the idea that we should have an outdoor movie. Daniel had the perfect movie in mind: Title nine. I had not heard of title nine prior to our discussion of it so I definitely enjoyed the brief history lesson. Krysten added the idea of having a co-ed baseball game before the movie since the sport played in the movie was baseball. We decided to make the teams co-ed because we wanted our event to include men. We did not want the event to be a feminist event with no men. Rhea had the perfect field for our baseball game; Shipley Field. This field was perfect because it was available for the date we had created. Alicia knew that college students are always hungry so she decided free food at the event would also attract more people. Delilah was an amazing secretary. She created the flyer as we threw our ideas out there. Anne did an outstanding job on the event description. It was detailed, precise and very well written. Lauren was our editor. She made the flyer look presentable. I thought she would e-mail us the final copy before class since we all have to present the flyer and our event on Tuesday. I think she did a good job on it. Brenda had an idea about making the event a fundraiser to raise money for some feminist issues in the developing world. We took Ana’s advise about making the event restricted to the US because there were a lot of issues about feminism going on in the developing world. We all participated actively in the discussion on what our flyer should look like and what the definition of feminism should mean for the group.
While participating in the group’s discussion about feminism and the development of the event flyer I learnt about what other people thought feminism really was. I realized that your background and previous experiences with feminism either consciously or unconsciously changed your views about feminism. I also learned that by doing something in a group, more opinions are added to the final product which makes it better and more effective in delivering the message than if one person did it.

Deep Thoughts With Dan

The purpose of assignment two was to formulate and organize a fictions feminist event. As a group we were required to create a leaflet that outlined the event and presented a clear definition of what feminism means to our group. This assignment challenged our groups ability to formulate a feminist definition, work together in an efficient manner, and apply our feminist definition to a “real” world example.

I view assignment two as a stepping stone towards a larger purpose. This class has not yet defined feminism and I assume it never will. The larger idea is that feminism can be defined on numerous levels, there is no right or wrong way to define this way of thinking. But let me rephrase my prior sentence, I believe there is an axiom characteristic existing in feminist thought, the presence of women. Feminist thought can not be feminist thought without this prior truth, feminism is then built upon this truth taking different social, political, and cultural shapes.

This assignment is also meant to improve interpersonal communication skills. This assignment places us in two distinct interpersonal situations, the group stage and speaking in front of an audience. Group projects always seem to carry a negative connotation, but being able to effectively communicate in a group setting is a very important social characteristic, and individual strengthens and weaknesses lie latent until an exercise such as assignment two forces interaction.

This is the part of the assignment I am having a difficult time with. On one hand we are suppose to give an honest critique based on group effort and behavior, but these opinions are to be posted on a public forum, curbing my ability to give an honest overview. The second flaw I have with this part of the assignment is the lack of overall group time, in less than fifty minutes we were able to formulate and decide on a plan of action. Assignment two was very straightforward, define feminism and create a logical event based on your definition. In a class of ten students it is unfair to assume that each person will be able to contribute effectively to the overall flow of two part assignment.

The directions ask for a printed account on what each person contributed to the group. I will not be following these directions and instead I will highlight three group members that I felt contributed the most.


Before I start I will pat myself on the back.

During group think-tank I voiced my opinion and contributed to the groups definition on feminism. I was also able to apply a feminist topic based on an event idea by another student. I felt the introduction of Title IX into our event was both creative and brilliant. I have a strong inclination that our event will stand out from other discussion groups.

An important role in any group environment is the presence of an active group leader. Delilah took the this role and tried to get a definition of feminism out of the group. She was able to record any ideas and organized what we were trying to convey very effectively. She played a strong role in group discussion in the areas of the definition, event idea, and other banter.

I was impressed with Lauren's initiative towards this project. Since she has been MIA for the past few weeks I respect her willingness to do a bulk of the project. She volunteered to format the leaflet based on the information Delilah had recorded.

Another member of discussion who clearly voiced her opinions and ideas was Andria. She presented multiple ideas for an event and debated how we should define feminism. Her analysis was effective and pushed the progress of our project forward. It was her brainstorming of sports and movies, tat pieced together nicely with my proposal of Title IX awareness.


If I left you out of my analysis it doesn’t mean your opinion and or ideas were overlooked or unimportant. I felt this assignment would of degraded my previous analysis if I had to go through a monotonous process of pointing out a sentence that each member mumbled. By selecting three that stood out I was able to be truthful in my critique and at the same time define a level of participation for others.

Group Analysis- Alicia

Alicia Misci
March 3, 2008

Group Analysis
The second project was a learning experience for most people in my group. I always dread group projects because it is difficult to coordinate schedules with ten other people. However, my group used our class time effectively and was able to complete our assignment in class. We started out brainstorming our personal definitions of feminism. Ana Perez, our group leader, helped to broaden our thoughts and think more in depth. Many people helped with our definition of feminism. After we came up with a rough definition, we decided to start brainstorming for the actual event. In general, everyone contributed to the definition and to the overall discussion. However, the specifics are even more important.
Andria first suggested a picnic or an outdoor type of event. For the most part, everyone agreed with this suggestion. Andria also contributed the idea of showing a moving, A League of Their Own. Daniel then came up with the input of Title IX. Daniel is also very interesting in his thoughts and views about the class in general and he has a way with putting words together, which greatly improved our definition. During this whole ordeal, Delilah was on a Word document making the flyer. She also contributed to suggestions regarding the actual event and that we should have a sign-up sheet for the baseball game. Krysten agreed to try to find a professor that would be “willing to speak at our event,” even though it is not real. She also had the idea of a co-ed baseball game, which turned out to be a great hit among the rest of the group. Rhea then came up with the location of the game, which would be Shipley Field because as a transfer student, she had the school map with her. Anne then volunteered to make the detailed description of the event. Lauren, who had not been to discussion before, was more than willing to be the editor of our flyer and finalize it by adding color and liveliness to it. Although we did not use Brenda’s suggestion of feminism in foreign countries, she added to our conversation on our feminism in the United States. Rosemond was active in the class discussion and helped significantly with our definition of feminism. I voiced my feelings of the importance of making our event more appealing to men and not just women. I also thought of the idea to have food at our event because both men and women would be interested in eating while at a game and gathering. I feel the rest of the group valued my contribution to the project respectably and that I respected everyone else’s opinions as well. Throughout the group discussion, I was actively involved and put my thoughts in where I felt they would be beneficial.
Overall, the group discussion and work went well. We had some disagreements on ideas and specifics, which is to be expected in a group. The definition was difficult to come up with because feminism means something different to everyone. However, we decided on one that included many group members’ ideas. Groups can be annoying when there are too many strong personalities but luckily our group was more balanced. Everyone was willing to compromise and listen to other classmates’ decisions. Personally, I found out a lot about my classmates through their discussion comments and their views on feminism. Conflict within the group was addressed at times with the help of Ana Perez’s input but for the most part we worked disagreements out with each other. We made sure everyone’s input was fairly assessed. Everyone in the group was open to new ideas so no one should have felt scared to voice their opinions. The group project took a lot of time but hopefully our hard work will pay off in the end when we present for the rest of the lecture class.