Presentations at the Macaulay Honors center was quite an adventure. It is always exhilaration (or slightly nerve racking) to orally present a topic to a live audience, but it is especially exciting to present to colleagues and peers. I think that fact that we presented to others in the Macaulay Honors College upped the anty in further. This experience allows you to see what other Macaulay classes are really like, and how have other been taking advantage of their seminars.

I felt like overall our group presented well. We were the last group to present, so it goes without saying that they saved the best for last. I felt that our group had a firm grasp on the subject matter that we were presenting, and delivered our points in a clean, concise manner. We all spoke fairly well, and used a sufficient amount of body and hand gestures to animate the presentation, and accentuate specific points. Another testament to our preparedness and thoroughness, was the fact that we were constantly asked to speed up the presentation as our time limit was growing nearer. In the end, we went well over our allotted time.

I also felt that the whole experience was run rather nicely. The professor in charge was extremely nice and insightfully. While after each presentation during the question answer session students generally answered a good some good questions, the professor was always there to ask really inquisitive and engaging questions. In addition, all the other groups were very respectful and a proper decorum was met while group’s presented.

One of the major things I noticed between our group’s presentation and the others was the contrast in the direction of the presentation. While our group presented a thesis and an issue to be analyzed with a certain urban development (the Hudson Yards) it seemed like the other groups just summarized what was happening to their respective projects. While they were all very thorough and well done, it does not seem like most of the groups had any specific thesis in mind. In fact, most of the presentations were reminiscent of our earlier assignment.

One groups which I was actually impressed with was a group which who presented on Willets Point. This group, unlike most others, had a specific goal in mind. They wanted assay the public opinion for or against the newly announced Willets Point project. They analysis what led to specific public perceptions about the project, and why certain social groups either had a favorable or negative view on the development. The group really a had a strong centralized thesis which they developed well very. This I believed greatly strengthened their presentation overall.