What was it like traveling to Palau?
Traveling to Palau was a great experience, mainly because of what we were doing in Palau. Being able to go across the world and look for Mia’s was a great experience. Being on a team with a mission that is so important to us and a lot more people was a such a great experience. Also going to Palau made me realize that there are a lot more MIA’s out there than I realize.This trip was a once in a lifetime thing, I got to see new places and meet a bunch of great new people. Going to Palau also gave us real world experience. We got to take what we have learned in the class room and apply it to a real world setting and when something went wrong, we had to fix it to get the job done.
What was the biggest challenge you or your team faced and how was it handled?
The biggest challenge for us in Palau was keeping all of our stuff organized, whether it was our video footage or our tools that we kept in the footlockers. I’m pretty sure that everyone had to go back to the hotel at some point during the trip because we forgot a tool , camera battery or some other tool. It was just because we were not organized as well as we could have been.
What was the most memorable part of the trip?
I’d say that the most memorable part of the trip was being able to tour Peleliu. It was memorable for me because we got to see all of the damage and remains from the war. We were standing where people had died, and to be able to be where the soldiers had to go and hear about the things that they had to do was incredible. It gave me a different perspective on the whole island.
Do you feel the trip was a success, why?
I do feel that the trip was a success, the mission was to fund raise the money and go to Palau and search for MIA’s using the images that Bentprop and that was what we did. We didn't find anything, but we did make it so Bentprop knew where not to look. The robot also was functioning 30 meters deep in the ocean.
What is the one thing you will remember the most from the trip?
The thing that I will remember the most from the trip will be snorkeling over the planes, coral reefs, and in jelly fish lake. Jelly fish lake was probably the one I remember the most because that was so unique. Being able to swim with thousands of jelly fish was amazing because I've never heard of another place that anyone could go and do this.
If you could do it again would you? Why?
I would definitely do it again because this trip and being in this class has prepared us for life after school, more than any other class that I've ever taken. We learn to depend on ourselves and to take responsibility for our actions. We have raise money, build and tweak a robot so that way it functions correctly deep in the ocean. This trip gave us real work experience and we got to kind of see how a real job would be. When our stuff broke we couldn't complain, we had to fix the problem and get back to work as soon as possible.
What did you learn about yourself on this trip?
I learned that not everything goes as plan, equipment breaks and some things don’t work out but I learned that me and the whole group could bounce back and figure things out. I didn't just give up. We found out what we were capable of really, once we got past the first obstacle we realized that we could solve any problem.
How do you feel this experience will help you in the future?
I feel that this experience will help me in the future because going to Palau was really like a job, we were out on a boat for twelve hours a day and then when we got back to the hotel we had to address the problems that we had on the boat so we didn't repeat them the next day. This trip taught us to learn from our mistakes and it taught us to be adaptable, if something was going wrong on the boat we would try to a just to the situation at hand and try to move forward before we just called it a day and went back to the dock. I think that when I’m faced a situation like this in the future, I will be able to handle it instead of roll over and quit.
What should we do differently the next time?
The only thing that I think should be done differently is have more of a system of organization for both teams. It would have made things a lot easier if we new exactly where things were located and could access them easily. Something else is maybe have us more involved with Bentprop, and know more about what they were doing from day to day.
Skeeter Ballagh, Senior
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