Today I was in the single best presentation that I have seen in my time in GSD. In the reviews of last semester, I saw that presentations in GSD world can be divided in two. The architects (and maybe I should include landscape architects) have the most amazing graphics, models and maps. But they are usually not very good presenters and their reviewers usually steal the show with the discussion between them. The planners are, at least in my cohort, awesome presenters, possibly because of the diverse background they have, but of course the graphics can’t compare to those of an experienced designer. Today I saw a presentation that hit both notes in a remarkable way and made me just start writing in order to extract the impression out of my head. It was the presentation of the Mexican Cities Initiative fellows, a group of students from GSD that was awarded a grant to do research in a city of Mexico during the summer. I am not sure yet whether I will apply this year, so I thought I should go and hear. The topics didn’t sound that appealing to me (education, waste management among them) and I even thought of going to another talk about the planning of a city in North Korea instead. What a mistake I would have committed. The second of the groups presenting made a research about the people that take part in the waste management chain of Mexico City. The minute that Cinthya started talking I could immediately tell how smart the girl was. Despite of having a script in her hand you could tell how she was thinking and meaning absolutely everything she said. I thought it was only her the interesting part of the presentation but, once the other members of the group started talking, it was evident that this group had put their soul in the project. You could even see a knowing smile in their faces when they spoke about the interviews and the places they visited. It was their drawings, their graphics, their color palette, the website they launched, the video they produced, the products they bought and, of course, the insightfulness and comprehensiveness of their content. By the time they finished the presentation I was wanting to stand up and clap and a friend of mine sitting next to me had tears in her eyes. The reviewers had almost only words of praise. This is the kind of things that work as a fuel to learn, produce and share as crazy in a university environment. Here some information about them: https://research.gsd.harvard.edu/mci/portfolio/2017-fellows/