Work as a team, win as a team 团队合作，团队胜利

浦彩吉

薩曼莎在读大一期间参加了学校的一个创新及研究体验的项目，并通过这次经历体会到团队协作的重要性。

Coming into the freshman year at Paul College， Samantha was overwhelmed by the large number of students in the business school compared to her small high school graduating class of only 200 students. In high school， it was never hard for her to stand out from her peers and it was comforting being in an environment where she knew everybody she went to school with. When she arrived at UNH， she knew her experience here would be very different. At first， she was concerned about her ability as an individual to make a difference on such a large community. Luckily， each first-year student in Paul College attends what is called the First-year Innovation and Research Experience， known as the FIRE Program， where she was able to make invaluable connections with her fellow students.

The biggest highlight of her freshman year was working alongside her FIRE team on a Grand Challenge Project， in which every FIRE team competed against one another in the Undergraduate Research Conference（URC）. Each team had to create a unique product that addressed one of the five following real-world issues： “Water is Life”， “Food”， “Threats from Cyberspace”， “Medical Breakthroughs”， and “Active Society”. Her team addressed the growing issue of “Active Society”. Doing research， collecting facts and organizing discussions or even debates were a huge amount of work before they went to compete against other teams.

After weeks of preparation， all their efforts paid off at the Undergraduate Research Conference. Samantha and her fellow four presenters earned a spot in the final round of the conference， where they competed against the top team from each of the other Grand Challenge groups.  They were so proud of themselves for even moving on to the final round， especially after seeing how impressive the presentations of the other teams were. They were so overcome with pride when they were finally announced as the overall first place team at the URC！

Even almost a month later， the amazing feeling of having her team's hard work pay off has not subsided. If it weren't for her group's determination， excellent teamwork and their awesome peer advisor Hayley， they would not have been able to accomplish everything they did. This experience would be instrumental in her future.

Reading check

1. What do we know about Samantha from paragraph 1？

A. She lacked confidence in her leadership.

B. The FIRE Program had a good effect on her.