Reflection 5

Madison Schaefer Professor Michelle Kusel ELPS 223 001 November 6, 2018 Reflection 5: Discovering Your Transferable Skills 1. In high school, I became involved in the Renaissance program, which works to positively impact school climate and culture. Each year, the club attends a national conference and runs information sessions. I had great interest in developing my public speaking skills and decided to apply to attend the conference. Once I got in, I felt nervous as I was a junior who was selected among majority seniors. However, I remained confident and true to myself and ultimately successfully spoke on the national stage. I now have a great passion for public speaking thanks to my experience in Renaissance. 2. I have recently developed interest in the career path of Industrial Organizational Psychology and had been working to find connections in the field. This proved to be more difficult than I imagined as the field is small, but rapidly growing. Thus, I decided to form a relationship with my psychology advisor and professor who eventually gave me a name of an actual I/O Psychologist who does exactly what I would hope to do in my career. We had a phone discussion about his career and potential internship opportunities and now, I am meeting him on Friday to network further. 3. When I studied abroad in the spring, I had the goal of travelling each weekend to new places and countries in the effort to make the most of my abroad experience. I had a decent budget; however, travel was pricier than I had anticipated and I began to watch

my money dwindle. Thus, I decided to budget very closely and keep track of every euro I spent. Once I began to do so, my stress lessened as I felt I had more control over my spending and I was able to remain in my allotted amount to spend, without going over. 4. After coming back from being abroad, although I had stayed in my budget, I did not have much money left to my name. I decided to try to get a second job in order to save back the money I had spent. Although it was difficult to apply for jobs whilst being in another country, I was able to obtain a waitressing job after applying online and having an inperson interview once I arrived home. After working as a waitress over the summer, I learned many invaluable people skills and saved back the money I had spent throughout my time abroad. 5. One of the requirements of being a Peer Advisor is to plan events for my students. I wanted to further engage with them this year so, I decided to put on a “tour of Chicago” event, showing students the main areas of downtown. I was very nervous no one would come, as students typically do not. However, after advertising the event in class and through email, I had seven students show up! I thoroughly enjoyed getting to show them around the city and I was able to develop relationships with those students, which has positively impacted my classes in the long run. 6. Each year since I was born, my family has participated in the St. Jude Run fundraiser. I could not wait to one day partake in the run once I was old enough. The year I turned sixteen, I was finally able to run. Since I am not an extremely well-trained runner, the day was exhausting and difficult however, I kept the cause and the kids in mind to

motivate me to give back to the organization that saved my life. I successfully completed the day and ran a total of five miles for the kids of St. Jude. 7. My freshman year of high school, I was a member of the varsity cheerleading team. The program had lost a lot of girls and talent, leading us to be a rather small squad with not as much ability as before. However, our coach worked with what we had and never lost faith. She built us up to be the best team we could be, and we worked as hard as we could in hopes of qualifying for the state competition. By the end of the season, we became a team with great talent and passion, which lead us to making it to state.