My goals for the class: 1. I hope to learn more about the ins and the outs of being a professor. For example, meeting with students, planning lessons, etc. 2. I hope to meet the students and teach them about the honors program. 3. Gain a new perspective about the honors program.
These are fairly broad goals because I hope to evolve and change my goals as the semester goes on. I think ultimately, I hope to meet new students and help them learn more about UHP!
8/22
I was so nervous for the very first class. I had no idea what to expect or how the students would be. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that all the students were very outgoing, willing to learn and ask questions. I think, for now, my goals have stayed basically the same. The class was more of an introduction, so I think as the class develops my goals might change! When I first started the class, I hoped to learn more about the planning, but after being in the first class, I would really like to get to know the students. I am so excited to speak to the students more and watch them grow as the semester continues.
8/29
The second class was interesting. The kids are super intelligent and catch on very quickly to the activities. We went over the "What, Why and How." It was exciting to see everyone's different reasons behind what motivates them to do the things they do. We also discussed reflection as a whole. I went to Catholic school so reflection is almost second nature. However, I think that the more I've been in UHP, the more my reflection strategy has changed. I used to just write everything down and come up with a generic line about how much I've grown, but now I try to think more about it and find a deeper meaning. I hope the students got something out of it.
9/5
I love StrengthsQuest. I am not trying to be cliche but it seriously changed my life. Maybe not my life, but it was extremely helpful to learn more about myself and that things I thought were just quirks are ACTUALLY my strengths! I thought it was helpful that we had a better transition into strengths. When I took the class, we did the stand up activity and then immediately class ended to take the test. I thought having the students talk about what they would do with $1000 was super interesting. Everyone I spoke to had different responses which I thought was interesting. Jacob asked me what I would do and I told him and then told him my strengths. It was amazing to see how much similarity there was between what I said I would do and my strengths. For example, I said that if I was doing it for my sorority, I would split the money 3 ways and give 1/3 to the school we work with and one of my strengths is Developer. I am looking forward to seeing everyone's strengths seeing as they are honors students!
2nd Meeting 9/8/17
I have always struggled with the question of how I see myself as a leader, so to reflect on my experience in being a leader was a struggle. During the classes, I really enjoy when I get to talk with the students one on one or in a smaller group. I like getting to know them and learning more about them. For this reason, I feel like my leadership style, along with my strengths, thrive in smaller groups where I am able to create a relationship with the person I am leading. I have always kind of thought this but I think this class was definitely helpful in showing me what leadership style works best for me. With this being said, I would like to prepare for my one-on-one meetings by getting to know the students better before I meet with them. Sometimes I am sitting in class and someone will answer a question and I realize I have no idea who they are! I am going to try to make a better effort of learning their names but I think it is difficult because the class is at 8am and not many of the students are fully awake. 3 out of my 5 strengths fall in the relationship category. For this reason, I thrive in situations where I am able to foster connections with people. I think they will come in handy during my one-on-ones especially because Empathy and Communication are 2 of my top strengths. I have noticed that some of my strengths take a back burner during class because I am unable to really connect with some of the students.
9/12
I love strengths!! So I was so excited to hear about everyone's strengths. I wish I could have talked to them each individually about their strengths and how they felt, etc. Thankfully, that's what one-on-ones are for. I noticed a little more participation for this lesson than in the past couple of classes. I think it was because they were able to speak about themselves a little more and focus on something that is more of a comfortable topic for them. I feel like strengths was introduced more effectively this time than when I took the class.
9/26
During class today, we discussed the reading and the podcast. The reading was super interesting and easy to understand which I think resulted in the students I was talking to to have a really great conversation. One aspect of the reading was that we should participate in purposeful and deliberate practice. At one point when we are practicing, we kind of plateau and we need to keep challenging ourselves. It caused me to reflect back on my past experiences and how when I enjoyed doing something, I found myself practicing purposeful practice without even realizing it. I think this reading led nicely into the talk of the thematic themes. I enjoyed seeing where the students chose to go when they had to split up based on their interest. I think many of the students, which I don't think is atypical, preferred traveling.
3rd Meeting 9/29
I think a big thing I have noticed is that the attitude of the facilitator is a HUGE factor in how any meeting will go. I have noticed that when we are excited about a topic in class, it gets the students more excited. In the article I found, the first thing it mentions is that good facilitators establish and maintain a high energy level. I think in my one-on-ones I am going to really have to work on maintaining high energy and keeping the students engaged. I think like I mentioned before, it goes best when the students are able to discuss on their own and are kind of forced to be more high energy. I think everyone's attitude going into the lesson makes a huge difference! I think we have done a good job so far on making the students get up out of their seats and move around. I have only had one one-on-one meeting and it was not super long. I feel like it was how most first meetings go. I didn't really know what to expect and the student I met with wasn't vey talkative and he didn't ask any questions. I feel like this kind of goes along with our class just because sometimes they don't really participate as much as I'd like, but it is 8am which I think can be rough! I think I have faced the challenge of most to all of my experiences having been a pre-approved experience or a seminar. Many of the students want to know about study tours or self-designed proposals and I really cannot answer their questions. Also, I have more of a fluid schedule than many of the students, so I was able to fit in a couple of seminars while many of these students cannot. I have confronted this by trying to become more aware of the study tours and learn more about the self-designed proposal. I think knowing about them will work in my favor during more one-on-ones. This experience has changed the way I articulate my UC story because it has given me a unique perspective what goes into the planning of classes and more about UHP. I like hearing from the first year students about how they are adjusting to school and answering questions for them. It has almost made me wish my class had peer leaders in a way.
10/3
During today's class, Jacob and I and two other honors ambassadors discussed the experiences we have had. It was enjoyable, but you could tell that some students did not really care. When I spoke to students who did, I had so much more to say and I feel like I did a good job explaining to them how awesome my experiences have been. But, when the students did not care, it was hard to articulate what I was trying to say in an interesting way. This goes back to the facilitation piece and the importance of the energy of the facilitator and the group. I think it was helpful for the students to hear the perspective of 4 different people and what they have done with the honors program. Personally, I love hearing what other people have done because it is so cool to hear about the unique spin everyone has put on their honors experience.
Final Reflection
I love that whenever I decide to read the weekly newsletter, I get the opportunity to participate, apply, sign up for the COOLEST opportunities. So when I checked my email over the summer and saw that I could be a peer leader for Gateway to University Honors, I jumped at the opportunity to apply. I was over the moon when I got the position. I was looking forward to having the opportunity to participate in the pilot program for peer leaders for Gateway. My first class I was nervous, but the students seemed like they wanted to be anywhere else. Understandably, it was 8:25am on a Tuesday morning and the class was required. However, as the year went on they became more and more engaged which was awesome. I liked being able to share my experience and answer questions they had. However, a good majority of my experiences have been classes which did not appeal to a majority of the students. With that being said, I accomplished all of my goals that I set in August!
I was able to learn that some students care a lot and some don't care at all, that some will try their hardest and others won't. I learned that there are students who will surprise you by their participation and no matter how much time you give someone time to work on something they will ALWAYS wait until the last minute.
I was able to share my perspective and hopefully help them learn more about the honors program. I have loved my experience in the honors program and I hope they will also feel the same way.
I gained a new perspective about the honors program. I had to do more research about the different experiences and relearn the thematic areas (haha). But it helped me learn more about myself and what my interests are.
I really enjoyed my time as a peer leader and I am incredibly excited to watch the program grow!