Over the course of the HI-ED490 class, the concepts that stood out to me the most were the importance of knowing ourselves and values in order to guide our decisions. Being aware that in order to develop further in life personally and professionally, we need to enhance our reflective practice, especially if someone aims for a leadership role. I understood that in the higher education field, project management plays a key role in helping us understand the obstacles and benefits to help in decision-making. Another key component that stood out when applying our communication and presentation skills is 7 C’s: clear, concise, concrete, correct, coherent, complete, and courteous.

I was grateful for the opportunity to work in a group project, helping to further develop my collaborative and technological skills. I was also thankful to have completed the Kuder Journey career assessment to help us understand and develop a personal career plan, as well as all the resources provided to help prepare and brush-up on our skills for a job search. I found the streamline mock interview the most helpful to me, assisting me to view and evaluate myself from a different perspective.

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Lastly, the additional and most useful tool that I continue to work on developing is my e-portfolio. This was a totally new concept introduced to me at the beginning of the course and although it was challenging to set up and navigate through this application initially, I can’t believe how comfortable I have become now with it. We were asked to develop a personal mission statement, which will help us bring focus and purpose to our life. I learned about the use of electronic skill badge certificates to help us endorse our personal skills, knowledge, and achievements; and the importance of social media tools to assist us with our career networking. It has been an enjoyable journey to work on this project because I feel I’m working for my own personal interests and goals. I’m learning how to set clear career and educational plan while promoting my skills in this highly competitive job market.

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Overall, the activities that I have enjoyed the most are learning to analyze my thoughts and put them down on paper, while suspending judgment. As I have shared on my personal self-assessment chart, my critical thinking, reading and writing skills were the weakest areas of my academic literacy and habits of mind. I feel that after taking this course, those skills have started to develop and improve dramatically. For the first time in my life, I am finding it useful and fun knowing how to apply these skills to anything that I read at work and school, including personal materials. I feel I have something deeper to share and relate to among peers, especially around my work environment. But most of all, I am planning to apply the various forms of critical personal reflection into my leadership development. In fact, this is one of my primary goals to achieve through the course of my learning experience at Penn State as I continue to further develop my skills, establish a plan for professional development, mentoring experiences and continue to enjoy my educational journey.

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