Program Reflection
The courses I took for the LeADERS program all directly relate to my academic field. In fact, I was very lucky about this. I never purposely took courses because they fit in the LeADERS categories. Rather, the courses I was interested in happened to already be a part of the program. I took I/O psychology and human factors psychology because I wanted to explore these areas as possible careers. I completed the senior honors thesis course because I was told by my advisor, Jennifer Younkin, that it would be a great academic highlight for me. I studied abroad because I knew coming into college I wanted to experience education in another country. I took public service campaigns because it connected me with an organization outside of ODU, which is something I hoped to experience before I graduate.
From my LeADERS experience, I learned the proper use of an ePortfolio. I was not very familiar with online portfolios but I have seen many job positions asking to see one. The LeADERS program allowed me to meet with professionals equipped to train students on how to present themselves professionally. I also gained skill in using the Wix platform. I have spent hours creating this ePortfolio and converting PowerPoints to image galleries takes longer than one might expect. My biggest frustration occurred because my laptop broke a month ago, erasing all of my saved information. I lost documents and PowerPoints I intended to incorporate in this ePortfolio. I resolved this issue by looking through emails and messages to find documents I had sent. I have learned my lesson and now have all my documents and PowerPoints backed up online.
Academic writing, analyzing data, and performing literature reviews are the skills I learned within my LeADERS courses that I plan to use in the future. I am likely to have a research assistant position upon graduation as I plan to take one year off before graduate school. Any RA job will require me to have the aforementioned skills. However, even if my life takes a completely different course, I still have improved my writing skills, my research skills, and my leadership skills and these are universally desired traits no matter than discipline.