Category: Uncategorized

Taylor Schwalbach

Critical Thinking/ Problem Solving

For this skill, I think that I have developed it due to my Creative Writing Class. In this class, we all have to present one analized reading and present it to the class. I feel like this has really helped me future my development of craft analysis as well as my overall ability to problem solve when I run into text that is hard to digest.  The reason that I attribute success in critical thinking is due to how we are able to present to the class. You are responsible for reading the piece and also need to be able to explain and expand on the piece to the whole class.

Oral/Written Communication

In this skill, I would have to say that it has been developed in my English Composition class. I have always been very excited about the topic of creative writing, but when it comes to writing about writing about opinions and positions, I tend to struggle. In my English Composition class, we had to write a position paper about a topic that was meaningful to us. I was not comfortable with the idea of staining my opinion while also trying to disprove someone else’s opinion, it was difficult to say the least.  Since that project, I have developed the skills to not only get my opinions across through writing, but it has also taught me to step back in conversation as well. While the main point of the paper was to argue my point, I learned a lot about how to see others views as well.

Professionalism

Professionalism has to be the most useful tool that college has taught me overall. The class that I can really marrow down this skill being taught in, is my business class. My teacher provides us with many opportunities such as meeting people at job fairs, creating a linkedin profile to find jobs, etc. This class has taught me professionalism by showing me what it is like in the real world of business. I have gained knowledge both in communication as well as how to find a job. This class has been helpful for me because I really look forward to having an internship by the time I am a sophomore and its class has narrowed down my search to a human resource management internship.

Teamwork and Collaboration

While something like this may be a given for a lot of students, team work as not always been something that has come easily to me. In the past, I have always been the student who viewed working alone as the better option. While sometimes this still remains true, I have found that college has opened up many doors of teamwork for me. In my second semester alone, I have found teamwork to be more helpful than ever.

As the school year comes to a close, I have realized that reaching out to others for help is much more beneficial than struggling through something alone. For example, in my Psychology class, we have an in class activity almost every day. These activities usually involve the material we will be learning that day, and we are asked to answer questions involving given material. Some of these questions can be hard, and I would usually try and solve them on my own. After receiving scores that were not as good as I had hoped for them to be, I decided to reach out to those around me, brainstorming answers with them as class went on. After a few times of collaborating with my classmates, I watched my scores go up almost instantly. Working with others has shown me that I really do have a lot to learn from others, and that two brains are always better than one!

Leadership

Most importantly, my last skill I have gained during the course of this school year is leadership. A year ago, I would have told you that I would much rather be a follower than a leader. Fast forward to me now, my classmates recognize me as a leader. During the development of our Service Project, being involved in conversations with the whole class made it hard to stay to myself. Collaborating with people I had never worked with before gave me the push that I needed to take responsibility, as well as taking the initiative that I knew I could handle, just never taken.

During our Service project, we were recently assigned a certain role that helped move our project forward. When I was assigned as a Co-editor, I was first filled with doubt. I had still not thought of myself as a leader, let alone anyone to be in charge of others. It was not until I was working on our assignment, that I realized that being a leader came fairly easily to me. I have always enjoyed being the person to plan things out for others and be the person that others came to. It really only occured to me that I had leadership qualities during our service project.  I started to talk more in front of the class as a whole, reached out to others in the class on my own, and even engaged in class discussion nearly every class period. These are all things that I never practiced in high school. I really believe that our Service Project and my role as Co-editor, gave me the push in the right direction for me to realize that I am a leader, and enjoy being one.

Taylor Schwalbach 

Critical Thinking/ Problem Solving

For this skill, I think that I have developed it due to my Creative Writing Class. In this class, we all have to present one analized reading and present it to the class. I feel like this has really helped me future my development of craft analysis as well as my overall ability to problem solve when I run into text that is hard to digest.  The reason that I attribute success in critical thinking is due to how we are able to present to the class. You are responsible for reading the piece and also need to be able to explain and expand on the piece to the whole class.

Oral/Written Communication

In this skill, I would have to say that it has been developed in my English Composition class. I have always been very excited about the topic of creative writing, but when it comes to writing about writing about opinions and positions, I tend to struggle. In my English Composition class, we had to write a position paper about a topic that was meaningful to us. I was not comfortable with the idea of staining my opinion while also trying to disprove someone else’s opinion, it was difficult to say the least.  Since that project, I have developed the skills to not only get my opinions across through writing, but it has also taught me to step back in conversation as well. While the main point of the paper was to argue my point, I learned a lot about how to see others views as well.

Professionalism

Professionalism has to be the most useful tool that college has taught me overall. The class that I can really marrow down this skill being taught in, is my business class. My teacher provides us with many opportunities such as meeting people at job fairs, creating a linkedin profile to find jobs, etc. This class has taught me professionalism by showing me what it is like in the real world of business. I have gained knowledge both in communication as well as how to find a job. This class has been helpful for me because I really look forward to having an internship by the time I am a sophomore and its class has narrowed down my search to a human resource management internship.

By: Taylor Schwalbach 

I can really credit a lot of how I’ve grown as a person to what we have done throughout this course. Although out high school, I was never the one to be actively participating. While I got average grades and spoke every now and then to the class, I was not someone who you would consider to be very outgoing.

This class has really helped me get out of my comfort zone. I will admit to being a bit shy in the classroom, but I was even more hesitant to do anything in the community. As a result of this, I tended to be very involved in anything that was not school related. I appreciate the things that we did outside of class and can truly say that they have helped me grow as a member of the community rather than just as a student.

In my first few entries of my journals, I described how I was not very outgoing in very many things that I have done. Now, at the end of the semester as I look back on my journals, I think that I have grown a lot. In the classroom, I was never one to ever volunteer for anything. I hated reading out loud with th class or sharing my overall thoughts. This class has made me more confident in both myself and what I want to say.  Talking in small groups really helped me understand what was going on in the discussions that we had as a class If I was ever lost. Small groups also gave me confidence when sharing with them to then share my opinion to the class. Because of these things, I think the overall set up of this course really helped with my skills in the classroom.

Next semester, I am looking forward to applying all the things we have learned in and outside the classroom to our services project. This class in particular has made me want to help the underserved and give back to those who need it. Before this class, I took very little notice of the things around me if they did not affect me directly. I can see now why we should pay attention to things that seem to be “small problems” that people view as not worth fixing. If everyone goes around with the attitude that someone else will do it, then it will never get done. Looking into ways to give back to my community has helped me realize that even though things are not making an impact on me in amy way, my help (no matter how much or how little) will always make a huge impact on another person’s life.

Overall, this course has helped mold me into both the student and citizen that I would like to be. While I don’t feel like I am quite there yet, the steps that we have taken in class have put my foot in the door for future opportunities that I feel will get me to where I would like to be.

HIgh Impact Experiences

Fall Semester First Year High impact Experience

I think that my First Year Seminar has been a very helpful high impact experience in itself. I have pushed myself to not only branch out of what I am comfortable with in the way that I write, but also with how I engage in the classroom. I have learned to be more comfortable with things like engaging in class, give and receive feedback from others, as well as not being afraid to give my thoughts on a topic, even if they are wrong.

During high school, it was easy to just sit back and not be a part of the class. In our first year seminar, it is helpful that we do a lot of group work as well as peer reviewing each other’s work in small numbers. I think that at first sharing your personal writing can be intimidating, so starting off in front of 3 three or four people rather than a whole class is a nice way to ease into things. I am not totally comfortable with sharing to the whole class as far as my writing goes at the moment, but I believe that the way in which we are taught to share what we ar3e thinking and writing will help me get there much sooner rather than later.

Overall, I think the tools that we use to develop ourselves as not only students, but people will help in the professional world. The class has taught me that what you have to say may not always be the clear answer that someone is looking for, but it can lead the topic/ discussion in a direction that is beneficial to the class. That being said, this experience has taught me to step out of my comfort zone when it comes to giving my opinion as well as giving and receiving feedback from my peers.

 

Spring Semester FIrst Year High Impact Experience

One thing that I hope to do by the end of this year is become more involved in Community Life. I think that this would be beneficial for me, since I am never really involved in the community between going to school, working, babysitting and studying. I have noticed that it has become harder for me to say yes to doing things as the school year continues. One thing that I think would be particularly beneficial is volunteering at the Freedom House in Green Bay. After we had left the freedom house, I felt like I wanted to do more for the families that were there. Our class was only there for a short amount of time and yet they were all still so thankful. So, If I were to put a few hours of my week into helping them, I think that it could really make a difference in many lives.

In order to volunteer, I would need to email the adviser that takes care of both group and individual volunteering. I emailed them about any requirements there would be for me to apply. While I did have not receive an email back about the requirements needed to volunteer at the freedom house, their website does state a few of the volunteer options. You can volunteer to be anything from a cook, all the way to the receptionist at the front desk. The ones that stood out to be would have to be become a teen mentor for the kids that are currently living there. I love to help those who are struggling but I would also enjoy being a friend to someone that feels alone in the situation they are in. I Have thought a lot about going into the feel of education while also having a strong interest in social work. I think that this would help me get a better understanding of what it is life to work will all different ages of kids from different backgrounds. I also think that overall, it will help me grow as a person when I think of how I want to make an impact on the community and those around me.

 

Fall Semester Second Year High Impact Experience

One thing that I did in the fall of this semester that really got me thinking about what career path I want to go down, is volunteering for Phuture Phoenix. I plan to volunteer to do this again in the spring semester because of what I learned  about myself in the process. Not only did I find that my love for working with kids stretches beyond just babysitting, but I got to experience what it was like to be responsible for a large number of kids. Seeing how excited they were about being there and how much they valued me for being there with them really sparked my interest in working with kids full time.

Because this was only a two day event, I didn’t get to experience these things for very long, but they have lead me to other opportunities that yield the same results.  The only requirements that you have to follow in order to be a mentor during Phuture Phoenix is that you have to go to both days, as well as going to the training session that is put on before hand. This event as a whole helped me get to know myself better, even just doing it once. I think that doing it s a second time will only grow my knowledge and love for working with kids. I never realized how much I enjoyed this while also being very good with working with kids, no matter how roudy they were. Overall, I think that doing this will definitely help give me experience for teaching if I do decide to take that on as a career.

 

Spring Semester Second Year High Impact Experience

During the Spring semester of my sophomore year, I really hope to get the opportunity to study abroad.  Studying abroad has been something that I have wanted to do since I was a sophomore in high school. I hope to study in Europe, on an education internship that is put on by UWGB. This experience out of the HIE I would love to do, has the most requirements. These requirements range anywhere from having a valid passport, coming down to specific things like having your major or minor being education. You also have to be at least a Sophomore to even apply for the international education internship I found, but anyone can apply to study abroad without an internship.

Personally, I think that going while I am a sophomore will be beneficial for me, as it will allow me to get more experiences that will impact what it is that I want to do in life. It will also allow me to travel to places I have never been and meet new people. I will develop a better understand for different people and their culture. If I still decide to go into Education, I think having the opportunity to work with people in an environment that is so out of my comfort zone will only push me to do better. I have never been put into a “hands on” situation where I have to take in so many differences and apply what I have learned (both about myself and others, to the situation. All in all I think that Studying abroad will allow me to experience the world, giving me a greater appreciation for those around me.

 

Additional High Impact Experience

The last high impact experience I think that would help me a lot is joining a sorority on campus. I would hope to do this sooner, rather than later, around the fall semester of my sophomore year. One Sorority that I was looking at in particular, was  Zeta Omega Tau. They focus on both academic achievement and helping out around the community. They do require each girl to do 20 hours of community service each month. With my want to expand on what I am doing for the community, I think that this would be a good push for me to get out and do something! I find it challenging to push myself to do things alone, so having people around me striving to do the same things will be very beneficial. As far as long term, I think that joining a sorority will help build my character and also allow me to understand how well I work and communicate with others around me.  

 

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