Reflection Journal

August 26th

When I started my college education, I was at the University of North Carolina at

Charlotte as a Business major. I believed that I wanted to work in the marketing field. I realized

that I wanted to work full time while I was in college, so I came into Arizona State University.

Once starting school, I realized I didn’t know where I wanted to be after graduating. I had a

passion for law enforcement, so I changed my major to Criminal Justice. Soon after, I realized

that I didn’t necessarily have to have a specialized degree if I wanted to join the law

enforcement career, or the military so I wanted to pursue something else that I was passionate

about. After much thought, I had a heart to heart with myself and became an Educational

Studies Major. I love children and I want to be a mom one day, so I figured, if all else fails in my

current career that I could be a teacher and save on childcare once my children would be in

school the same hours I was working. With this, if I chose to, I could still join multiple law

enforcement career paths in my area, as all you need is a degree. I felt better knowing that I

wasn’t ruling any of my potential future careers out. After working up in my current field of

drug development and clinical research, I learned that I want to pursue a career in the HR field

as a corporate training manager and have realized that with obtaining a master’s degree in

organizational development, I would be able to reach my goal down the road. I have learned

that a degree doesn’t have to be cut and dry or mean that you necessarily have to continue

your work in the field you pursued during a college education. I found that a degree in general,

especially one even slightly relevant can boost you above other potential candidates applying

for similar positions. While I am down to about a year and a half left in my college degree, I
hope to continue learning about more potential careers in the education field, even though it is

not my current goal. I believe that the more you know, the more it can help you down the road

because a plan can change at any time. I hope to continue focusing in on learning about

working with and educating others as the information would be useful, whether I chose to

pursue a career in the HR field, or an education-based career.

September 8th

I am moved by many things in life, missions involving helping animals, children,

or simply inspiring others to live a more positive and faith-filled life. The thing that moves

me the most is helping others. I believe taking the time to hold doors, help others carry

groceries, sharing money and food when I am able, and sharing small simple acts of kindness is

wonderful. A huge passion of mine is taking time out of my day simply to make another person

smile. I have a personal goal each day to genuinely compliment three or more people and it

has been so rewarding to see the smiles and reactions. I have seen smiles, happy tears, and

heard stories about how a simple “You look beautiful today!” has changed their day and

inspired others to share the happiness and compliments. I believe one person can affect the

lives of so many people; simply by having the drive to help others and the passion behind their

movement. They have to be committed to share their passion for change with others and

spread the word to grow the movement. If they stay persistent in their mission and inspire

others, they can indirectly reach more people than was thought to be imaginable. Every person

from the videos had such a strong drive to improve the world and share their story. They all

had so much passion to continue and spread the word of their mission. The activists assumed

that there would be challenges along the road with their movements but showed that they
were determined to continue pushing for the rights or peace. They assumed that with their

work, they would be able to not only help those immediately affected but spread the word in

hopes to involve others in their fight for positive change.

September 12th

I truly have a passion in training and developing others and seeing them grow in their

careers. I love challenging those I train and continuing to support them in becoming the best

version of themselves that they can be, as well as celebrating all; even the smallest of wins to

continue to promote success. I also have a passion helping support others through hard times

and helping share resources to help improve their situations, and overall quality of life. I feel

truly qualified to teach other adults, as I have a genuine passion for it. I also have the data to

back up my claims. I became a Store Manager at 18. By 21; I had successfully managed teams

of up to 30 employees, I trained 12 employees from entry level to Assistant Manager and

trained 9 to other Store Managers. I took over 3 stores that were nearly closed due to poor

engagement and performance; and during my time there was able to move them to the top

10% of the company, each within 10 months. By age 22, I was promoted to Store Manager

Trainer.

While developing individuals, some know whether they want to move up in the

company. A leader needs to help them develop and to figure out what they want and expect

from you, as well as create a measurable plan of how the employee can get to their end point.

Many people learn from watching, listening, and following those above them. As a leader, you

need to take charge and be the best example of an employee you can be to lead others. From
my personal experience with enough care and time, employees learn, develop, and grow into

leaders themselves.

October 6th

Throughout this course, I have learned so much. The community scan is an assignment

that I still reflect on and think about on a daily basis. I learned that in my area, there is an

incredibly high graduation rate from high school as well as secondary and post-secondary

education. I learned that our poverty rate is similar to many other urban areas. I learned that

our area has a near record breaking amount of resources available to those in need; however,

the area does not do all that it should to get the resources shared with those who may fall in

need of them. As far as myself, I learned that there are many things that can be done in my

area to better share these resources. I am going to take time post-graduation to see if I can

find a way to make these more visible to the community. I learned that I do have a true passion

to help those around me, and that contrary to a shallow belief, there are more ways to help

others than simply with money. This new information I gained has given me something that I

can work towards to cause a change in my area, and I am very eager to begin. The design

process shared other ways of thinking that I would not have thought of before. I learned that

there are multiple ways to delve into a problem in search of solutions. If you can ask the right

questions, you can gain the knowledge you will need to eventually cause a change. The design

process has immensely helped me. I tend to be a very cut and dry type of person and it has

truly shaped the way I worked through my project. The biggest thing that impacted me with
design thinking is the brainstorming process. When I had to jot down all my thoughts and stick

them to the wall, it really helped me visualize what I planned to do.