Luckson Omoaregba
HDF 190 FLITE
Goal: To identify and utilize my Strengths in an Organization/interpersonal setting.
Activity: I participated in the first annual Rhode Island College Access Network student panel. This event was held at Rhode Island College on March 23, 2012. I was on a panel with four other students’ discussing college access, readiness, and success. The audience consisted of people from college access/readiness organizations, higher education institutions, and policy folks from around the state of Rhode Island. They wanted to hear from the members of the panel what works, what does not work, how they (as practitioners) can do a better job addressing your needs as students.
Evidence: I plan on showing evidence by taking pictures of the event and having and a signed description of the program by one of the program coordinators.
Annotation: My strengths and skills were definitely utilized during this event; I was also able to get an insight into what I plan on doing in the future. I was able to use my first strength which is input by listening to other students on the panel I was on. I gained information about their experiences so far as college students. Since I was the only first year student there it was very important for me to listen and possibly learn a thing or two about what to look forward to.
My skill of context was utilized when I was asked to talk about my experiences during my first semester of college and even further back to when I was in high school. I looked back to my past and talked to the audience about how I was before entering college. By looking to my past I was able to connect it to how I felt now as a freshman in college. I wanted my experience to help the audience have a glimpse of what the students they work with now are going through, that way they can empathize with them a little more and figure out ways to make the stress of getting ready for college easier than it currently is.
One of the most important strength I used was my Arranger strength. I was able to use my experiences and the experiences of others on the panel to give the audience a more in depth look on preparing students for college. It was good the other students and I on the panel had not only similar experiences in college but also different experiences because it helped the audience understand how vast the experiences of students will be. Not everybody follows the same path in life, for some students the road to college was easy for others it wasn’t. If the audience was able to grasp that they could try and accommodate students who have had different paths in their life realize that the journey to college is worth taking.
The opportunity to speak to crowd of people whose job I hope to have in the future was one I hope every student gets to have. It felt amazing to talk to people whose profession entails preparing students for college. These people appeared to be passionate about the job they do and I was honored to speak to them. By going to this event I realized that preparing students for college and helping students who are currently in college is what I want to do as a profession. The people in attendance made me realize the importance of their job. They are a big factor in a student’s life when it comes to preparing students for their future in college. In my opinion they have one of the most important jobs on this planet and I would very much like to be part of what they do after I graduate college.
