LeADERS Student Ambassador
Old Dominion University’s LeADERS program is an academic experience, professional development, and recognition program that encourages students to select courses that provide hands-on learning experiences. This includes Leadership, Academic Internship, Diversity, Entrepreneurship, Research, and Service Learning classes. This ePortfolio showcases my experiences in the areas of leadership, academic internship, diversity, entrepreneurship, and service learning.
I joined LeADERS after realizing I had taken a course that fulfilled an area of LeADERS. Becoming the LeADERS Student Ambassador enabled me to take a deeper dive into the program and explore the wide-variety of academic resources available that I was unaware of prior to joining.
A specific challenge I encountered throughout my LeADERS courses was working in a team structure. It was difficult working with my peers who’s schedules were different from mine. However, this allowed me to develop better time-management skills. Planning, organizing, and prioritizing my work, in addition to creating and making edits in google docs to communicate with my peers was how I was able to overcome this challenge.
Significant successes I had during my LeADERS courses was engaging in more discussion-based and interactive activities. The lecture-based courses I took gave great insight on the course material. However, I was mainly subject to taking notes and studying for exams. Engaging in discussion based activities with my peers allowed me to obtain and process information from a broader perspective. I was also able to apply what I learned in class and transfer that information into developing marketing strategies, conducting presentations, and designing promotional material.
I see all of my LeADERS experiences connecting with one another by being able to use the skills and knowledge I gained in my LeADERS courses and implement them into my other LeADERS specific courses. Ethical case studies my class and I discussed in my leadership course better prepared me to problem solve at my internship and during my entrepreneurship course. It allowed me to ask more solution oriented questions for the projects at hand. My diversity course aided my understanding of multicultural groups. It made me reflect on biases and prejudices I was unaware of and allowed me to develop more empathy for underserved populations. This information prepared me for my study abroad trip to Jamaica, where I helped pregnant teens develop healthy self-esteem practices.
I plan to attend graduate school and pursue a master’s degree in human services so I can enhance my skills in community programming to eventually become a volunteer and outreach coordinator for a non-profit organization.
My experiences with LeADERS has prepared me to achieve my goals by providing an avenue for me to exercise effective communication with diverse populations, network, and be in an environment that gives me the necessary resources to better equip me for the next phase of my life.
