Making Connections

 

“Old Dominion University’s LeADERS program connects students to courses and real world experiences in the areas of: Leadership, Academic Internship, Diversity, Entrepreneurship, Research, or Service Learning. This LeADERS ePortfolio shares how my experiences in the areas of leadership,  academic internships, diversity, research, and service learning have supported my personal and professional development.”

 

Reflecting Back

• Why did you join LeADERS?
  • I joined LeADERS because it seemed like a great program that would help me build on my resume. I enjoyed that this program helped prepare students for job interviews by helping build resumes and teaching how to communicate during an interview. This program also let me reflect more on the different courses I have taken by allowing me to discuss the different skills I have learned from those courses. 
• What significant challenges did you encounter throughout your LeADERS courses and related experiences? How did you overcome these challenges?
  • A challenge that I faced during my LeADERS course was when I had to work on a group research project. The communication between my group was very limited due to the fact that everyone did not get along well with each other. What made this a challenge was that we had to work as a group face to face in order to get our research paper done. The teacher sat down with us one day and told us that we needed to work on our group dynamic in order to write a good research poster. One day we all sat down and we began to talk to each other and resolved the issues that made us not cohesive. After that we were able to work better as a group. As a result, we received a 100 on our paper and the teacher praised us for fixing the issues that messed up the group dynamic. 
• What significant successes did you have during your LeADERS courses and related experiences? What contributed to your successes?
  • A success I encountered was in one of my service learning courses. In this course, I worked with a group to develop a project for low income individuals in the community. I consider this a success because we developed a project that is going to help a lot of individuals. We learned that many individuals were not managing their chronic diseases well because they did not know much about their conditions or what they needed to do. My group made a medication card that contained all the vital information that these individuals needed in one place. We included lifestyle tips for chronic diseases as well as interactions, indications, and warnings of different medications. Knowing that this project would help so many individuals contributed to this success. It brings so much joy to me when I know that I can make a difference in someone else’s life. 
• How do you see all of your specific LeADERS experiences connecting to one another?
  • All of my experiences connect with each other because each one of the courses provided me with a different skill necessary for my future career in nursing. You need leadership when you are a nurse because you have to take charge and be able to educate your patient about their condition and care. Academic internships provided the opportunity to get hands on experience as a nurse and to gain additional knowledge that I will need in the future. The diversity class helped me to be culturally competent and know how to interact with individuals of different cultures. Research allowed me to assess the community and learn the needs of different populations. Also when I am a nurse, I will need to be able to implement interventions based upon evidence based practice. Service learning classes also let me assess what factors affect the community.

Looking Forward

• What are your professional, personal, and/or educational goals after graduation?
  • After graduation, I plan on taking my NCLEX certification exam. After this I plan on working as an intensive care unit nurse for three years. Next, I plan on attending a nurse anesthesia graduate program. My plan is by the year 2027, I will have my degree to become a nurse anesthetist. 
• How have experiences within LeADERS prepared you to achieve your goals after graduation? Use specific examples.
  • Experiences within LeADERS have provided me skills such as teamwork, planning, organizing, communicating, making decisions. An example of teamwork would be when I worked with my group to make medication cards for low income individuals with chronic diseases. An example of planning was when I worked with my group to discuss what we wanted to include on the medication cards and how we wanted to receive feedback about the success of these cards. An example of organizing is when I sort all of my class materials and put the due dates of everything on my calendar so that I know when everything is due. Communication is seen in all of my classes because I have to communicate with my group, communicate to my teachers, communicate to patients when I did my internship, and communicate with the staff at the hospital I did my internship at. I had to make decisions with my group members about what I thought we needed to do and how we could do it.