Introduction 

Over my academic career, many artifacts strengthened the skills that I possess today. However, the skills that experienced the most growth were my communication, risk management, and critical thinking skills. The artifacts that are located within my e-portfolio consist of things like writing assignments, blog posts, interviews, and case analyses. Each artifact that is located within my e-portfolio played a vital role in honing these three skills. Having these artifacts and skills has allowed me to become a greater student academically as well as prepare me for a professional career. Since I will be following a career path in computer science, more specifically cybersecurity, having honed skills is a necessity. These artifacts grant me distinct concepts and lessons which I am to transform into valuable skills that are needed for a future occupation. I will examine the abilities I have acquired and the artifacts I have produced during my academic career in this reflective essay. I will evaluate what I have learned and talk about how these experiences have helped me become more prepared for the workforce by critically analyzing these components. 

Communication Development 

Throughout my academic career, I have generated many skills that will be needed in the future. One of the most crucial skills that I developed is the skill of communication. The skill of communication has been impacted by my academic environment whether it was through personal essays, interviews, or case analyses. Completing these essays, interviews, and case analyses increased the effectiveness of my communication skills. For starters, completing these essays during my academic career has allowed me to increase the clarity and structure of my writing. With the influence of stronger clarity and structure within my writing my communication becomes clearer and more understandable. This allows me to communicate with my readers, in which I can properly grasp their attention in the beginning and keep it until the end of the conversation. Completing case analysis takes a lot of time and research, but this time is worth it in honing my communication skills. The influence of a case analysis not only generates a well-crafted argument but also allows me to think critically. Thinking critically is a necessity when it comes to communication, which allows me to express my opinions in a more persuasive manner as well as the ability to defend my viewpoints. Having the ability to be more persuasive is vital to communicating with people, and I can do it more convincingly. The influence of these writing assignments also has brought me a better sense of conciseness in terms of communication. With most of these assignments, there were always word requirements. These word requirements allowed me to communicate my viewpoints more concisely and efficiently. These word requirements served as a strong backbone in which it allowed to me produce pieces of writing that were able to keep the audience engaged as well as deliver my viewpoint effectively. On top of all these things these writing assignments also improved my communication adaptability. When it comes to these writing assignments the topics will differ, and so will the audiences so I needed to adapt my communication to each specific requirement.  By having more adaptable communication, I was able to communicate on a more diverse level which allowed me to be versatile when it came to situations.   

A Development in Risk Management 

Just like the skill of communication, my skill of risk management was enhanced by my academics. The influence of articles, policy analysis papers, and blog posts was vital in creating development within my risk management skills. Since I am pursuing cybersecurity many of the articles, analysis papers, and blogs that I completed were very knowledge-forward. By having this knowledge forward assignments are allowed to analyze cybersecurity risks and strategies. This enhanced my ability to manage risks, by being able to recognize trends, regulations, and changes.  Nothing is better than the real thing, most of these articles, analysis papers, and blog posts are connected to real-life occurrences. I was able to understand how to recognize hazards and when threats might materialize by closely reviewing these real-life events. Effective communication is an essential ability for risk management. I now have a better grasp of how to create timely and effective plans and how to depend on them for higher-ups in a corporation or firm after finishing the articles, analysis papers, and blog posts. Examining risk assessment was one of the most significant lessons I took away from these projects to improve my risk management abilities. I was able to learn which factors are linked to risks, the possible outcomes, and the trends of these risks by finishing these assignments. I was able to determine which hazards are addressed first and how many resources are required to reduce these risks by learning this knowledge. By completing these assignments, I was able to learn which specific factors are associated with risks, the impacts that could happen, and the tendencies of these risks. By learning this information, I was able to learn which risks are dealt with first as well as how many resources are needed to mitigate these risks.   

An Enhancement in Critical Thinking Skills 

A skill that was also impacted by my academic environment would be my critical thinking skills. My critical thinking skills were heavily influenced by the completion of a business plan, research papers, and case studies. My engagement with these assignments allowed me to enhance my critical thinking skills, in the likes of identifying problems. These assignments always present a big issue in which I was responsible for finding a solution. My critical thinking skills were pushed during these assignments in which I needed to find evidence that was credible and relevant. Finding evidence that was credible and relevant allowed me to think critically when analyzing facts and assumptions. Another part of my critical thinking skills that were improved due to the influence of these assignments was my analytic reasoning. My analytic reasoning was increased because the business plan, research papers, and case studies required the study of qualitative and quantitative information. With this increase in my analytic reasoning, it presented me with a better understanding of how to interpret, identify, and generate. The engagement with a business plan, research papers, and case studies allowed me to generate better decision-making in a critical mindset. Generating decisions through a critical mindset allowed me to present a critical evaluation of diverse options and potential outcomes. From a critical thinking mindset, his decision-making process is necessary, which allows me to evaluate the pros and cons of a situation.   

An Analysis of Important Artifacts 

While my skills have been enhanced throughout my academic career there are a few academic artifacts that brought more to the table. The most important artifact throughout my academic career is my interview paper. In this paper, I had to interview an entrepreneur and ask him questions regarding his entrepreneurial journey. This assignment boosted my attentiveness when listening to others, allowed me to articulate questions regarding him and his journey as an entrepreneur, and received feedback on how to effectively communicate with another entrepreneur. This interview paper allowed me to grow my communication skills as well as learn the right ways to communicate with entrepreneurs. On top of this artifact, another paper generated an enhancement to my communication skills. This paper was a case study on the topic of user data. In this assignment, I was tasked to argue against the idea of adopting privacy laws. This case study was beneficial to my communication skills because I was able to communicate my opinions, while also validating facts on why those privacy laws would fail. This case study strengthened my ability to persuade my viewpoint readers and communicate it backed by facts. While there were artifacts that impacted my communication skills there was an artifact that helped my risk management skills. The most influential artifact that impacted my risk management skills the most was a blog assignment. Within this blog assignment, I was tasked with creating an in-depth analysis of a recent cyberattack, involving the WannaCry ransomware. The reason I said that this assignment was the most influential was because it was biased toward a real cyberattack. By analyzing and examining this cyberattack I was able to improve my risk management skills dramatically. This blog not only helped generate skill development but also strives for more honing of communication. The development of this skill allowed me to create instances of analytic thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making during this assignment. Honing communication gave me insight into how vital it is in creating an effective risk management plan. Just like communication and risk management skills, my critical thinking skills were also influenced by specific artifacts. When it comes to my critical thinking skills they were influenced by two artifacts, a business plan, and a case study. In the business plan assignment, I was tasked with creating a new product along with a business plan. This assignment was very dependent on my critical thinking skills, in which I had to produce a product that would be successful as well as consistent over three years. When I had to create a logo and a slogan for my business, tasks also tested my ability to think critically. This task challenged my critical thinking abilities, but it also made me much better at producing plans and solutions to problems that will prevent my firm from failing. In addition to this business plan, I was able to sharpen my analytical abilities, which will be useful for a case study. I had to look at how information warfare affected political results for my case study. My critical thinking skills were challenged as well as enhanced during this assignment. The challenges arose trying to find information that was unbiased since it was attached to politics. However, this assignment allowed me to grasp a better understanding of what kind of information to avoid as well as what kind of information to use. These academic artifacts were necessary for bettering my communication, risk management, and critical thinking skills.   

Conclusion 

By analyzing the specific skills and artifacts that I completed during my academic career, I gave insight into how much they improved my skills. While there were many assignments that i completed there were only a few that generated massive changes to my skillsets. My communication, risk management, and critical thinking skills were mediocre when I first started but now with the influence of these artifacts they have improved dramatically. Looking back, while many of the assignments I completed were long and time-consuming they were super beneficial to the enhancement of my skills. The skills and artifacts I have gained and completed have enabled me to gain better insight into how to approach the future. While the future is still a blank canvas, I am confident that the skills that I have gained are more than ready for what the future has to offer.