About Me

My first major volunteer experience was at St. Francis Hospital where I assisted patients and volunteers in finding locations and services on the hospital campus. In my 6 months at this position, I was able to gain skills in interpersonal communication with patients, visitors, and staff members at the hospital. In terms of teamwork, this experience taught me when to ask questions when I am unsure on how to complete a task and how to know who to ask. For example, if I was unable to find the department that a visitor was looking for on campus, I typically couldn't ask my supervisor as she had other important duties around the hospital. In this scenario, I learned to seek assistance from the front desk receptionist who I worked alongside. In this way, I was able to perform my duties as a volunteer and be respectful of my teammates' responsibilities. This experience sparked an interest in healthcare as I learned that hospitals require positions other than doctor or nurse to maintain a well-functioning organization.

For my final year in high school, I served as the secretary for the National Honor Society at my school. The National Honor Society is a service based organization for high school students. In this position, I was able to facilitate team-based communication between officers, maintain accurate records of volunteer experiences for members, and draft agendas and promotional documents for monthly meetings. This experience greatly helped my communication skills as I had to communicate with many groups across the school, including faculty, administration, and student peers. This experience helped me realize the leadership potential that I have and motivated me to explore that potential in internships and jobs.

My most significant work experience was as a Program Assistant for IUPUI's Institute for Engaged Learning. This experience in particular has really helped me grow as a professional and person. As a Program Assistant, I worked on projects with the IEL team throughout my nearly two year tenure. These projects included data entry for the Record of Experiential and Applied Learning, organization of events and award ceremonies, publicizing information for the William M. Plater Civic Engagement Medallion, and copy-editing promotional materials, resources, and academic research. This position taught me how best to communicate with a team in a professional setting. This experience also sparked an interest in working with higher education and community-based organizations as the Center for Service Learning is part of IEL. This position taught me how to find service organizations I may want to work with in the future and how I might incorporate it into learning, both as a student and professionally.

While serving as an LHSI intern, I also worked as an editorial intern at Tanglewood Publishing during the Fall of 2021. As an editorial intern, I reviewed manuscript submissions, applied literary analysis skills to determine promising manuscripts, wrote pieces for the company newsletter, and created posts for social media accounts. While this was a great experience, it helped me understand a career in publishing was not one I was interested in pursuing. Nevertheless, I gained valuable social media communication and marketing skills, learned how to apply knowledge from my studies to real life situations, and became a better problem solver. This position helped me in determining who I am as a professional.

Following my first semester as an LHSI intern, I started a position as a Peer Health Educator with IUPUI's Office of Health and Wellness Promotion. At this point, LHSI had sparked my interest in pursuing a career in health communication and this position offered me a way to get on-the-job experience in that field. As a Peer Health Educator, I communicate health information to other students on campus via presentations, table at educational events related to health and wellness, and assist the office with other needs, such as creating graphics for social media posts. Additionally, this position provides me with the opportunity to create my own programming around one of the eight dimensions of wellness each semester. This position has helped me improve my public speaking skills and gain knowledge on how to create, execute, and evaluate a health campaign. I plan to continue in this position in my final year as an undergraduate and improve these skills further.