Year 1: JLN

JLN Year One Reflection 

1) Describe your experience with the Jaguar Leadership Network. Specifically, what were your key responsibilities? What issues/needs/or critical questions did your program or project address? For whom/what was this project/program important? Why was it important? 

My experience with the Jaguar Leadership network was great! I learned so much valuable information that will be useful when working towards my degree. I learned how to format a good resume that employers will actually look at, learned how to manage my time and energy, how to relieve stress, and so on. My key responsibilities were making sure I attended every small group meeting, maintaining a good gpa, and turning in my assignments on time. This class is very important, not only to maintain my scholarship, but also to prepare me for future careers. This personally didn’t affect me but I do think that the main issues were events being scheduled during other people’s class times. I don’t think it was a major problem, but I do think that the events were inconvenient sometimes as they didn’t go along with the small group times. I think it’s important for us students to attend these events, but it is also super important to attend classes as well.  

2) In what ways were you able to connect your previous educational training (e.g., academic courses), extra-curricular experiences, and life experiences with the activities and professional development required of the JLN experience to deepen your understanding of your field of study? 

My freshman year, I had to take a freshman seminar class where we learned a lot of things that were similar to what we learned this year in our JLN small groups. For example, we learned how to make a portfolio and different note taking methods. I was able to connect everything I learned in my freshman seminar class to everything I learned in this class because everything I have learned is important to succeed in my college and professional careers. It helps to deepen my understanding of my field because I will be working in a very professional career when I am done with school and the things I do in college can really impact whether or not I am even accepted into the physical therapy program. If I am taking good notes, it is easy to reflect back on what Iearned and I can study using those notes to pass exams. Having a portfolio gives employers something to look at outside of the small bit on my resume. It gives them an idea of who I am. Everything I have learned benefits me in the long run and prepares me for what’s to come.  

3) Describe the extent to which your experience provided opportunities to engage and learn from different communities and cultures and to the extent this influenced your attitudes and beliefs.  

I was able to talk to some of the juniors, even before the showcase, and learn more about JLN and what they have been working on during their junior year. It gave me insight to what’s to come next and what to look forward to. I learned more about the experiences other people had and it makes me excited to work on my engaged learning experience. I have a better idea of what I need to have done and how to be ready for the showcase next year. I honestly was not excited for all of the events that were going on at the beginning of the school year but getting to talk to the juniors made me realize that those events are fun and they will help me with future. I prefer to stay at home and not go out unless I need to if I am being honest so attending the events were not something that I was interested in. My attitude towards the events have changed and I believe that I will truly benefit from these events. 

4) How would you evaluate your contribution to this experience? What strengths or skills did you utilize or develop while engaging in this JLN experience? Describe at least one challenge you faced during this experience. How did you address and overcome this challenge? 

I think that I needed to be more involved with the Jaguar Leadership Network and the events that were hosted by JLN. There were a lot more learning opportunities outside of our small groups that could have been helpful for my college career, but I did not utilize those resources. First semester of JLN, I feel like I was more involved in our small groups and contributed a lot more effort. As we got into second semester, I don’t think I was as involved in our small groups as I was first semester. I was super burnt out from classes and just physically exhausted. One skill that I utilized was the different breathing techniques. Those helped to relieve stress and calm me down. I think one challenge I faced during this experience was making friends. I started to make friends during second semester, but it was hard to talk to people at first. I realized that these are people that I will be seeing in every small group, and I would have to engage with them, so I tried to talk more to those in my class.    sddsd