Service

Peer Mentor in the Shriver Living Learning Community (Gold Level): From Fall 2017 to Spring 2018, I was a peer mentor in the Shriver LLC. That means that I was assigned two peer freshman peer mentees and I helped them adjust to life as a college student. I also had to design and run a floor event, which was the day before finals start. I got the floor involved in an improvised comedy session. More connected to my Grand Challenge, I have volunteered from Fall 2016 to Spring 2017 at various tutoring and service sites through this program, and will continue this practice next semester. I have learned a lot through tutoring, mostly how to explain various concepts in different ways. The fact that this is a necessity definitely speaks to the need for a more personalized education. It also will enable me to ground my research and ideas in the realities of learning.

Brief Reflection

I learned a lot about mentorship through my time as a mentor at the Shriver LLC. Mostly, I just had to be a resource for my mentees when they needed help. As stated above I also was a tutor at various service sites as part of my participation in the Shriver LLC. All this taught me a lot about what it means to be a teacher and a leader and all the difficulties and struggles associated with that. One of the things that was the most difficult was patience. I knew how to do the things I was teaching my students and mentees, so why couldn't they understand it? This was a hard question to answer and a frustrating one, but I got through it, and I hope that I caused some good in the world, because of it.

Applications

I believe that this experience is strongly connected to my grand challenge, because of the four service sites that I worked at/will work at all are connected to tutoring and learning. Through these experiences I have learned the strength and weaknesses of different methods of teaching got different students as well as my own strengths and weakness as a teacher. As I pursue the goal of advancing personalized learning, this experience will serve as a tool to ground my research and implementation of any educational plan.

Learning Objectives:

Core
- Realistic vision. As I mentioned in previous answers, this experience has taught me the limitations of various methods of teaching as well as my own strengths and weakness, which will be a great asset as I strive to create a realistic vision for my work. This experience has reminded me that children will be children and things that I believe are easy and simple are not necessarily easy or simple for anyone else.
Program
- Community Engagement. As a mentor for students from elementary school to adulthood, I believe that I have been a part and an asset in the community in and around UMBC.
- Civic Agency. I believe that though my service in the community and later as a mentor to other service-minded scholars that I have made a positive impact in UMBC and in the community.
- Capacity for Reflection. During my freshman year, as part of the Prac 096, I had to reflected upon my experiences. The Shriver Center staff said they liked reading my reflections, and I believe that the reflection short essays helped improve my writing skills.
Personal
- Learn how to meaningfully reflect on myself and the world
- Learn more about what it means to be a civic agent

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