Retrospective

Reflection

Below is an exploration of the skills I have accomplish through my time at Indiana University of Indianapolis from 2022 to 2026. Many of these skills were thanks to the Honors College I was a part of by pushing me towards developing these skills. I believe that all of these skills were in me from the beginning but through my experiences I made them stronger.

Communication

Honors contract planning
Emailing with professors
Collaborating with peers

Over my time in the honors college I have practiced and strengthen my communication skills, especially because of the honors credit we needed each semester. I needed to build connections with my professors to plan and create the project I needed to complete. Specifically I remember my first honors class I had my professor make sure we were having meetings to make sure I was on task and doing well with the assignments.

One thing that also lead to my development of communication was that for my junior year I have done my honors contract with another honors student in my cohort of classes. By doing this we had to agree on what we were going to do and when we were going to do it. Specifically for our first project together we had to plan a time in which we could record the video from the project. This required coordination and collaboration to be able to find a time that worked best for the both of us.

Honors Project(2024)

My friend and honors contract partner Catie Sprunger(2024)

Honors Project(2025)

Leadership

Choreographing my peers
Directing youth theatre
Taking action without being asked

By my second year of college I knew that I wanted to branch out and join clubs. The honors college was always encouraging me to join organizations and gain new experiences and relationships through them. This is when I join The Moving Company which is a dance club on campus. When I joined I never thought that I would want to choreograph dance, but it was such a welcoming space that I gave it a try. From this I learned to be a leader and guide my friends through my dance and take action to create a piece of dance. I was able to speak up in front of a group of people and lead them towards success.

Along with this through my theatre experiences with youth I have learned how direct students and help run a successful show. When it comes to tech week and showtime I am often running around helping actors get dressed and set for the start of the show. This sometimes requires guidance but oftentimes I am doing my best to take action and do things on my own. For example if I see a problem arising I try to dissolve the situation so that the director does not have to deal with that and the other million things they have going on.

Assistant directing for Ensemble Theatre(2025)

Stage managing for United Youth Theatre(2024)

Choreographing for The Moving Company(2025)

Critical Thinking

Teaching experiences
Completing reflections
Assessing identities.

In my time in college I was a part of the elementary education program, which meant I had weekly field experiences where I got to teach and interact with young students. getting to work with students so early on allowed me to think about my teaching and how I want to be a teacher. Each week I had to think about what my students need and how I can bring that into our instruction.

One aspect of my pre-service course was that each week we were asked to reflect on what happen in the lesson and what our Takeaways were. this is a very important skill that I have gained because I will be able to use it in my own classroom when dealing with many students. I have had to think about who I am as a person and teacher so that I was able to learn about my students. Their identities are something to be celebrated so knowing that I need to build a caring environment is very important. Its not just about what is on the surface but what roots lie beneath each person, action, and lesson.

Co-teachers Classroom(2025)

Field experience(2024)

Field experience(2024)

Professionalism

Internships/Jobs
Building respect and work relationships
Finding a balance between professional and personal

Over the past few years I have worked in a couple of school buildings so that I can build my skills as a professional educator. One thing that I did in my jobs is build relationships in the workplace that are professional and respectful. For example I had to work closely with classroom teachers that were older then me at the Center for Young Children where I had to talk to them about children and plans for the day. I also interacted with parents at drop off and pick up and would have to tell them about their child's day. Often I had to speak professionally with them since I am their child's teacher.

I also had an internship at Shortridge High School's writing center where I worked closely with students that were often close to my age. At times this could be hard but I had to remain professional and guide them to completing assignments and writing tasks. Students often will talk about their personal lives, which is actually very good, but I as an adult cannot share the same details of my life. This is where I have found a balance in things I can share while being professional, but does tip into being unprofessional.

Internship at Shortridge (2024)

Job at Center for Young Children (2022)

Teamwork

Volunteering with others
Meeting new people
Working towards the same goal

One thing that I was required to do as an honors student was volunteer each year. Most students will use that to gain more experience in their career but I always make a point to do something fun that I love and reach my community. I have found over the years that I did a lot of volunteering to help the environment. Some of these being trash pick-up days, tree planting, invasive species removal, and even grave cleaning. All of these experiences were with new people so I needed to have conversations and work together.

I also would volunteer with the high school I graduated from and film their choir concerts. I had to work collaboratively with the directors and other tech members to be able to get the video that was needed for the department. In all of my volunteering experiences we all were working towards the same goal whether it was for the environment or social reasons and we all worked together as a team to accomplish the goal at the end of the day.