Personal
How do you expect to grow personally (e.g. in your self-awareness, your spirituality, and how you relate to others) through this experience?
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I expect to grow in my empathy toward others and to suspend judgment while I actively seek to understand where others are coming from, and what impacts their behavior and reactions.
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Instead of being overly self-reliant, I expect to grow in my ability to reach out to others and ask for help when I have too much on my plate.
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I also want to grow in my self-awareness of how I communicate with and respond to others when something unexpected happens.
Professional
Regardless of whether or not your ELI relates explicitly to your career goals, what specific skills do you plan to develop/enhance that would be transferable to your professional goals?
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Great interpersonal skills are necessary for my career goals. Through my ELI experience, I hope to strengthen my interpersonal, leadership, and communication skills. Specifically, I aim to enhance my decision-making skills and to grow in my ability to direct others, facilitate meetings, and to solve problems. I want to also enhance my ability to empower others and share leadership.
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Because I have a tendency to be a people pleaser, I need to grow in my ability to recognize what my motivation is. I need to learn to find the balance of being a friend and a peer, but also being a professional and a leader. I believe this experience will give me opportunities to grow in this area.
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I plan to develop skills in budgeting and reconciling expenses. My goal is to work in the administration of international education, so gaining skill and experience in budgeting is very important in relation to my career goals.
Academic
In what specific ways do you hope to grow as a student? How do you hope your ELI will connect to your major and classroom experiences?
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In my master’s program, the last class that I completed was a student affairs course that focused on student development theories. I hope that having the experience of co-leading a cross-cultural course will enable me to apply some of what I’ve learned over the past eight weeks.
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I am currently taking graduate classes that are mostly online, so having the opportunity to work with a group of undergraduate students provides me with a lot of context and a better understanding of the student perspective. It is all too easy when working in an administrative context, or when participating in discussions with my classmates, to become disconnected from the student experience. It’s really important in higher education to create opportunities to interact with and get to know students. They are the ones that higher education is serving, so it’s crucial to understand their perspectives, opinions, and experiences!
Community Engagement
What do you hope to learn about the "bigger picture" of community (local or global) from your ELI?
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I want to consider how differently task-oriented North Americans and people-oriented Ecuadorians engage in community. I want to reflect on how I respond to and interact with my host family while I am here, and also want to attempt to be present where I am.
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I want to learn to value seemingly insignificant interactions, recognizing that a full and meaningful life is created when one prioritizes the people they meet, and takes time to enjoy the little things. How do I interact with people? How can I allow unplanned and serendipitous interactions to impact me and what can I learn from this?
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Learning from a change in plans instead of getting overwhelmed, stressed out, or frustrated.
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Learning from being inconvenienced, unscheduled, and annoyed by people.