Personal Narrative: A Career As A Student Assistant

I have always known I love change, but from this class, I learned change is the hallmark of a leader. As John C. Maxwell says in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, “Growth = Change.”The leadership assessments allowed me to understand myself in a new way. Because I am a curious green thinker, I need explanations and answers to understand my world. I tend to see the big picture of a project and my mind motivates me toward something new or improved. I am curious about new opportunities because I easily become bored with routine. Learning I have these characteristics has increased my confidence to pursue future leadership roles in a small to a mid-sized position.

The career I became interested in is a Physician’s Assistant, or a few people call them PAs. I became interested in this job in my sophomore year of high school. It all started when I attended the STEM fair after school one day. STEM fair is only offered to students who are in either the biomedical Stem academy or the engineer academy. At this fair, students tour around to different classrooms to acquire information on different careers. I attended the Physician’s Assistant one, where there was an actual PA to give information on what PAs achieve. For example, PAs examine patients for diseases, injuries and illnesses.

Throughout my time as a young adult I have had countless amounts of people tell me that they see me as a leader. They told me that I have the traits and the skills of someone who can have success in leadership positions. Truthfully, I never really understood what they meant. I knew that I was a good public speaker, but I never really understood what else I had. In high school I was always put in leadership positions whether it was an officer of the National Honor Society or captain of my sport teams, but I never really understood what drove me to attain those positions. I continued my quest for leadership positions in high school with every student organization I joined. Whether it was Pi Kappa Phi fraternity or Dance Marathon I felt the need to prove to others that I can more than just a member, but a leader. It wasn’t until I took this class that I truly understood what made me a leader. Because of this class I was able to better understand what are my leadership traits, my leadership styles, and how I use those in order to attain and succeed in leadership positions. Throughout this paper I will explain how Career Leadership Academy allowed me to realize what made me a leader and analyze the ways to improve at my future leadership positions.

In the Fall of 2014 I became an RA, Resident Assistant, a position longed for since I entered as a student at Landmark College, a college for students with learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorders. I went into the job aspiring to help other students and build upon the close knit and friendly community that was already in place. My job was to ensure the safety and security of all residents, refer students to appropriate services on campus, and run and plan programs alongside two other RA’s and a Resident Dean.

During the course of my college years, I have considered alternate career options. I have contemplated becoming a physician’s assistant, a dentist, or a podiatrist. Physician’s assistants and doctors play similar roles in clinics; I would still be able to see patients and enjoy the interpersonal aspect of delivering healthcare. Additionally, I would still be able to play an important role in primary care and do my utmost for the sake of my patients, which is hugely appealing.

Volunteer work has always been a prominent activity that occurred within my life. Growing up with a father that was involved in the community so much that it felt like it was his job, I was always surrounded by community service and helping others. At the young age of six years old, I decided to do my part as well, feeding the homeless in a local church in New Bedford, Massachusetts. From that year on, I believe a majority of my most valuable characteristics derived directly from my volunteer work. Now, almost thirteen years later, I am involved in over 100 hours of community service per year and am ready to apply it into a new field- as a Resident Assistant.

Currently, I am working as a graduate assistant to Dr Melody Eaton, associate director of the graduate program. Dr Eaton is an inspiring woman and provided me many interesting projects to complete. In addition to graduate assistantship, I am doing my practicum at the family practice and pediatric office. This semester I had an opportunity to work with MD and nurse practitioner (NP). This was the first time I had MD as my preceptor. This was definitely an eye opener to me because I noticed a difference in the approach of MDs and NPs. For instance, MD preceptor focused more on diagnosis and treatment while NP on connecting with their patient. Also, I noticed NPs were better able to convince the patient and MDs had deeper understanding of pathophysiology

Hello class I am Brandon Jackson I’m currently living in beautiful Jacksonville, FL but I’m originally from

Today was tedious. I was assigned two patients to do a chart review of. I did not write down some key diagnosis because I thought it was not important. The most difficult part of this task for me was figuring out which information is important for the evaluation. We went to see our patients for the day. The highlight of my day was seeing a patient who already knew what occupational therapist does. She was the first patient who knew what occupational therapist does, and she gave a short and straight to the point definition. I was truly impressed. I wrote four evaluations today and I forgot some information that I could not remember or put into words. Goal writing is easier in this setting as oppose to in class. All of the goals were occupation

During my last clinical rotation of my adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner graduate program, I worked closely with an orthopedic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital. He frequently became exasperated when residents would present new consults and focus solely on imaging. He wanted to know what the history and physical revealed. One morning on rounds, he grabbed my hands and exclaimed, “Always look at your patient! Touch them!”

When it came time to consider reapplying for the Resident Assistant position, there wasn’t a question in my mind. My experience as a first year RA has been phenomenal, albeit challenging. The aspects of this job that I initially thought would be my weaknesses are some of my strongest assets. I recognize that there are many opportunities for improvement in the way that I approach this position, but with the foundation I have built as a first year RA, I believe I can become the model returner. My first semester has been a whirlwind with balancing 17 credit hours, leadership positions on campus, and the RA role all the while having my best academic semester so far. But also, developing stronger relationships with both my residents and team mates

The leader must be sure to take the group dynamics into consideration. It is important to make everyone involved feel that their needs are important. For the project to be a success, everyone participating must feel as if they are contributing and that they are being valued equally.

The job posting indicated that the requirements for this position are the related knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA’s) associated with the position. I served as an executive-level Administrative Assistant for a local civil engineering firm for over five years where I worked for the Vice President of the company. In addition, I coordinated data compilation and analysis for management, provided database management, financial management, and organized events. I also worked as a Sales Representative at PepsiCo, which allowed me to serve as the main contact for a large assigned sales account base. While at PepsiCo, I negotiated sales contracts, organized marketing events, and actively engaged with customers daily. In 2013, I decided to resign

At my previous job, I worked for a psychiatrist as an office assistant. My work consisted of handling all monetary transactions, including checks, money orders, credit and debit cards accurately. Collection of data on patients, scheduling of appointments, and verification of insurance and treatment authorization processes. Taking patients vital signs, such as blood pressure, pulse, weight, and collection of urine specimen. Performing on-site copying, faxing, printing and scanning functions. Process and shelve incoming mail accurately. My job was under staff, so my co-worker and I did our very best running the office. There were times when my co-worker called in sick and the doctor would have me cancelled all appointments the very same day. The reason for that was because she didn’t trust that I can run the office by myself. Of course, I was deeply hurt because I couldn’t believe after 6 months of working for her she still didn’t trust me. Ever since that day I knew it was time to find a new job. It’s hard working for a doctor that don’t trust you. I do understand trust develops overtime. Thank god, I was blessed to receive a job offer from Baptist Hospital.

As a student tutor, I deal mostly with students needing help in lower-level math courses, like algebra or geometry. About 3 or 4 months ago, I helped a student in geometry that really made me realize the difference I can make as a tutor. When she walked in with an intimidating 4 page review packet, it was easy to tell that the girl was not very comfortable with the material on the pages. After going through the first problem, I ascertained that despite her lack of perfect understanding, this student was eager to learn and prepare herself for her upcoming test. The next problem went marginally better, as she used the lessons I taught in the last one to guide her as far as she could get on her own before needing my help again. As the next 30 minutes went by, I witnessed and helped her gradually recall every concept from her class, to the extent where by the last page all I had to do was confirm her own flawless work.