Personal Reflection

This reflection will discuss personal diffidence and how it has influenced my academic studies, including my practice within placement settings. Gibbs reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1998) has been utilised as it illustrates a clear structure for the process of reflection. To conclude this reflection will draw together the themes which have emerged and highlight a clear action for future learning that will be used in order to enhance my future practice.

NCSSM Residential and Online students must have a high level of maturity, whether living away from home or working daily without teachers or supervision. Please help us understand why you are mature enough to manage your own deadlines, schedule and academic interest.

When I arrived at the agency, the room was crowded and many people were waiting for their turned to be served at one of the several tables. The person that I interviewed for this assignment was Emily Hampshire, the coordinator of one of a program called 180. Emily has been with the agency for over a year and is currently the coordinator of the agency’s newest program. This program is a gang prevention and intervention program and was created for the local at-risk youth in an effort to prevent gang related crimes and help youth “change their life around”, as Emily mentioned. This program was created in collaboration with the local Police Department and the Mount Diablo Unified School District and in

Before, I begin my story, here are a couple of the theories I have incorporated about my college experience. The first is Schlossberg 's Transition Theory. As a Transfer Student, this model has helped me understand my transition process through her model. Her theory is grounded in adult development literature. A transition as she defines is “ any event, or nonevent”[ which] results in changed relationships, routines, assumptions, and roles.” ( p 37) In her model, she talks about the meaning of the transition for the individual based on three topics: type, context, and impact.Then, she moved into the transition process which is described as reactions over time and as three different phases; moving in, moving through,

I began my journey at CCRI in the Fall of 2015 after realizing that my life was not progressing in a direction I was comfortable with. I had previously attended three semesters at another community college in my early 20's but did not complete the program due to unexpectedly starting a family (whoops!) and dropping out of school. I had no support network and no money, so I did the only thing that made sense... I got a job. Over the years I worked menial jobs for greedy bozos, eventually acquiring a trade and securing steady reliable income. At first, I felt accomplished to have ascended the ranks and provided for my family, but as time progressed it became apparent that, unless I made a change, I had little room left for career growth.

Throughout the process of writing this paper, I have learned more about my topic than I thought I would. The original idea for this project was to outline the basis of why animal cruelty was wrong. Also to give ways to what we can contribute to the topic being researched. But, not only did I just do research and present it, instead, I dug deeper and got more involved in my topic. Although writing the paper took more time than expected. This piece of information did not come that easily to me the ending result was the result; it was harder than usual to write it definitely paid off. This by far was my most successful piece of writing and made me an even better writer.

With tears falling down my face, I reflected on what I had gone through for the past seven months. I was talking to a crowd of concerned parents and depressed kids that were looking for help. I started thinking about where I would be if I wasn't as strong as I know I am now. I was thirteen, the youngest out of three speakers at an anti- bullying conference at my church. We were telling our stories about bullying. It was my turn to speak, my heart started racing, and it felt like it would drop to the floor. Even with flashcards in my hand to keep me on track, I felt like I couldn't speak. My pastor, Angela Jones, saw how nervous I was and came to comfort me and help me to calm down. She told me to tell my story and tell my testimony, so I did.

I am Samantha pressdee and I will self assess myself for this quarter. I will discuss my attendance, my grade,work ethic and my overall attitude in this class.

Throughout my high school career, I have been able to greatly develop my writing. Prior to my senior year, I was already quite confident about completing research papers, which have been required in a number of my CHS classes. I also had a lot of experience writing expository essays. After all, the process of writing a thesis and then breaking up an essay into distinct sections has been preached ever since elementary school. Going into my senior year of high school, I still had a lot to learn in narrative and timed writing. My greatest improvement this year was in the the timed writing category. Before recently, I had always struggled to come up with enough ideas to write a logical essay in a short amount of time. This year, perhaps because of the sheer volume of timed essays that we wrote, I was able to develop a sense of calm and confidence at the start of each assessment. Under these conditions, I could think more clearly and logically. I am still struggling to master the narrative, even if that isn’t reflected in my grade. For me, it is always a very difficult task to start a narrative, and if I am not careful, the story quickly becomes repetitive and dull. Again, more practice should help fix this.

Is your life integrated? Are you able to be the same person in all aspects of your life—personal, work, family, community, college, classroom? If not, what is holding you back?

Growing up, I was never good at writing and struggled with it. In eighth grade, we had to write a paper on our superhero and I wrote about my mom. I saw everyone wrote two or three pages while I wrote one. I felt a bit weird about that and I knew it was not a good paper. Prior to sophomore year of high school, we had to read a book called Jane Eyre. I did not like reading and read only half the book and just looked up summaries online. I had Miss Figueroa for an English teacher that year, and I was so scared and nervous because she was a difficult teacher. We discussed the book, and then we wrote a rough draft essay about it. In October, we had to take a P.O.W. Exam on this book, which had three essay topics to choose from. I remember my rough draft was the same exact topic as the one on the exam, and I thought this is going to be easy. A few weeks later we got our results back, and it required a three to pass and I got lower than that. I made mistakes on grammar, my paragraphs were not consistent, and my introduction and thesis were not being well- written. This made me so sad because I could not graduate high school without passing this exam. We had to write in-class essay on novels we read and essays at home. I remember struggling to come up with topics to write about and forming ideas. It took me so long to finish these essays, and they were never well written. I was never good with timed essay tests as I felt like I was being rushed and had no time to check my work or

For each of us, there comes a time when we can look back and pinpoint the exact day that altered the course of our life, for me, one of those days was April 13, 2010. I was 14 years old when I fell off my bike and broke my elbow. After consulting multiple orthopedics, I was told I would never regain my range of motion, but with the help of a certified hand therapist, I was able to regain full range of motion and prove the doctors wrong. Months later I had surgery to reconstruct my elbow that had not healed properly, but again I was able to regain full range of motion thanks to my therapist. While the doctors were able to fix my arm, it was the therapists who were able to give me my quality of life back. It was at this moment that I knew I wanted to be a therapist. During my freshman year of college, I began to develop an ulnar claw which eventually led me to undergo ulnar nerve transposition surgery. After spending countless hours with a certified hand therapist I knew this was what I wanted to spend my life doing. I had been going to school with plans of applying to physical therapy school, but the experience I had recovering from ulnar nerve transposition led me to alter my course of study and transfer schools. Today no one would ever know that I had something wrong with my arm or hand other than the scars which motivate me and remind me of the impact an occupational therapist had on my life, and my ultimate goal; become an occupational therapist.

Since early on in life, numerous individuals have been hearing people talk about college. Parents usually encourage their children to go to college, get a degree, get engaged on campus, be someone great in life and be important in the society. Hearing people talk about their college experience can push someone to go there and see what is there and how is that going to improve himself/herself. When actually going there, then come the experiences and the hard work and experiences come along in every aspect, such as academic, career, and personal facets of someone’s life.

Last semester in one of my classes, I was required to write a letter between me and God. I don’t remember what the exact letter says, but I do remember telling him that I make a lot of mistakes and I struggle with issues that Christians should not be dealing with. I told God that I am not sure that I am the type of Christian that others should look to be. Although I knew the Word, I prayed often and never missed church, I still felt a void on the inside of me. I often compare myself to Hannah. I felt a barrenness on the inside of me and did not know how to fill it. On top of the spiritual emptiness I felt, I also had to deal with emotional stress. When I first started attending Regent University, I had several fears that tried to prevent me from proceeding. First, I feared my status as a double minority in a field that is predominantly male would prevent many doors from being open to me regardless of my academic ability. Secondly, I feared having a background in engineering and not biblical studies would put me at a great disadvantage in my classes regardless of my knowledge of the Bible. Whenever someone asked me a question, I would have an answer but I was not sure if i gave the right answer because I was never licensed as a minister as a pastor. My role within the church was a server. I cooked, I cleaned, I played with the children, I visited people, I hugged people, I sewed and I loved working with my hands. In fact, I was the one who usually served the pastors and I

I was not concerned about politics as a child, I was more concerned with the next level I was playing in Mario or the next Spider-Man movie. As far I was concerned, racism ended in the 1960s, the opposing side of the war were just bad guys from movies. and taxes were beyond my comprehension. So when I learned that we were going to have a new president in 2008, I was engrossed by it. Still though, I knew nothing about politics. All I knew is that my parents must know what’s good, right? My parents supported Barack Obama in 2008. They were tired of President Bush’s policies, and after the 2008 Financial Crisis, they, like many Americans, wanted change. Nine-year-old me didn’t realize what was going on, but the fact there was going to be a new president got me excited.