Personal Reflection

Even as a young child, I knew I wanted to pursue a career that would allow me to interact with people on a daily basis. This deep-rooted love for others originated from the values instilled in me as a child; values of loyalty, dedication, and compassion. Throughout my undergraduate career, I have discovered what is truly important in life and the impact I want to make in my community. I have found I have a strong desire to serve others, to help them and to make a tangible difference in their lives. Over the past four years, I have had the opportunity to serve those in need in my community. Each year, I am involved in numerous service projects that bring food and clothing to low income families, as well as assist in the rebuilding and restoring of homes. Each Thanksgiving, I help collect food, organize donations, and distribute Thanksgiving meals to families who, otherwise, would go without. These service opportunities have taught me how to connect with individuals on a personal level, regardless of our differences in life experiences. I have learned the importance of service, human interaction, and most importantly, listening. My compassion for others, servant attitude, and ability to communicate with individuals from diverse backgrounds will help me to succeed in graduate school, as well as allow me to become an exceptional

On 08/20/2017 at 1002 hours FTO Wheeler #4361 and I responded to St. Luke’s Hospital emergency room entrance, on 3555 Cesar Chavez St., regarding a women in a hospital gown trying to break the caller’s vehicle window with a brick. Officer Wheeler and I were in full police uniform driving a marked patrol unit when we responded.

Last May, I traveled with Alternative Breaks to New York for community service. During this service, I worked with Meals on Wheels who dedicate their time to provide food for the elderly of Manhattan. As I delivered the food to the seniors, I got a sense of fulfillment because I made them smile by providing them with food. Thus, I chose MDC’s Single Stop because I wanted to make a difference in my home campus by providing and assuring nourishment to those that do not have it just like I did in New York. As my first two years of college comes to an end, I wanted to leave a mark of my own here at home at Miami Dade College North Campus. During the month of September, I decided to partner up with a few of my peers to serve at MDC’s Single Stop.

I feel strongly about protecting marginalized groups in society; about my own responsibility to speak out against the abuse of power or privilege; and in encouraging others to defend themselves if ever they feel their rights have been violated. During the break between my third and fourth years of university, I was employed at a women's shelter as a frontline counsellor. I worked exclusively with marginalized and vulnerable groups, many of whom were involved in the legal system in some capacity. Bearing witness to the struggles of the shelter residents inspired me to pursue a career in which I could effectively advocate for them.

I lead my life according to the belief that, success is a measure of our perceived reality. In many socially oppressed communities, barriers to living a whole, productive, successful life is beyond the grasp of many. I represent a historically underrepresented population with an educational disadvantage. Firsthand, I have overcome economic, social, and health obstacles to achieve status of an undergraduate degree. Overcoming adversity unifies my experience as an ideal candidate to give a voice to socially oppressed populations in need of health and well-being opportunities. I desire to effect change on a larger scale than previous experience has allowed and to give socially oppressed communities opportunities to perceive their reality with new success.

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.

Poverty, a faulty and inadequate education system, police brutality, drugs and violence are a few of the issues that plague the community that raised me. At a very young age, I was exposed to all these social issues and they have shaped and influenced who I am today. Being a victim to these issues, growing up was not easy, but I always hoped that I could make a change. As a young Mexican-American woman, daughter of immigrant parents and victim to numerous social issues complicating my ability to succeed, I was never sure how I would ever be able to accomplish anything, all I knew is that I wanted to change my community for the better and to liberate it from oppression. Although I always dreamed of making huge changes in community, I never knew how I would ever be able to change it for the better.

Because of this amazing organization, people with disabilities are able to go online or use the application on their smartphone to see what places that they can go, where they will not have to worry about getting in the building or having trouble maneuvering around tables, chairs, or other obstacles around them. It also made me realize that I could continue this service project by being more aware of the people around me, and being available to help them in a store or restaurant that may not be as assessable as it should be. My heart was not in the right place when this service project initially began. I was looking at this opportunity with a self-righteous heart. I was concerned with immediate results of my service to people, I wanted to see how they reacted to my service, instead of allowing my service to be free of calculation. I also came into this service project with the attitude of a self-righteous server because I was allowing my negative attitude to impact the effort that I was using while conducting these surveys. Instead, I should have approached this ministry with the attitude that I am helping people in need, even if it is indirectly. As I am reviewing the qualities of a true server, I realized that I did not hold one attitude that comes from the true service side. This is quite devastating to me! I did not realize how negative I was being about this project until now, when it is too late to change my heart and serve with a servant’s heart. This was an eye opening experience for me, and I hope that I will continue to learn how to be a true server, instead of a self-righteous

Witnessing experiences my family and friends had to undergo, I have been raised with the idea of trying to live by “justice.” Because of that, I have thrown myself into advocacy work. For example, I am the Chairman of Mayor Youth City Council where I can voice and act on some of my concerns for our city of Memphis. Since last year, I have also had the chance to work internationally. For example, I got to partner with Sister Fa [she is a famous Senegalese celebrity and activist] and work with the Senegalese government on how to stop Female Genital Mutilation while still respecting the culture. I even was lucky enough to be able to open my own nonprofit Tomorrow’s Promises Inc., where I try to implement projects on the local and international level. I traveled to India [by myself] to try to resolve a situation where I had raised money by knocking door to door to try to get some toilets put in for women [previous notions had not allowed women to get an toilets so they went to the fields]. Because of my age and other reasons, the villagehead had taken the money, but did not follow through. When I went there to at least get the money back, I ended up staying with the people a little bit and began to meet the schools around. With no electricity, they needed some way to educate the kids, so I aided in building libraries for the students. Then, I

It was warm that day. I walked to the bus with my hands shaking and eyes wide. I knew this was going to be a big day for me but I had no idea that Saturday would be the first day of the rest of my life. At first glance, this may seem like a big statement but my first day of volunteering with Camp A.N.C.H.O.R. (Assisting the Needs of Citizens with Handicaps through Organized Recreation) sent me on a journey with social justice that I am still taking. At 16 years old I thought I was going to go in and change lives but, the individuals I met ended up changing mine. I didn’t know what I was doing or much about the populations I was dealing with. However, I did know the individuals I was working with were incredibly funny, smart, talented, and had so much going for them except for one thing, their disability. I realized that these individuals were being portrayed as incompetent, unintelligent, and incapable because of one small aspect of their life. After speaking to some of their parents over the course of two years, I realized the immense difficulties these families go through. My initial reaction was anger, and then it dawned on me. If I want people to treat me like an individual and give me full human rights, have access to a public education, not receive discrimination during job interviews, they should have the exact same rights. This is not something they choose to take on each day. It is a part of their life that they deal with everyday as so many of us do with other

When I was 14, I made a bucket list and the first item on that list was to change the world. specifically, I wrote change the world overnight. Reflecting back on that list 8 years later, I’m not sure what 14 year old me meant by that. However, what I am sure about is that even then, and quite frankly as far back as I can remember, all I wanted to do was make a difference. My whole life I have always been very aware of the privileges I have and the talents I possess and how I can use those to affect change in not only my immediate surroundings but in the greater community. There have been so many times that I wanted to become absorbed in the problems and disadvantages I face in my life. The fact that I am a black, bisexual woman raised in a single parent household, with a father who I did not know for the first four years of my life and who was merely a child support payment and monthly visit for the next 12, however I realized, that does not change anything. I am not claiming that I’m selfless or a martyr, I just learned how to channel my struggles into more productive means. I realized that there are individuals out there who need help and the perspective and experience I have as a marginalized individual is valuable and important.

As I started to improve, I felt that imagery and increase arousal was having a large positive impact on my performance. Therefore, it led me to have more motivation to keep having the imagery sessions. However, this time I wanted to try imagery from an external perspective, where I visualize myself from the perspective of someone else. It makes it easier to see the technique and the form of weightlifting. Like the previous sessions, I wanted to psych myself up and be cognitive specific by imaging the certain motor skills to get a feel for the movement. In my mind, I pictured myself as an outsider who is watching someone bench press. From my perspective, I could see the person’s overall form and body movement as they lifted the barbell up

In the Fall of 2011, it had been decided I was going to have a surgery called pectus excavatum repair in September of 2012. When I was age five, my mom had started noticing my chest sinking into me like there was a person pressing on my breastbone. She immediately took me to my pediatrician to get me checked to see if there was anything wrong. The doctor diagnosed me with a pectus and told my mom there was a surgery to fix it, but they would have to make an incision from my collarbone to my belly button, then put a metal rod in me. After major discussion, my parents decided to wait for a new, less invasive option. We had waited a few years, and my condition had gotten worse; it had become time to rethink surgery.

The writing I did this semester for Engl 110c has meant alot to me because I was able to pick a topic that has such a huge impact in my life. I was able to do the topic about Navy Wives, which has a huge impact on me. I recently became a navy wife a year ago and my life has changed drastically. I was able to share everything I wanted to about the life of a military wife through my writings, as well as share to my classmates about my topic. I really enjoyed creating my ePortfolio because I could come out of my shell and be me. I made a ePortfolio website that would be for military wives to read. I believe this website would be perfect for any military wife reading it. I was able to give tips and information on what it’s like to be a military wife, how to prepare for deployments and how to stay strong being a military wife.

During this year I had the chance to work and achieve my goals, put into practice my experience to demonstrate my abilities to solve problems and help to achieve common goals as a team in the new challenges presented in the design of an isolation product. Also, I had the opportunity to continue learning and growing as an engineer, expanding my experience to isolation products. Had the opportunity to work on the design on two blocks in the si89200, the modulator and isolation channel. The isolation channel was an excellent experience because it gave me the opportunity to gain more experience in the requirements of an isolation product. Also, had to opportunity to mentor and work closely with the summer intern.