Reflection Paper

Over the years, writing has been my safe place. It has been a security blanket of sorts; an outlet that I can use knowing I will not receive criticism in the same was I do when I speak. Although my writing experience has not consisted of much, I have been able to grow steadily and learn how to engage with an audience. I can identify my strengths, take advantage of them, and work on the areas I find to be the weakest. It has fueled my passion for world change, even though I am still unaware of how it will tie in with my future career path. Writing has given me a voice that I do not have the courage to speak from my mouth.

Writing papers have always been one of my biggest worries as a student. My High School English class prepared me for basic writing skills, for example, spelling, grammar errors, and things that help me with editing my paper. This class made me realize that the writing process requires more than just editing, you have to understand that the paper is like a car, it cannot function without every single part being run effectively. I can certainly say that I have improved as a writer a great deal thanks to the in-class writing session and the opportunity given to volunteer at Cahaba Valley Health Care Center (CVHCC). In this essay, not only will guide you through how my writing has developed with my participation in class and through my experience at CVHCC but how I will improve my writing in the future writing opportunities I receive.

When I was looking at which college to attend I was not sure what exactly I was looking for. After going on visits and recruit days, I learned that I wanted to go to college at a place that valued academics just as much as athletics. I also wanted coaches that care more about the player than they care about the result of the player. One other thing I wanted was a place that I felt I would be able to fit in. Now that I am here I have goals that I need to meet in order to make my time here worth it. I have academic, athletic and personal goals that I look forward to being able to accomplish in my time as Augustana.

Pastors need mentors, mentees, and true peers. I have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with two pastor colleagues both in very different places in life and ministry. Yet, even from these different places, all three of us share some very basics understandings and needs as we strive to serve the church. Rev. Bev Dempsey and Rev. Nikki Brown Rice are the two selected clergy persons I chose for this connection exercise. All the best plans were intended to email and create a great long thread of emails to turn in. One thing we all have in common is that we are much better face-to-face connections than in email. Therefore, when given the chance to decide to connect through email versus personal conversations, we all agreed on personal conversations.

Lastly, I generated resolutions by discussing options with my classmates, co-workers and supervisor. Unfortunately, this client is not on my case load and I only see her on occasion and she has since delivered. Thus, I was not able to follow-up with her to gain her insights on the matter. However, out of these conversations, I discovered the importance of resolving complex ethical situation in individual and group settings. Ethics consultation is supported by the code and is valued as an important tool for social workers (Reamer, 2006). Case conferencing can be an effective method for generating ideas and resolutions to problems which helps build competency. This is also a helpful tool for providing alternative viewpoints which can help social workers gain cultural awareness and insight. In addition, reflective supervision can be a helpful tool for resolving ethical challenges.

Recently informed that my admission has been rescinded has personally taken a toll on me. I am completely devastated to say the least. I never would have thought something like this would have happened to me. I felt as though everything I ever worked for has been taken away from me. I never imagined something like this would happen, especially so late. Before I started the process of filling out college applications I was completely unaware as to where I wanted to go for school or what exactly I wanted to do. For some reason Channel Islands caught my eye. I saw myself doing great things at CSU Channel Islands because it's a small school that's open to new ideas. I saw myself becoming more involved in the school activities, even starting up a fashion club. I saw myself showing my leadership skills not only to others around me but to my younger siblings in hopes that they too will follow in my footsteps.

From the day I was born I’ve lived on a farm. It’s always been there, like an extension of the house I grew up in, we have a barn, sheds, fields, and pastures that are all as familiar to me as the different rooms of my house. Despite all of these familiarities though, I’ve never defined myself based off of where I came from, I was the same as everyone where I was from we all grew up in similar places and did most of the same things. I was actually the outlier because ever since middle school, I knew that I didn’t want to live in a place like that when I grew up, I knew that I wanted to move on to something else and that I would probably want to go to college. Almost ironically though these things that I never used to use to define myself, are some of my favorite things I’ve done and learned in my life so far. They may seem kind of stereotypical, but small towns having massive senses of community and farms giving you a certain kind of work ethic, are most definitely true. The importance of these things was instilled in me at a very young age, and I firmly believe that they’re what lead me not only to choosing Hamline, but that they helped me figure out that I want to go on to law school after my four years here are over. I’ve been asked so many times now that I’ve lost count if I miss being on my farm or how weird it is moving to the cities from such a small town, and honestly the squirrels are not a good substitute for all the animals my family and I have back home,

Last summer my cousin and I were enjoying a meal with our families in China. It’s been 7 years since I last saw my cousin. We are about the same age and my favorite memory of her was celebrating her 11th birthday. I remember my uncle and aunt sitting to my right and my grandparents sitting to my left singing happy birthday as she blew out her candles. It has been so long I almost couldn’t recognize her when I arrived at the airport 2 weeks prior. My mom receives a call and leaves the room to pick up her phone. She comes back 10 minutes later in tears. She breaks the news to the family and that our trip would be cut short. She was diagnosed with breast cancer. In the following week, we pack up our bags and head out to the airport. She had to start treatment as soon as possible. I knew I would become the man of the house to take care of my mother and brother, who has autism, while my dad worked in New York.

Everyone has at least one point in their educational life that has shaped them into the student or person they are today. For me, coming together after being separated as the “Germantown” and “Farmersville” kids for the first six years of school changed the way I built myself as a student. Becoming friends with new people, having new teachers for every subject, changing up the routine, and actually having to switch classes has taught me a lot of different things.

Being in a life or death situation, or at least believing you, can radically affect how you feel about the world, and everything around us. To unknowingly shake loose your repressed feelings and thought, through the rush of adrenaline and reflection on your own actions, is a truly freeing experience. While such a freeing experience comes with a terrifyingly dangerous cost, I was able to find a refreshing outlook on life.

During my first year in college, I did not realize the major challenges I would face being a first-generation college student that was undeclared as a major. I knew I had to continue my education as many of my teachers and advisers in high school had mentioned. But I never knew the struggle of not having a family member to ask for advice or guidance to navigate my college education or choosing a major. I became interested in helping other students in their path post-high school by volunteering, mentoring and working with high school students in their process of applying or learning about their postsecondary education options. After working with different ethnic groups I came to realize that those that identified as

Every student deserves the best chance at getting the highest level of education they can, however, some students need a little extra support that others may not. A student, Axel, who is currently in my classroom has had a hard time keeping his focus and is often avoidant when it comes to his work. It has become clear that his avoidance becomes a distraction to the whole class. His behaviors currently include but are not limited to: rolling around on the floor during rug lessons, yelling across the room, walking around the room talking to friends, sharpening his pencil five or more times throughout the day, asking to go to the bathroom at inappropriate times, spending fifteen to twenty minutes in the

From the early moments of my childhood, I remember seeing my parents go to Russian Orthodox Church a lot. They would explain to my younger brother and me what was right and what was wrong from the religious perspective. On my 4th birthday, my grandma gave me the Bible for kids as a present, and I remember my mom reading it to me before going to bed. Back then it was just another interesting story that happened somewhere very far away. And yet mom would always find a way to tell these stories in such a manner so they translated really well into the reality we were living in. The more I grew up the more I realized that there was something missing in the big picture of my understanding of the world. I saw a lot of suffering that was happening everywhere, death, natural disasters, and I thought there must be a reason for all of it. Otherwise, the God does not care about any of us. I started to look for the answers everywhere: in the philosophical and religious books, movies, wise counsel from the people who lived a long life. I could not find the truth in church because the whole purpose of its existence with all its rules and restrictions, its idea of God who is something or someone out there, separate from us, and the only being that knows all the answers, was totally alien to me; mainly so due to my unwillingness to accept the fact of transferring all the responsibility for everything one does to someone else. I believed it to be a weakness to acknowledge one’s bad thoughts and deeds as something natural, as an external influence of the evil spirits. For me, it sounded like people who agreed with this concept simply wanted to escape the punishment for what they had done, choose an easy way out.

The way we view the world makes a huge impact on how we live and chose to do things. One of the most fundamental things which guide how we live and think is what e believe to be the ultimate reality. Within my cohort since we all go to a christian University and have grown up relatively with the same belief system we all agreed that God is the ultimate reality. That when everything else disappears God is who created all matter and without God there is no matter. I believe we live in a world that is two dimensional; physical and spiritual. Meaning that there is a world that we can see as well as one that is visible with the naked eye. However one of my cohorts said that she believed that God is matter, saying that all that is around us contains God since he is who created all. We contrasted in this belief because I believe that God created all matter and then allows it to move as he designed it, interacting only when disruption is needed to move things according to Gods will.

Since 2011, I devoted my life to God, this happened when I get convert and be baptized to the church of Jesus Christ. I was still a babe spiritually. I learned many things in the Gospel and I felt the Love of my heavenly Father. I couldn't speak English back then when I joined the church, but through reading the scriptures daily, the Lord help me learn and understand the scriptures. Today, I can testify to you that I have read the bible many times from the start to the end. And most importantly, I teach the Gospel in English.