The work I have done in this Leadership course has promoted the development of an assortment of skills from building digital literacy, a global perspective and learning how to work well in groups. I have learned how to set up an online digital portfolio for future employers through this course, something that I have never seen myself doing before. I have also learned the importance of monitoring closely everything I put online because it will never go away and it’ll always be available for future employers or peers to see.
Another important lesson this LDR course has taught me was perspective. While having these engaging conversations with my peers and professor, I realized how different our point of views and opinions were based on a variety of different factors. These factors could range from our racial or ethnic background, where we grew up, our gender or sexual identity and etc. These conversations allowed me to see issues such as racial and gender inequality from different perspectives and have open-minded discussions on how different communities are affected. I think this was especially beneficial for me going forward because of the variety of people I will be surrounded by and engaging with for the next 3 years at Agnes and in the workplace.
This LDR 101 course has also helped me in building my teamwork skills, especially during the COIL project in which we had the opportunity to partner with students from Zayed University located in the United Arab Emirates. I think this project was a big learning experience for me due to the fact that it wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be, and everything certainly did not go as planned. I definitely had to learn how to adapt quickly to sudden changes and overcome the communication barriers as everyone had different schedules and the UAE students were on different time zones. I also felt like I had to take some time to really identify what skills I was bringing forward and I felt adaptability as well as harmony were my two strengths that I contributed most to the group.
Overall, this course was a great learning opportunity in getting the chance to learn about women in politics and how it varies throughout the world. I also think my experience in this course was especially unique because we got to learn and discuss how women leaders handled a global pandemic differently than men due to current events. Also due to current events, we had the opportunity to talk about the large presence of the Black Lives Matter movement, the difference in response for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and the 2020 election which features the first Black and Indian female Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Furthermore, this course has helped me build useful skills I would need for the next couple years of undergraduate, grad school, and beyond. I think I am now more prepared to identify my strengths and engage with my peers than I was before I started, and I am excited for what else Agnes has to offer.
