Overall, I have learned a few important things this semester:
- It is essential for me to start the semester with a concrete plan and schedule to keep myself on track with all of my goals, especially with regard to my ADHD. Otherwise, non-graded work gets pushed to the back burner, and I am unable to grow my resume, or develop my interests and skills outside of the classroom.
- The best way for me to learn is by making human connections. The most informative experiences of this course were the ones that had me work directly with other people (the Gordon Career Center events, career advisor meetings, and informational interviews). This makes sense, as I tend to exceed in interpersonal communication and collaboration. It is important for me to play to my strengths in this way. This also bodes well for me as someone who wants to go into a field that heavily relies on these skills.
- I still have a lot of work to do! The other four competencies are equally as important, so in the coming semesters, as I work toward applying to med school, I will focus on concretely developing these competencies (as well as the others out of the 14 that the AAMC highlights) to ensure I am prepared for working in the field of medicine.
While I appreciated the opportunity to develop all these skills, I must say, this course was not what I was expecting. When September originally posed the opportunity to take this course to the Peer Health Advocates, she described it as being able to “get credit for our work as a PHA.” However, what I came to realize (unfortunately too late) was that this is not really the case–this course serves more to develop you career skills and plans. Though I do not plan on taking this course again, I know that I can at the very least apply the skills I learned to my work as a PHA next semester. I already have plans in the works with September to lead at least on of our PHA meetings to educate the advocates on the abortion process–something about which I am very passionate! Hopefully, I can make early enough plans with her to expand that education to the rest of the Wesleyan community.
