Running head: REFLECTION ESSAY

Reflection on My Education
Lindsay King
Fontbonne University

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2
Reflection on my Education
Summary

Martin Luther King Jrs American Dream speech used many different areas of his
knowledge to capture the attention of the masses. He was passionate about his mission to end
racial discrimination and his speech conveyed the knowledge he had acquired throughout his
years, and he was able to share that knowledge with his audience in hopes that they would join
him in his mission. His speech is an example of how a lifetimes worth of knowledge and skills
can be combined together towards a mission.
As a future dietitian, I am currently and will continue to use the skills I have learned in
order to fulfill my passion for helping other people live healthful lives. My college experience
would not be the same if not for the Liberal Arts, and I will continue to draw upon these skills to
inspire and create change, in the same sense that Martin Luther King Jr. did.
Personal Experiences
There are many different things that led me to want to become a dietitian. The passion I
have for working with others, the reward of helping someone overcome a barrier, and the
excitement of seeing a person transform into a better version of themselves are all reasons that
led me into this field. For the past ten years I have worked in the hair and makeup industry and
although it has been rewarding, I always felt like I could be doing something more. I wanted to
use my skills to help people feel just as good on the inside as I could make them look on the
outside. I am also fascinated with the way the human mind works. Ever since I was little, yes
or no answers never satisfied me; I want to help people overcome personal barriers but I also

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want to know why those mental barriers exist in the first place. So I decided to return to college
with a dream of studying dietetics and psychology, which is where I am at today.
My college experience would not be as successful if I would have not first endured the
general education requirements in the years leading up to it. Reguardless of what anyone wants
to be when they grow up, there has to first be a foundation of knowledge to build upon. Some of
the skills that a person begins learning from the earliest years in school are the one that become
automatic over time, which is ironic because at the time I felt like Liberal Arts skills would never
be applicable to anything I would want to do in my future. But as I continue to advance through
my college career, I am realizing how useful that knowledge is because I am able to build upon it
and share it every day. I think that this foundation is so important because in order to become
specialized in a field, a person has to first have a firm grasp on the basics. In other words, one
must learn to walk before one can run.
The math skills I have learned have been utilized in Quantity Food Productions, where I
learned how to expand recipes and became familiar with the general language of the food service
industry. In Food Science, my scientific knowledge has played a role in helping me to
understand the chemistry behind cooking. It has also helped me with conducting experiments
and doing research for a project in Experimental Foods, where I spent the semester trying to alter
a traditional chocolate chip cookie into a healthier one. That project also required a foundation in
Literature when searching for scholarly articles to use in my research.
Social Sciences has helped me a great deal with my Psychology minor and also in
Nutrition Counseling when I was learning how to assess a persons readiness to change and
learning how to address psychological barriers that may keep a person from making the lifestyle

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changes they need to live more healthfully. Economics and government have come into play
during Advocacy and Public Policy, when helping to register people for SNAP and to vote
because I had to become familiar with the current laws and regulations surrounding supplemental
income, and the socioeconomic background of the community we worked in. It has also helped
with a grant writing assignment in Community Nutrition, where I reached out to policy makers in
hopes of making them more aware of current bills on nutrition education, and drafted a grant
proposal that would allow adolescents to participate in high quality nutrition education programs.
All areas of English have and will continue to be an important asset in my studies.
Communication and rhetoric are both essential when working with patients so learning how to
relate to people and being able to counsel them was something also learned in Nutrition
Counseling. I am also currently taking Cultural Competency through Food, which has already
begun to require me to use my communication skills in the lab. This class is also challenging me
to review my knowledge of the history of different cultures and religions and how food choices
are impacted by each.
Many classes have also required me to tap into my creative side and utilize my skills in
art. Decorating a classroom for a luncheon for Quantity Food Production, and creating a lesson
plan then having to perform in front of an audience are some examples. Lastly, technology has
been a huge part of my studies, and learning new technology continues to play a role in my
education. From using Food Processor for nutrition analysis, to writing this paper,
technological skills are essential because in todays economy, people rely on technology for
almost everything.
Martin Luther King Jr.s Comprehension

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Martin Luther King Jr. was a well-spoken, scholarly man who used many different areas
of Liberal arts to make his speech on attaining the American Dream so powerful and
persuasive. He drew on his own personal experiences, his interactions with different cultures, his
knowledge of history and philosophy to reach out to people of every different background and to
advocate for equal rights for all of mankind. The language King uses is very powerful and that
in itself is a compelling sector of Liberal Arts. He is able to speak and communicate with his
audience in a way that makes people not only listen, but actually hear what he is saying. His
personal experiences are an example of this because he conveys those experiences into messages
that others can learn from and be inspired by. For instance, he talks of his time in jail for civil
disobedience and nonviolent discipline. Even though he was thrown into the dungeon of
shame he remained dignified because if an individual has not discovered something that he
will die for, he isnt fit to live (King, 1964, p. 7). I think that message is inspiring on a
philosophical level because it inspires people to find something they are passionate about.
He also uses philosophy to convince his audience of his thesis. The first reference he
makes is Jewish philosopher Martin Bubers I-It relationship that people relate others with.
This supports his previous statement that racial discrimination must be uprooted from American
society because it is morally wrong. It is a new form of slavery covered up with certain
niceties of complexity (King, 1964). He also makes another philosophical reference later in his
speech when he speaks about the Greek language and the three loves and the love that Jesus
meant by love your enemy, which is an example of how he used Religion to relate to people.
He uses his own personal experiences to make a connection of geography, economics,
and statistics when he talks about his journey to India with his wife. He questions how people in
America spend so much money on unnecessary things while over 90% of Indias population

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makes less than $80 a year, and also states that African American families make a significant
dollar amount less than White families and also have a much higher unemployment rate (King,
1964, p. 2).
The ability of King to apply so many different areas of Liberal Arts in his speech is what
made it have such an impact on people. If the American Dream is to become a reality, he had
to capture the attention of all different types of people. Everyone has a different background,
different interests, and different concerns. In order to relate to everyone, his speech had to
address all of those different aspects.
Liberal Arts is the foundation that every person must build upon in order to further their
knowledge. The fact that MLK was speaking at a college, at a time when continued education
was not within arms reach for everyone, speaks volumes on the integrity and authenticity of
Martin Luther King Jr.
Impact on Future Learning
Having a strong understanding of Liberal Arts will help me to advance in my current
studies in many ways. The science that I have learned helps me to understand the mechanisms
behind the different ways that nutrition affects the mind and body. This will help me with my
critical thinking skills when working with patients and making nutrition diagnosis, as well as the
intervention process so that I can help people to make choices based on their health needs. Math
skills will come in handy in calculating energy and nutrient requirements for patients. The
English and technology skills will come in handy when applying for internships and going on job
interviews because people skills are essential in the dietetics profession. Being able to

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communicate with varieties of people is what I think will help me to excel, and because I have an
understanding of the psychology of human nature, I will be able to relate to a wider audience.
All fields of Family and Consumer Sciences aspire to reach out to other people and to
help others help themselves, and then to spread that knowledge to others. As a future dietitian
my goal is to help as many people as I can feel their best so that they can live a fulfilling life and
then touch other peoples lives. In order to do so I think it is important to use many different
perspectives of liberal arts, just as King did in his speech. My opinion is that I did not learn all
of the things I have learned to keep to myself, so if I can use my skills to help other people learn,
I will be successful in reaching out to others.
Knowledge is a never ending journey that requires an open mind. The only way to
strengthen my abilities to teach from a liberal arts perspective is to keep learning more about
liberal arts. I will do so by listening to others, being engaged in my future career and being open
to new ideas and technology because most new ideas came from a branch of an old idea, which
will eventually be a part of history that we will teach future generations about.