Sagar Aggarwal M 03918474

University Honors Program Experiential Learning Reflective Essay for Leadership Learning Community Peer Leader Fall 2013

Before accepting my job as a Peer Leader for fall 2013 semester, I was excited about the prospect of helping first year students. I had been a part of a learning community the spring quarter of my freshmen year, and had an amazing experience that really helped me adjust to college life. I met a lot of people from my major and we formed study groups which are still continuing. My peer leader was able to help me adjust to college in general as well as helping to meet with the faculty, advisors, and other students in my major. For my learning community students, I wanted to make sure that they did not make the mistakes that I had. I thought I would just support them academically to assist them in succeeding. Little did I know that I was going to be impacted more than I have probably impacted them. This job has surpassed my expectations and helped me truly understand how I can best assist my Learning Community. My Peer Leader assignment was to lead an Architectural/ Civil Engineering Learning Community. Not being a civil/ architectural engineering student myself, I was nervous that I wouldnt be able to provide for them and give them the experience I had gotten.

Going into this experience, my goals as a learning community peer leader were to be able to help these incoming freshmen adjust to the overall college experience, develop study skills, and set attainable and reasonable goals. Also, personally I wanted to hone my leadership and interpersonal skills. I wanted to help them form friendships and study groups within the learning community. I planned to introduce them to upperclassmen and provide them with the views of other UC students, primarily co-op experiences. I wanted to help them connect and develop relationships with their advisors so they can prepare to have the best experience possible at the University of Cincinnati. Also, having an engineering program learning community which was not the same as my major, I didnt want the students to miss out on anything related to architectural/civil engineering and ensure that they understood what was expected of them and were doing everything they can to have a valuable experience at the College of Engineering and Applied Science here at UC.

Connecting with students played a vital part in the success of the learning community. There are various ways to do this, depending on the situation, as there are different ways to connect with students in the learning community and outside of it. Inside the learning community, I found it
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best to usually communicate with the learning community as a whole, however when there was a student who seemed to be on the outside or wasnt in tune with what is going on, I tried to connect with the student on an individual level and try to involve them, but definitely not call them out in front of the whole learning community. In order to connect with the students in the learning community outside of meetings, I gave them my cell phone number and personal email and encouraged them to contact me with any problems they might have. Also, mentoring meetings were a great way to connect with the students, especially when they are one-on-one. There were some students who did not feel comfortable meeting individually, and so I them in small groups, but I made sure the setting was different than a typical meeting so theyll felt more comfortable opening up to me. Also asking questions that require longer answers, not just a simple yes or no, got them talking, and most students started to come up with things to talk about on their own.

There were some students in the learning community who were not able to achieve the high caliber of performance required by the College of Engineering and Applied Science, and in a case such as that, I helped them schedule meetings with their advisor. And if that did not help either I helped that student find a different major that was more suitable for him or her. Before I took on this position and during the training, I had created a vision that would create the most successful and ideal atmosphere where students are feel free to discuss their thoughts and their problems. As the semester progressed, the vision developed further, and I encouraged the students to interact more with their teachers, and also encouraged them to become more involved on campus by joining a few groups and organizations if they hadnt done so, and if they had, to perhaps take on a larger role in that group or organization.

As the fall semester came to a close, I saw my learning community complete and accomplish much of the things that I had in my vision. I believe that overall, being a member of the learning community I played a part in and enhanced their adjustment to college. We completed several goal activities throughout the quarter and they were able to discuss among themselves what goals they felt were achievable and reasonable in three areas: academic goals, personal goals, and professional goals. These goals will help them excel academically and personally throughout their college career, which also assisted their overall adjustment to college. I know that several of the students became close friends, and hung out often outside of the learning community to not only study, but also attend social events such as sporting events and other campus activities together as well as just hanging out together during the week. Having achieved this was a big thing. Throughout the semester, I also had a couple of upperclassmen from their major come talk to the learning community about their co-op experiences and helped the students understand more about architectural/civil engineering, therefore hopefully giving them more information to make a more knowledgeable decision about whether they were in the right major. I also had their
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advisor come in and speak with them, giving them more information about what it takes to excel at the College of Engineering and Applied Science here at UC.

Also, some of the kids realized that they didnt want to be engineers. These students that no longer wanted to be engineers felt comfortable enough to come to me and speak with me about wanting to switch. I then directed and helped them into other paths that were more suited for them. In spite of that, I would score the learning communities progress along the vision path as a 8. We came a long way and accomplished almost everything that we had set out for us to achieve. My effect as a peer leader was to help them accomplish all of the goals that I set out for the learning community to accomplish as well as to assist them in achieving the short term goals that they set for themselves as well as be on track with their long term goals.

In retrospect, being a learning community peer leader taught me two great leadership lessons. First, I had to get along with many different types of people. And rather than wishing they were like me, I learned from their diversity, their approaches to their job and the different ways they interacted with me. Today, when I meet people, I routinely ask: What is this persons good qualities and what can I learn? This is one of the most powerful tools I have available to me as a leader. People intuitively know when you are looking for the best in themand that it is critically important in creating followership. The second leadership lesson was the value of trust. My peer leader captain Sarah and Bee Nash showed me something incredible in the moment they trusted me to become a peer leader. They communicated his belief in me. Due to this I spent the fall semester incredibly motivated to do the best job possible.

During the summer of 2013, I took the exploring leadership seminar during which we studied the book Leadership: Theory and Practice by Dr. Peter G. Northouse. To properly define and understand leadership, we studied around twenty different leadership theories and approaches like the trait approach, skills approach, and leader member exchange theory. To expand your knowledge of leadership we watched a lot of videos on leadership and read book by Maxwell, Gladwell. Throughout the course we were trying to understand our what leadership theory should be applied to different situations by going over different case studies. We also did different activities to outside the class to learn how different kinds of people perceive leadership. This course really helped me during my time as a learning community peer leader. Throughout the semester I tried a mixture of several theories. This helped me form my own leadership approach which was similar to the situational leadership approach. It was based on the fact that one needs modify his leadership style based on the situation and group ones leading.

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Looking at my performance review with my Peer Leader Captain, Sarah and judging by the scores I received, I had achieved the expectations of the job and I would say that my strengths lie in the areas of encouraging the students and being a good connector. I am a little weaker in the areas of organizing and communicating with my peer leader captain. Also, I seemed to be strongest in actively listening, and treating others with respect, while I seemed to lack in fostering cooperative relationships and just getting back to my peer leader captain through email. I would agree with the review and would try to improve it in the future.

I believe that I can become a better peer leader by trying to work on the areas that I seem to be weak in. I would really like to enhance my performance in these areas and I believe that by doing so, I will become a better leader and also be a better example for the students in my learning community. After talking with my peer leader captain and identifying my weaknesses, I plan to focus more strongly on these areas and make sure I focus on them while Im planning and leading any organization events.

Thus far, being a peer leader in general has been an overwhelming and memorable experience. Creating a bond with several incoming freshmen and being a part of their adjustment to college has been truly rewarding. I feel that I have successfully enhanced these students adjustment to college, which has made the experience so amazing for me. Specifically, the one-on-one mentoring sessions were most memorable, because I feel that I was able to create a special bond with each student and therefore assist him or her further in their personal development. I feel that I was successful in this area, which makes me feel proud and truly appreciate being a peer leader. Overall, this has been an exceedingly unforgettable experience that I was and am extremely happy to be a part of.