CLP Reflection

Kali Durost

Foxdale Village

Experienced: 11/17/2022

Submitted: 11/27/2022
 ● Introduction:

For my chosen experience, I decided to choose Foxdale Village’s Fall Ball event. The event took

place on the 17th of November with us needing to be there by 6:00 and residents to enter the

floor at around 7. The agency I dealt with was Foxdale Village, with our main form of

communication going through Jeannine Shade. The population was over a dozen elderly

residents who participated in several dances in their ballroom.

● Preparation/training: Review the planning sessions.

The planning sessions took place almost immediately after initially signing up for the event. We

were emailed right away with an introduction of what was to come and a potential Zoom meeting

to take place. Both myself and Camila were able to join the zoom call on a Thursday morning

that allowed us to get a better sense of what we needed to do on our side of things and how we

could run the event more smoothly. Resources like adequate communication and a powerpoint

slide with a quick run through greatly helped myself and my peers to run the program. The only

downfall I felt needed to be communicated better was if we were to do the planning steps alone

or through a group. I think all of us felt unsure for this part and Camila, Carrie, and myself were

able to form our own group chat to better plan for the event.

● Coordination/Support: Describe the support you received from the agency in terms of

expectations, client needs, etc.

The agency was very effective in communicating with us. I found Jeannine to be extremely

helpful in guiding us through the process and the initial event that took place. I found I

communicated very well with her and was able to be included in several email conversations, as

well as was only one of the two to join the Zoom call.
 ● Self Evaluation: Provide an evaluation of your performance.

My biggest success following the event was my participation. I found that even in times of

uncomfort, I still managed to engage with the residents and get my peers involved as well. My

biggest reward came from the follow up thank you’s as the event wrapped up. Many residents

came over and conversed with us about the work we put in and their feelings about us supporting

their event. A weakness that came with the program was not knowing enough. I think because

we were also learning what to do it felt like we were sometimes on the same level of

understanding as the residents were. However, this really allowed me to improve my style of

leadership and allowed me to quickly adapt to the environment.

● Participants: In this section describe how the participants reacted to the program.

As I mentioned previously, I had many residents come talk with us afterwards to discuss the

night and the futures we had in store for us. While I don’t remember the name of the resident, we

did have a nice conversation with a fellow professor at Penn State who held a good conversation

with us all. During our talk, he mentioned that experiences really help him gain a warm feeling

with the other residents and allow him to socialize and feel connected with the group. He also

shared that we should come more often because it’s important to be active in the community. I

would’ve like to improve the experience for residents by being more knowledgeable prior to the

event. I think maybe knowing more dances or having the set list prior would’ve been easier to

manage engagement.

● Overall Reflections:

I would love to participate in this type of program again. I really enjoyed getting to become more

knowledgeable with historical dances and spending some time with the retired community. Some
takeaways that I can take from this experience for my future career endeavors include gratitude,

compassion, engagement, and social awareness.