Core Competency Reflection

Personal Awareness & Responsibility:

Strengths:

1. I take personal responsibility for my choices and actions.

Changing a country of living has taught me a variety of responsibilities expected from

me as an adult, although still being a teenager. An example of it includes in my ability to
be responsible for any documents I had to deal with coming to Canada since my mother
does not speak English at all. Applying for visa, checking due dates for any medical
examinations or applications such as CUAET visa, driver’s license, BC Services card, SIN
appointments etc. I decided to help with this process and never disappointing myself or
my mom as I have succeeded in completing this process, never being late or worse
losing any essential documents.

2. I understand my decisions and actions can affect me.

During my teenager years I have changed 3 schools, and one of the reasons why is that I
wanted to be better and better. In my middle school I was the A+ student, which made
me feel I do not get an appropriate education if it is that easy to get an A+ mark. Hence,
my decision to transfer from a regular school to a lyceum feared my parents that I will
lose my A+ score. Which I knew would happen. However, I still tried to pass the exam
and get into the Lyceum. My decision of course affected my life starting with grades and
ending with friends I have made and have lost. Eventually, finishing Lyceum I did not
only get much more knowledge, which helped me in the future, I also made my parents
proud for making a crucial decision and making something out of it for myself.

Weakness:

1. I can express my needs and seek help when needed.

My weakness is in being unable to ask for help when needed. No matter how hard it is
emotionally or physically for me to deal with any issue, I will never ask someone to help
me. Perhaps it is because I am used to solving problems independently, but sometimes
it causes the trouble to become bigger. An example is again in the Lyceum, when I
struggled with chemistry, I never asked my friends or teacher to help me. It was easier
for me to type in the topic we were discussing in YouTube and then figure it out by
myself. I ended up spending much more time of schoolwork at home, when I was able
to ask my teacher to help me and finish it at school right away. The feeling of lost time
has been putting pressure on me throughout the years spent there.

Social Responsibility:

Strengths:

1. I value diversity, defend human rights, advocate for others, and act
ethically in all my interactions, including online.

One of my best friends has experienced a bullying in my elementary school and after
that I am continuously helping those people who is/has experienced this. I was only in
3d grade when the boys started to call my friend “fatty patty” or referring to her “she is
not a girl she is a burger”. This was out of the line and had to be dealt with. The worst
part is that teacher did not really care about it and was just saying “stop it boys”. When I
asked a teacher for help because my friend was too terrified to deal with it, I got a
response “Boys are still children. They do not know what they are doing.” I do
understand her perspective and why would she say it, however after all these years I am
still amused how a mature teacher did not understand that what the girl is going
through will impact her life in the future. Me, a young girl, reached out to the parents of
my best friend and only after that parents have gone through some conversations with
boys’ parents. Even after they apologized and never did it again my friend still
remembers every second of the fear she experienced.

2. I can identify and appreciate different perspectives on issues and use and
evaluate strategies to resolve problems

Working at the restaurant it is important to understand that it is a fast-paced

environment and how important is it to be calm under pressure. I had an idea of it
before I found a job as a hostess, however actually dealing with guests takes some
courage and patience. For example, if a person performs actions such as being rude
towards us at the front desk it had to be dealt with carefully. Me personally, I have
never asked a manager to deal with a guest and took initiative to resolve it by myself.
After you talk to a guest and try to understand why they are doing or trying to get the
idea of their perspective, you understand them! The honest responses you give to
guests impact the way they are acting. Hence it is important to look at things under
different angles because you can also learn something new for yourself or even help out
a person.

Weakness:
 1. I have positive peer and intergenerational relationships.

I cannot say that I am unable to find high-quality friendships that “involve not only
companionship, but also caring, validation, and support”. Only reason for me
considering it is my weakness is me tending to be lonely most of the times and liking it.
When the things you are focusing in your life is studying and working it is hard to
combine with your personal life. When I was in 6 th grade I had to move houses and my
family ended up living in the small village, where the only house on the whole dark
street was ours. We did not have any neighbors and it took 2 hours to get into the town,
where were all my friends. It was honestly hard to stay connected with them, hence I
decided to focus on learning and improving. Sometimes I regret choosing this path,
however it helped me a lot in Canada to pass my classes excellently!

Critical Thinking:

Strengths:

1. I can analyze and make defensible judgements, draw conclusions, and

consider a variety of perspectives.

I am a very curious person, and have always been wondering about questions that might
seem stupid or even philosophy questions such as “what happens after death?” since
childhood. I believe that being curious about what, how, when and where proves my
wide range of interests and looking for different perspectives. I like referring to the
quote “One head is good, but two is better” since I get to hear various opinions and
challenge the influence on my own opinion. Example of it is that I could never decide
what I want to do in the future cause my interests are changing every day, however I am
quite sure now with what I want to pursue after graduation after listening to many
people that experienced this process.

2. I can assess my process.

If I finish doing a particular project, I will never hand it in without reviewing and making
sure it is almost perfect. Not sure how I ended up with these opinions of excellence
because it had been like this from kindergarten. Every teacher that has ever taught me
told me I am being too hard on myself, and I like judging the processes and my
accomplishments to figure out how to improve myself.

Weakness:
 1. I can ask good quality questions, gather relevant information, and come
up with well-developed conclusions.

As I already mentioned I am being either too shy to ask a question or too stubborn to
admit that I cannot figure out the issue by myself. Example of it is again my chemistry
teacher that had an impact on my education in the future. As of right now I am
improving this weakness y asking questions the teachers in my current school and
projecting plans for the next few years of my life at college and work.\

Creative Thinking:

Strengths:

1. I can create new and unique ideas that may provide new perspectives that
influence how people think about topics.

I believe that this is one of my strengths as I am being very serious about my opinions
and do not know to which extent I can go to prove my perspective. As an example of it is
one of my friend’s hated working in fast-paced environment and I have a job in a very
busy restaurant that expects from you a lot of engaging and patience. I know there are
people with different interests, however my friend was proving to me why this work is
making me unhappy and many other people. I demonstrated to her positive sides of the
job as well as negative to show that I do see her own perspective and trying to
understand. After long discussions on this topic my friend decided to work at the same
restaurant with me and have been working there 5 months so far liking it!

2. I can use the environment around me, including others, and my

unconscious mind to generate new ideas.

Despite our values and intentions, we may have some other goal that conflicts with our
new resolution. I am truly committed to achieve something without getting influenced
by others, however I like being criticized, hence hearing their opinions. By
acknowledging these unconscious influences on us, we actually increase the amount of
free will that we have. Foe example, if I would want to start a diet I will do it right away
and never wait for tomorrow. The same thing with the task, I will never eat something
before I finish homework.

Weakness:

1. I can preserve and understand that failure can be productive.

I understand that people learn from mistakes and that is what shaping our experience in
different fields. However, I love being perfect in everything at the beginning and it is
never like that in life. It may be hard realizing that I have just failed, but I will do
everything to overcome it. An example of it is me being getting a C+ in chemistry in my
summer school because I have just only started working and it was hard to keep up. My
grade has improved to A until the end of the class because I have committed to get an A
no matter what I face. Eventually I did, but it still hard for me to realize word “failing”.

Communication:

Strengths:

1. I can engage in deep and meaningful inquiry for a variety of purposes and
audiences.

My job is a hostess in a restaurant, which means one of the duties is to sit people to
their tables. To not make It awkward I always start a conversation with a guest with
“How is your day going so far?”. People with different experiences and huge range of
ages coming there every day and I get to hear a lot from some of people since they do
not know me and feel comfortable opening up about problems they are struggling with.
I do like being helpful. So I am not only paying attention to every work I also keep up
with the conversation and give recommendations.

2. I can work with other students to plan, inquire, and solve problems.

In everyday life people must be a good team players and I believe I am one of them. The
reason for it is every time I am assigned in a group to achieve a good-looking
project/product, we always succeed. In my math project I made sure that everyone is
assigned their roles and commits enough time to the project. I feel responsible for
anything I am assigned to do and ask for any help if I need it. If anyone inquired me
about issues faced I was doing my best to answer them and tried to engage with the
whole group to make sure participants are satisfied.

Weakness:

1. I can listen, learn to contribute meaningfully to discussion and debate,

consider different perspectives, and build consensus.

Consensus enables everyone who is affected by a decision can work together to find
solutions that meet everyone's needs. It is important to work with each other rather
than against each other. It helps to build a stronger community and consensus relies on
us respecting other people's needs and opinions, and being open and honest about our
own needs. My weakness is that I will never face that I need help from someone, but I
am aiming to improve it. For me it is much more crucial for everyone to feel comfortable
and satisfied and only in the end looking at what I need. Examples of the teams are any
school clubs and my work team at the front desk.

Personal & Cultural Identity:

Strengths:

1. I understand that culture is a broad concept that includes things like my

geographic region, nationality, sex/gender age, ethnicity, sexuality,
language, and religion.

As a person who faced bullying because of the language I speak, I totally understand the
importance of being respectful to any human being with different interests. I am proud
of being Ukrainian and will never refuse from accepting it. Same thing goes for any
person with various geographic regions, nationality, sex/gender age, ethnicity etc. and I
am looking forward to and ready to help anyone who is in need or is scared to ask for
help!

2. I understand how what I value has and will shape my choices.

The beliefs and values I have right now have been shaped from my experiences and
things my family taught me in the childhood. Every human have faced or will face and it
is important to understand how it will impact your life. My first priority in life is my
family, hence the choices I will be making will be focused on my parents and their well-
being. Same thing with any other choices – I have to find the priorities and start off from
that.

Weakness:

1. I understand what is important to me.

I do have an idea of what can be important for me, however it can change depending on
my responsibilities and consequences from decisions. It can be either family, health,
money, education or helping people. It requires a deep thinking to figure out what I
want from life, but I am looking forward to improving it. Essential part is to realize that we
can't have everything at any given point in our lives - we must make some difficult
trade-offs. For me right now my family and their health are at first place, and then
everything else is after.