Core Competency Reflection

Personal Awareness and responsibility:

Strengths:

A) I am learning to take care of myself.

Keyword: learning. I haven’t always taken care of myself, specifically mentally. Last year was a bad year
for me mentally and I’m slowly learning I need to take care of myself. Before I can contribute anything to
the world, I need to be the best version of myself possible. With that comes caring for myself.

B) I take personal responsibility for my choices and actions.

I know when I do wrong. After an argument, I’m willing to admit where I went wrong and where I will
need to improve. I strongly believe that to learn from our mistakes, we must take responsibility for them
first. If we don’t acknowledge where we went wrong how will we ever move on?

Where Would I like to improve:

a) I am personally responsible, self-motivated, and can advocate for myself.

I’ve always carried personal responsibility with me; however, my self-motivation and self-advocacy need
some work. I am self-motivated only by the fear of failure. I tend to procrastinate things until the last
second when failure faces me, then do a 180 and turn it all around. I’m aware that this isn’t good for me
and is something I need to work on. I face the same problem with my self-advocacy. Teachers and
parents have constantly said that I’m a very good self-advocate, but I only advocate for myself when I
truly need to. I’ll only reach out for help when I’m truly scared of failing and I need to learn to do it
before it gets bad.

Social Responsibility

Strengths:

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

There are always multiple sides to a story. Before choosing where to go next or what to say next in any
given situation I try an analyze it from every perspective. I strongly believe that we need to have an open
mind if we’re willing to solve a situation. Very often I find myself the third party in a situation. I’m always
the friend in the middle caught in the crossfire. Being here multiple times has taught me to value
different perspectives and learn that nothing is ever black and white. No one is ever entirely right and no
one is ever entirely wrong. Because of this, I try and always look at things from multiple perspectives.

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

Though I have this listed as a strength there is always room for improvement. I try and act ethically in all
my interactions though sometimes the situation gets the better of me. I try and shut down rude
stereotypical and oppressive comments however, sometimes the given situation and social power gets
the better of me. Though I can improve with my in-the-moment interactions I find I’m pretty good at
reaching out to people after. I’m better at dealing with the aftermath than in the moment.

Where Would I like to improve:

a) I am aware of my community and environment and work independently and collaboratively for
the benefit of others.

I often find myself working for selfish motivation instead of community-based motivation. This class and
the capstone project have me appallingly aware of this and I wish to change that. Most projects I finish
are for personal achievement, and most volunteering I do is to be with friends or put on a resume.
They’re all selfish motives and I want to change that. I want to finish a project because it helps others
and I want to volunteer to help my community.

Critical Thinking

Strengths:

a) I can analyze and make defensible judgments, draw conclusions, and consider a variety of
perspectives.

As I’ve already stated, viewing things from a variety of perspectives has always been a strong suit of mine
though this stretches beyond social to my academics. I can remember learning about law and debate in
the sixth grade. We were debating something silly like “is cereal a soup,” I remember seeing that it was a
two versus 20 fight and asking the teacher to switch even though the other side didn’t align with my true
value. I’ve always been able to consider multiple perspectives and draw conclusions within this and make
defensible judgments.

b) I can explore and create new ways to represent my learning around a variety of problems,
events, issues, and needs.

I’m typically the kid to misunderstand the assignment, and even when I do I take my own creative twist
on it. Often, I have to resubmit assignments because I didn’t understand them, sometimes though I don’t
have to. I can remember one time having a teacher tell me my interpretation was better than the
assignment they began with and changed it for his next year’s class. I thrive the best when given creative
freedom.

Where Would I like to improve:

a) I can ask good-quality questions, gather relevant information, and come up with well-developed
conclusions.

I always have questions to ask, information to gather and conclusions to be made. However, I’m not
always on topic and sometimes must stretch to make my point. My essays sometimes consist of
meaningless information that isn’t exactly on topic. Staying on topic with my work is challenging
however it is something I have been aware of for a while and working towards improving.

Creative Thinking
Strengths:

a) I can persevere and understand that failure can be productive.

I’ve always valued failure- quite possibly more than success. Failure teaches us things success could
never. Every time I’m faced with a bump in the road, I just see it as an opportunity to learn and grow.
Reflecting on my learning I’ve learned an incredible more from every test I’ve failed and project I haven’t
done good on. Once you’re met with that 50/50 or 100% your learning stops. You’re at the top, how
could you do any better? My goal is never to fail though, I just have learned to value it with time.

b) I can create new and unique ideas that may provide new perspectives that influence how people
think about a topic.

I’ve always been drawn to art; an artist’s objective is to influence how people think. I’d be on the wrong
career path if this was one of my weaknesses. There is always room for improvement and not everything
I create is going to draw to others generate their thinking. I think for now I’m content with the audience
my creations do attract.

Where Would I like to improve:

a) I can take my ideas evaluate, develop, and refine them and make something productive out of
them

I am very quick to point out what I did wrong and where I went wrong but I can improve upon taking
that knowledge and bettering it. I need to work on taking my failure and correcting my mistakes. I need
to get better at correcting my test in red marker or taking different actions moving forward. In a nutshell,
I need to be better at learning from my mistakes.

Communication

Strengths:

a) I can engage in a deep and meaningful inquiry of a variety of purposes and audiences

Deep conversations and uncomfortable topics are something I enjoy. However, I know not everyone
enjoys them and so I approach every conversation with caution and awareness for the other person or
group. I enjoy hearing other people’s points of view as well and I believe this to be a strength that will do
me good in the real world.

b) I can reflect on the processes of learning and share what I have learned.

When I understand a topic, I understand a topic and have no fear of sharing that with others. I’m more
than happy and willing to share what I have learned with those around me. Ask me to teach you how to
draw- I can do that. However, if you ask me to teach you any basic math skill I will redirect you. I know
my strengths and weaknesses within my learning and I’m not shy to show that.

Where Would I like to improve:

a) I can work with other students to plan, inquire, and solve problems.
Group work has never been a found strength of mine. It is something I am working on though. Often
times the teacher will set a project, I will come up with an idea and then, I will be told that it’s a group
project. Once we’re in our groups I find it hard to manage and maintain all the ideas flowing at one
another. Group work is something I will have to deal with in the real world and is something I’ve been
working on.

Personal & Cultural Identity

Strengths:

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

I know what/whom I value impacts all my decisions and has since shaped who I am. If I didn’t value my
family many of my experiences would have never happened. I would have never missed that day last
year to go to the aquarium with all my cousins. I would have never gone to visit my cousins ranch during
the summer. All these moments are core memories that have helped shape who I am today.

b) I understand how to use my strengths and abilities to my advantage and can explain how I use
them to contribute to my community.

I tend to think I’m very good at understanding my strengths and weaknesses and implicating them into
the world. I think I’m good at offering my creative perspective to situations and people who may struggle
with creativity. I don’t think these actions are large enough to contribute to the community but they
have helped some people. With an understanding, of my strengths, there’s an understanding of my
weaknesses. I will never help someone with math because I understand that’s an area I need help with
myself.

Where Would I like to improve:

a) I understand culture is a broad term that includes things like my geographic region, nationality,
sex/gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality, language, and religion.

These are all things I know but wish I applied to the real world better. I wish some of my decisions and
actions were based on my culture. I’m very quick to wash away my culture or say that I don’t one.
Culture is a sensitive topic for many people and one I’ve found to avoid within myself. I want to find my
culture and act to truly understand it.