Volunteer Experiences I have participated in a wide variety of volunteer opportunities throughout my five years as a student at the University of Montana.

Two experiences in particular, however, have had an especially strong impact on my life. The first of these experiences is Peer Advising through the Undergraduate Advising center at the University. I was recruited to this program in February 2007, and I was an active advisor for the remainder of my time on campus, until May 2011. Peer Advising was an incredibly rewarding experience, one that has shaped my professional and instructional skills. I learned how to interact with students in a professional setting, deliver information clearly and concisely, and relate to a divers population of advisees. I worked with students of many races, nationalities, socioeconomic and academic backgrounds, and gender identities, as well as students with disabilities. This diverse group of people helped me learn to listen carefully before offering information or advice, vary my instruction and the information I present, and lead me to many amazing resources on campus that I was unaware of before. Peer advising was an amazing opportunity to help my fellow students. I was an academic advisor, serving a caseload of approximately thirty students each semester. As I assisted them in choosing appropriate classes and directed them to resources, I met a lot of like-minded people and learned a lot about them and about myself. The second volunteer experience that I feel had an especially large impact on me was through Flagship. I taught two after-school Spanish classes at Franklin Elementary January through May 2011; one class was for second and third grade students, and the other was for fourth and fifth graders. Teaching for Flagship was incredibly fun, because I had the opportunity to collaborate with other language instructors to create a curriculum based on fun, games, and interaction, three things that I consider indispensable in the foreign language classroom. Flagship also gave me the opportunity to teach foreign language at the elementary level, which is not an age group that I had much experience with before. My students ranged in age from seven to eleven, so I learned a lot about teaching many differently aged elementary students. Lastly, Flagship allowed me to greatly improve my classroom management skills. I had never been completely in charge of a room of students before, and I learned to effectively promote on-task behavior and discourage misbehavior. These skills have proved invaluable during my student teaching experience.