My Experience
For my practicum, I decided to expand on my experience in the College Mentors for Kids at UMD program. In addition to volunteering as a mentor in a 1-on-1 role with my little buddy, I served as an Activity Director and gained experience as the Vice President of Activity Planning for my chapter. The bulk of my time was spent in the virtual classroom, engaging with my little buddy or working as a member of staff over Zoom. Each week, I would help facilitate a meeting with other Activity Directors to plan weekly programming centered around topics including higher education, culture and diversity, and community service. Part of what made my experience so meaningful and unique was that I had the opportunity to participate in weekly activities that carried out the programming I was able to plan. This experience taught me a great about myself, the importance of building relationships, and how impactful sound communication can be.
I was fortunate to have already been a member of the College Mentors for Kids program prior to this practicum assignment. As a result, it was an easy process for me to identify my project and put it into action. I chose to reach out to my chapter president, Maddy Pease, to serve as my project supervisor, and she was more than willing to help out. Part of what made this a seamless process was that I had worked in this role without it functioning as a “job” in the past. I think this translates to any potential practicum (such as an internship) in the sense that it is much easier to perform work with any stakes if you can initially do that work either for free or without any stakes prior to that experience. Additionally, I believe it is crucial to remain open when choosing a practicum. Before I had joined College Mentors, I had planned to use my experience as a Camp Counselor for this assignment. Inevitably, things evolved, and my plan changed. I would recommend any future Media Scholars student to also have this mentality.
I learned so many valuable lessons from my practicum--most of which I did not anticipate to learn. The most universal lesson that I was able to witness firsthand was the importance of relationships. As a mentor, a member of staff, and a member of the organization at large, the best thing I had going for me throughout my experience was building relationships. With building relationships, I also learned that it is near impossible to forge any type of connection without putting in effort and committing to a goal. I was able to be far more impactful as a mentor to my little buddy towards the end of our time than at the beginning. I attribute this to knowing more about him as a person and having invested in our time. On staff, the only way that I can successfully trust my team and gain valuable feedback from others is if we have developed a positive relationship. Another important takeaway that I gained from this experience was an understanding that it is normal to fail. There were times that I would put together an activity that could have been more interactive, or times when I could have gone about explaining a topic to my little buddy in a better way. The bottom line is accepting that inevitability and approaching everything in life with a fearless, growth mindset.
I was fortunate to have already been a member of the College Mentors for Kids program prior to this practicum assignment. As a result, it was an easy process for me to identify my project and put it into action. I chose to reach out to my chapter president, Maddy Pease, to serve as my project supervisor, and she was more than willing to help out. Part of what made this a seamless process was that I had worked in this role without it functioning as a “job” in the past. I think this translates to any potential practicum (such as an internship) in the sense that it is much easier to perform work with any stakes if you can initially do that work either for free or without any stakes prior to that experience. Additionally, I believe it is crucial to remain open when choosing a practicum. Before I had joined College Mentors, I had planned to use my experience as a Camp Counselor for this assignment. Inevitably, things evolved, and my plan changed. I would recommend any future Media Scholars student to also have this mentality.
I learned so many valuable lessons from my practicum--most of which I did not anticipate to learn. The most universal lesson that I was able to witness firsthand was the importance of relationships. As a mentor, a member of staff, and a member of the organization at large, the best thing I had going for me throughout my experience was building relationships. With building relationships, I also learned that it is near impossible to forge any type of connection without putting in effort and committing to a goal. I was able to be far more impactful as a mentor to my little buddy towards the end of our time than at the beginning. I attribute this to knowing more about him as a person and having invested in our time. On staff, the only way that I can successfully trust my team and gain valuable feedback from others is if we have developed a positive relationship. Another important takeaway that I gained from this experience was an understanding that it is normal to fail. There were times that I would put together an activity that could have been more interactive, or times when I could have gone about explaining a topic to my little buddy in a better way. The bottom line is accepting that inevitability and approaching everything in life with a fearless, growth mindset.
Personal GrowthMy experience had such a strong emphasis on working with others, which is the greatest way I grew as a person in this role. In order to work effectively in teams, it is essential that all team members communicate. This was something that I learned to appreciate in this experience and am confident that it will prepare me well for my future. The picture depicted on the right is a screenshot from one of the staff meetings from this semester. In this meetings, we took advantage of the opportunity to get on the same page and communicate our ideas through multiple disciplines. My activity planning team met in breakout rooms. The engagement team presented their ideas, along with the fundraising team and programming team. Albeit I was only one individual in a program of nearly 100, this was a lesson in teamwork that everybody matters.
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College Mentors for Kids, Weekly Staff Meeting
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Career Development
Although my practicum experience, at its core, seems to narrowly translate to any career or profession that is not teaching, it is the intangible, interpersonal skills that I developed that will carry me far. Having the opportunity to stretch my comfort zone is something I cannot do on a regular basis. Sending cold emails to parents, drafting weekly meeting agendas, and tailoring activities to an individual are all skills that will be useful in any career. Above all, I feel lucky that I was able to find a position in which I could give back to a younger generation and genuinely enjoy the role. It was especially interesting being able to see the progression of my relationship with my little buddy and my relationships with other members of staff. If anything, I have found an organization that I love and a role in which I will continue to grow.
My Future
With two more years left of my college career, I am hoping to make the most of my time as a Terp. I plan to be adding a second major (either Operations Management and Business Analytics or Business Management) to go along with my Finance degree. I plan to apply what I have learned as a Media Scholar in my experiences, especially as a QUEST student. Something I look forward to doing as an upperclassman is gaining more hands-on experience. Through internships, externships, and other methods of gaining experience on campus, I am seeking ways to bridge the gap between what I learned in the classroom and my passions in the career search. After graduation, I am hoping to work in the sports field in a finance role. I am open to gaining experience in a more general, transferrable space before making the jump officially to sports. Networking with alumni, especially past members of cohorts in QUEST is one way I plan to build connections. Ultimately, I am confident that my experience working with College Mentors for Kids will be instrumental in my future!