Summer 2018

6 Minutes Read

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My Freshmen year of college went by a blur and in the Spring, I decided to apply for the Student Leader position happening in the summer. Now we get to my first-ever job where I get paid! This experience is about my role as a student leader for CSU, Chico’s Educational Talent Search in collaboration with Butte College in their Summer Connections Program. So, we had two student leader teams from Chico State and Butte College and we got paired up and each group was in charge of 20-25 students. My group was the green group and we were in charge of the oldest students. There were many components to this job besides being good student role models and supervising our students. We also had to take the Clifton Strengths test, attend a week of learning about Leadership at Butte College’s Leadership Academy, and make an All About Me presentation that we presented and shared with the whole program. (I’ve attached that on the side as well below.)

Through all of that, I felt confident in my training and role heading into the program before I met my students. My students were all great (might be a bit biased), there was a good balance of active students and some students who were more shy which was perfectly fine. I think about them and this experience from time to time and wonder where they are now. They are more than likely done with high school now and hopefully, they decided to pursue college. I realized how close my students and I are when they started to tease and roast me during the last week and a half. I think that made them feel more comfortable talking and working with me and at times, I saw that they began to emulate my behavior.

This was very evident in what I scored on the Clifton Strengths test. It was my first time ever taking it and seeing my top five strengths, I knew immediately that those were correct and very present during that time of my life. The context wasn’t a given but after reading more about it, it just fits perfectly with my reasoning to become a History major that it made total sense. As Learner, I always loved the process of things in life rather than the result. I believe that the journey and experiences from that overcomes the final destination. Even if that journey was filled with some of the most painful and mournful moments of my life, I can not deny that there were many lessons I learned through it all. With Restorative and Responsibility, I know what I have to do and if I put my time and effort into it, most of the time, I complete it and resolve it. With Consistency, it is very difficult to do, to be at peak performance and continue to put my words into action and do what I said/set out to do. Being consistent in how I interact with everyone, my mannerisms, behaviors, and mindset. Something that has helped me in this strength is hearing someone say “Never judge someone by where they are, because you do not know how far they have come.”

This is a part of this job that I want to talk about, and that is when I was voluntold to perform a spoken word in front of the students by one of my supervisors. IT WAS NOT PLANNED! I REPEAT, IT WAS NOT PLANNED! But little did I know, it was the push I needed to accept that I loved the spoken word. I was so freaking nervous but once I got up on stage and spit my game, everything just flowed out of me and I just ran with it. I also attached a picture below of one of my coworkers who texted me about the spoken word I did. I think something special about Diana believing in me is that sometimes in life, all we need is that extra push by someone and we can shine and fulfill that potential that they see in us. Thank you, Diana and Aurora for pushing me to be even better!

Overall, I don’t think I could’ve gotten a better first-ever paid job, one filled with great teammates, kind supervisors, and a great working environment. I truly felt blessed by this experience and the lessons that I learned from this, I learned so much that it is difficult to unpack it all. I remember it was difficult for me to come to terms that the duration of the program was ending because I knew I would miss the interactions I had with everyone at my workplace. I think if someone is able to experience a job that they truly love and enjoy when it is time to leave, a sense of happiness and sorrow will appear as they reflect and reminisce about that experience. I did my best and seeing the kind words my supervisor said about my performance really showed me that I kindness, hard work, passion, and compassion can take a person far in life and enhance the experiences we encounter.