Sheronda King E-Portfolio Review Chapter 7-11 Chapter 7 E-Portfolio Review What cultural difference have you encountered

in your internship? I have experience many different cultural difference at Vision Quest. Many of the staff at Vision Quest has different ways of communicating. I was raised differently because my family is from Guyana. It is required to always greet people while engaging in a conversation. Every day, I walk into the office and greet everyone individually, but I have noticed some workers do not even speak. They come in the office and go straight into their mini cube without greeting individuals. I am not used to people just walking pass without greeting other with a good morning, good afternoon or how are you doing today. What insight have you gained about your own culture and social location? I come from a well discipline family, and I have noticed that many of my clients do not get discipline for action. What I say discipline, it can range from having a punishment or reinforce to correct the action of the individual. Many of the clients do not have a parent who is consistently in engaged in their well-being. I learned that times have changed and the childrens behaviors have also change. I realized that they way I was raised and discipline, probably does not help the children in our society now. What has been your greatest cultural change and how are you dealing with them?

In my family, an adult was also able to correct any behaviors or discipline a child. My hardest challenge is being able to sit back keep my cultural belief from interfering with how I engage with each client. Sometimes I can feel like I am big sister or aunt to these youth. I have learned that when I become to passionate in helping a child, I need to take break from reviewing his/her case and then get back into my work mode. Sometimes, I have to remind myself that this work and not my home, so that I can continue to function on a professional level.

How do you assess your current level of skills in working with people who are culturally different from you? I assess my current levels of skills by looking back to how my communication has increased, and how comfortable I have become over the last couple weeks. I have learned to continue to greet people and show the same respect regardless of the difference in the culture. What are your goals as you continue to develop your skills in working with divers groups?

A goal that I would like to accomplish is to continue accepting people as they are. Another goal is to not become offensive because of the different ways people communicate. I want to become a factual person, and not to take any cultural difference to a personal level.

Chapter 8 E-Portfolio Review What do you see I as you strength and weakness in written and oral reports? As an intern at Vision Quest, I was required to take all the admin, safety and CQI recap min notes. I must say I have done a well job listening and generating agenda templates for the meetings. I am the liaison for taking the notes during every meeting, and I have received many appraisals for my effort and hard work. I can say that creating flyers, agenda templates and recapping meeting notes has been my strengths. My weakness actually understands the content of the CQI meeting notes. Most of the CQI meeting notes represent financial numbers of spending and services provided. In my oral reports, I have created a PowerPoint for the CORE team meeting. I was able to facilitate that meeting. My strength for this task would be the creation of my visual. I am very proficient with using mircosoft software. My weakness would probably be public speaking. I was very nervous during the meeting. Facilitating training was very hard. Although I was given the information, I was still very nervous. The group was very helpful and cheerful for me taking the next big step. To my weakness in to the strength, I will continue to practice and voluntary myself to overcome my fears. With encouragement of my peers, I will overcome the public speaking issues. I just know that I will try to become comfortable around my colleagues.

Chapter 9 E Portfolio Review What have you observed about the type of situation that causes stress on you? I have learned that friends can cause a lot of stress, when you realize that they do not have the same vision as yourself. My friends have been pressing me to hang out with them within the last couple months. Multiple times I have to turn down invitation to parties and other social gathering. I am trying to stay focus on completing my duties at work, home and school, but some of my friends think that I have changed. What have you learned about ways that you impose stress on your? I have learned to shut off all electronic devices at times, and take breaks in between studying. I have also learned to how to write down all my completion dates in an agenda. My agenda has helped me with time management. What particular pitfall are you learning to avoid as you deal with stress in your life?

I have learned to avoid not planning ahead. When you plan ahead in any task or project, you make situation easier to complete. Using time management can reduce the frequency of stress and the increase of the stress level. What have you learned about maintaining healthy boundaries between your professional life and your personal life? I have learned that you never should take home any work to avoid bringing profession work home. I am known to be a workaholic, and sometimes I have to tell myself stop and understand that work should done at work and never brought home. If there is a need to bring work home, I try to make time first for personal matter and issues and set aside time for addressing profession work. What have you learned about staying safe in the workplace? I have learned that my safety is the most important thing at work. My goal is to protect myself without harming anyone. Being safe is essential to being able to perform my duties. Working in a safe environment allows things to move smoothly. I have realized that I have to work safe because it anything happens to anyone, a life can never be replaced.

Chapter 10 E-Portfolio Review As you internship ends, what do you most appreciate about your internship experience? I really appreciate every opportunity given to me from my internship. I enjoyed working with everyone, and I have learned great things on case management, Quality assurance and trainings. I appreciate the people at Vision Quest. They really do serve a great purpose and play an important role in the youth society. What regrets do you have bout your internship? I have no regret about my internship. The people I have interacted with have given me good knowledge and example of experience in this field. I enjoyed every minute at my internship. What are your feelings, wants and needs as you leave your internship? I feel very sad that my journey at Vision Quest as intern will be ending soon. I am hoping that I will be able to become employed with an organization that truly cares about their staff and clients like Vision Quest. I need to continue to reach out to the youth community to provide the same services that Vision Quest has offered me. What do you feel you need to do for your continued personal and professional growth? I feel that I need to improve my communication skills, and also my leadership skills. I need to open up and realized that being a mute will never project my vision. Once I master public speaking, I believe that I will become a stronger leader. Becoming comfortable with my weakness will allow me to rise above standards.

Chapter 11 E-Portfolio Review

What are your long term and short term career goals as your internship ends? My long term goals it opens up my own non-profit organization supporting male youth. My short term goal is to obtain a position working with the delinquent population. Obtaining a position with that population will mold me into a better leader and I will have gained relevant experience to have my own organization for male youth. What would you like to be doing professionally in five or ten years from today? 5-10 years from now, I hope to be an executive director of a recreational non-profit organization. I hope also have my PH.D in Human Services. I want to open up doors for the male youth in the city limits. My focus is to bring meet the needs of each male, and reconnect them with a second chance at life. What specific steps, if any do you need to take in order to clarify your career goals? I will need to explore the human services field more. I will need to gain more experience within the field of human services to determine whether or not male youth is the population that I want to services. Human services are a large field, and I do not want to rush into a passion of work without looking at other target population. I would also need to look into how I can obtain business license and find out what are the requirements for a non- profit organization. What are your next steps as you continue to pursue your personal and professional growth? My first step is to make an action plan. I need to gather enough information and create a program proposal. Next, I would create grant proposal for the program. And then I would look into locations and resources for the program. I will also be looking for qualified staff for the organization. How will you accomplish these steps? I will accomplish these steps with time management. I will put myself on goal schedule. Every night, I will look over my future goals, and how close am I to accomplishing it. This will keep me motivated and on a time matter. Reminding myself of my goals, will keep me driven to succeed and accomplish each task. I will be networking with others to see who also have the same common goal. Surrounding yourself with success-driven people always encourages you to complete the task. What is your timeline for completion of various steps in this process? I hope explore the human services field for the next two years. After two years, I will begin creating a plan for my organization and seeking approval. Within the same year I hope to receive my business license for the organization. In 5 years, I would like to start looking for

funding for my organization and a location. I want to also see approval for the proposal. Eventually 7-8 from now, I should have a organization up and running. What do you feel you need to learn in order to accomplish your goals? I do need to learn how to overcome my fears of public speaking. In this field of work, it is essential for you be an open minded person. Public speaking should be second nature to any professional working with people. I learn the correct leadership skills, so that I can be an effective leader. I want to be able to touch lives, and make their experiences worth their time. Overall, I have to gain confidence to be able to accomplish my goals.