Tempris Daniels- ePortfolio Communication Reflection Form

The artifact I chose to display my communication competency skills is my functional

area study paper from our Student Affairs Professionalism course. This artifact represents the
written and oral communication skills gained through the process. For this assignment, I
shadowed a senior student affairs professional and researched a topic of my choosing to discuss
at my site visit. Through this experience, I gained skills on how to communicate orally with
professional staff in the field while discussing the different trials and tribulations they face that
students are often blinded of knowing about. Specifically, shadowing Dean Mark Anderson at
Augustana College provided me with the opportunity to engage in conversations with directors
of different functional areas within student affairs as well as students and faculty. This
experience triggered my thoughts about the connections between student and academic affair
professionals. In addition, it was helped me understand the different ways professionals adjust
questions, comments, and interactions as their audience changes.
Through my shadow experience, I gained a better understanding on the ways to
demonstrate my written, interpersonal, technology, and oral skills effectively. After
communicating during my shadow experience, it was important that I research on my topic with
a diverse amount of perspectives and critically think about my findings. Even today, the topic of
student and academic affair collaboration plays a significant in higher education for me. Using
my findings, I articulated them in my written work and then reported out to the class. Through
this experience, I used technology to effectively communicate the main points that I found.
Furthermore, this artifact helped me work on my introvert tendencies as a student, where
I expressed my own thoughts on the ideas that differed from mine. Because I often am very
nervous speaking in front of groups, having strong communications skills makes it important so
that I am relaxed and feel prepared.