Internship and Classes in Columbus

My STEP signature program was the Student Dean’s Leadership Academy which involved five classes as well as an internship over a summer term. Through the classes, I learned about the fundamentals of how to effectively lead and communicate in the business world. This learning experience was positioned with the internship to create a mix of learning and real-world work.

I used my money from STEP to fund my housing during my summer in Columbus. The entire experience was great because I was able to live in a house essentially for free while taking my courses, working, and all the while still enjoying my time. The largest take-away I got from the courses were mainly based on strengthening my abilities to communicate with peers when problems arose and how to effectively bring people on board with the plans you want to execute. In my job, my largest take away was that although it wasn’t always interesting work and oftentimes it was boring, it was okay because work won’t always be a great experience especially if you’re just starting off. Overall, I feel the theme of this summer for me was simply maturing in aspects of my life I didn’t really expect I needed.

I would say that the largest development in my character happened because of the courses I took. The five classes I took on were all part of a program in Fisher called the Student Dean’s Leadership Academy. This program was made to teach and give students the tools necessary, so they can become leaders in any areas on their lives.

The first important concept I took from this program and its classes was the idea of a shared vision. When many people want to bring about change, they often only consider their needs and wants and either assume others want the same or ignore what other’s drivers are. The issue with this is that to have committed followers, they need to be deeply inspired to be with your cause. You can only achieve this if you consider the needs of your followers and find a way to address their requirements and combine it with your own.

Next, we were taught an effective way of dealing with problems that arise in your personal life with your peers. The process goes as follows, you first state the facts of what happened, you express how you feel, and then you encourage feedback. This sounded like some made up technique at first but upon some testing of it, it seems to be a better solution than what usually happens when I’m upset about a problem.

The concepts I learned from this program aren’t very useful in an academic sense and have nothing to really do with mathematics, science, or the likes of those subjects. They’re important because most of us aren’t taught how to interact with our peers and communicate clearly.

Going into the program, I originally just took it to fulfill some credit hour requirements and to snag some easy grade boosters. What I didn’t expect was to learn anything useful. To my genuine surprise, I was very wrong about this assumption because the courses were really very valuable.

I also believe that the things I’ve learned from this course have prepared me well to one day deal with problems in my workplace, with friends and, with family. Anyone who would be willing to go through this program will leave a better, more well-rounded and open-minded individual.

 

 

 

 

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