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What are your strengths?
I am enthusiastic, self-motivated, patient, and creative. I am always enthusiastic about helping people, and I do everything in my power to figure out what can be done to accomplish that. No matter how long it takes, I stay persistent, motivated, and patient. I can think of different ideas of how to work with kids in order to best maximize their potential. My persistence in working with kids derives from my personal struggle to understand things right away. Academically, it has always been a journey, and I will do my best to support and be available for kids as often as I can. I haven't always been the most confident academically because despite my hard work and good grades, things haven't always gone my way. Because of this, I have a passion for building up others' confidence in their abilities; I believe that with a lot of hard work, motivation, time management, and support, anyone can accomplish anything they set their mind to.
I am open and honest with people. I, unlike most people, do not have a fear of confrontation. I feel that through this open and honest communication, mutual understandings and closer relationships are built between people. If I have an issue with someone, I am honest and do my best to work it out with them because I take pride in being a true friend in this way. Likewise, when I see social injustice, whether it be due to bullying or politically, I speak up about it. As my confidence has grown over the years, I have worked on being able to speak up against these things in this way and finally have the courage to do so. I also don't let people take advantage of my kindness and drive to help others.
2. What are your weaknesses?
I have a slow processing speed. This has made my academic life a bit difficult, but I have always gotten good grades and challenged myself by taking rigorous courses. This has also taught me a unique resilience through adversity that not every person who has good grades has had to overcome. It has also inspired an empathy in me for kids who have struggled as I have, and the confidence to give them the motivation to never give up.
I am a perfectionist. Being as detail-oriented as I am can be a good thing, as long as you manage your time effectively and prioritize, too, which are some things that I need to work on. Part of my desire to go into a helping profession is that I am a people-pleaser. I, however, do not let others take advantage of me and I am a strong woman.
3. Where do you see yourself in five years?
I see myself graduated from Kalamazoo College with a degree in Psychology and a Speech-Language Pathology degree from Western Michigan University. About to pursue my master’s degree, specializing in pediatric Speech-Language Pathology. Since I haven’t earned my undergraduate degree yet, I’m not 100% sure which specific disorder I would like to work with yet. But right now, based on witnessing what some of my friends and family have gone through, I think I would love to work with the Deaf, autistic, those with learning differences, or those with dementia.
4. Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.
When we made State Finals at Ford Field our first year in the competitive marching band circuit (MCBA 2016). Not very many marching bands have accomplished what we did: placing in the top ten as a first-year competitive marching band. Our show was called Bound, and I had a flute solo. After the Plymouth-Canton competition, everyone was crying and it was a really raw moment in our competitive marching band career. It was such a special day, and it is so amazing to be able to say that my fellow seniors and I have experienced not only the first two years being in the competitive MCBA (Michigan Competitive Bands Association) circuit, but to also be able to say that we successfully placed in the top ten and made it to State Finals both times.
5. Tell me how you handled a difficult situation.
I am so used to performing after all of my years of experience. State Finals 2016-I had a flute solo, and throughout the marching season, I kept making the same mistake with one of my “dots”, or coordinates, to put it in non-music terminology. When we arrived to Ford Field, about to perform, the staff mentioned how there were a lot of people in the audience, and it scared me. I then played my solo, and forgot to move to the coordinate; I was frozen with performance anxiety. I realized my mistake right away and moved to my next coordinate as soon as I could. This situation was abnormal for me.
I have a huge passion for marching band, and it is ultimately what has taught me that it is ok to fail because failure is a part of the process; and, as long as you learn from it, makes life meaningful.
6. What motivates you?
I have a passion for helping others. My goal every day is to know that I have helped others and that I have worked hard in order to do my best work. I have always known that I wanted to help people and I also enjoy teaching them things.
7. How do you handle pressure/stress?
I try to take my day one hour at a time and remember that even my worst day only has twenty-four hours. If I am stressed during a Friday or Saturday, I take a short ten-minute nap, shower, listen to music from Dear Evan Hansen, turn on an episode of my favorite show, or pick a musical to watch.
Most of the time, however, I am so busy that I have to continue to power through my work despite my stress and I end up feeling better because I have completed all my work, and therefore, my stress is gone.
8. How would you like to be challenged by a job?
Speech-Language Pathology is a profession that is not always going to be easy, and that is motivating to me. I may have to get creative sometimes in order to meet kids’ needs. I have always been willing not only to help but to do whatever it takes to accomplish it. I believe in people’s potential, and don’t give up on them. I want to be the motivating force that drives kids to believe in themselves and to know that despite their negative thoughts, they can do anything they set their minds to.
8. What keeps you up at night?
When I see kids giving up on themselves or telling themselves and believing that they are “dumb”, it makes me upset and drives me to approach and help them. This is because I have developed academic resilience, and I used to practice the same negative self-talk.
Another thing that makes me uncomfortable is when people are being judged or bullied for their differences. I personally believe that people who are different are an asset to society. Society has a tendency to negatively call differences out and label them as “obscure” or something that needs to be "concealed". But in reality, our differences make us beautiful and unique. The world would be so boring if everyone was all the same. Since we all think differently, unique ideas and communities arise.
9. Who do you look up to/who is your mentor?
Mrs. Sue Mellor is my mentor: she tutored me for two years in Algebra 2 and Precalc. She always works her hardest at what she does. Many others and I regard her as one of the best in her profession. Math is a difficult subject for me, but she was always able to help me understand it no matter what, and persisted in doing so. She always gave me the utmost support and made me feel like someone believed in me, even if math wasn’t going so well and I was down on myself about it. Even though I ended up with a B instead of an A in Precalc, that class will always motivate me and show that with a little hard work, persistence, and confidence in my abilities, I can accomplish anything I set my mind to.
10. How do you deal with conflict?
I try to do my best to maintain harmony in my life. I feel it is my responsibility to maintain this harmony. I don’t like to argue with people, and the event that I do; I like to spend some time on my own thinking of possible solutions to fix problems as they arise, and regrouping later.