HONR455 Practicum
Practicum courses are available to students who have a passion for a specific area of study or have unique ideas as to how to meet the requirements of Honors competencies. I was a Learning Community Coordinator (LCC) my sophomore and junior years of college, which happened to be 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. Learning Communities are ran by student leaders and help students to succeed academically, socially, and personally by coordinating group study sessions, social activities, faculty-based activities, while providing academic support. Students are able to join learning communities on a first-come, first-serve basis and there are a large number of Learning Communities available that are major-based or interest-based. I led the Elements of Nursing Learning Community both years I had the position My sophomore year of college, I completed an Honors Practicum using my Learning Community Coordinator position. This allowed me to further reflect on activities while incorporating both leadership development and application activities in to this position, which was rewarding, but difficult due to COVID-19.
Through this experience I was able to diversify who I am as a leader and learn from those around me. My personal theory of leadership is that people can lead others around them through their actions (Teams Level 4). If a person is respectful to others, does their homework, studies hard and wants to attend events and become involved, others are more likely to follow. Therefore, during the 2020-2021 school year I aimed to teach this to my students and encourage them to practice this theory of leadership even when not around me. I think that if the learning community students can lead by example through their actions, hopefully others will catch on and do so themselves. This proved to be true this semester as some students began to encourage others to come to events and study sessions, showing them the value of attending them, instead of me feeling that I must coerce people into attending (Values Level 4). I plan to continue to practice my leadership theory into the future, not only in my daily life, but as a nurse. Instead of taking the easy way out, I will strive to act as a role model for others.
I worked with my students as both a leader and as a group member, so the aspect of teamwork was used regularly and was very important to my job. In addition, I can use these skills when working towards a common goal. More specifically, as a Learning Community Coordinator I held a diversity icebreakers event to help my students feel connected while learning about what makes each and every one of us unique. Another activity that I held was a Kahoot reviewing content for one of their Human Anatomy and Physiology exams. Through this activity, not only were my students able to work together towards performing well on their exam and ensuring they were confident with the material, but I was able to refresh myself on this information and use what I knew to help them learn important concepts and topics that they may not have understood. These activities among others helped my students and myself reach the common goal of community (Teams Level 2). Creating a sense of community will become even more important when I work as a nurse as being able to interact with co-workers in a positive manner can not only help a person to learn, but to perform better in their work role. As a nurse having a hard day at work will be inevitable so it will be important to have support from those around me when emotions may be high.
This experience also helped me to look at the various roles I held as a Learning Community Coordinator. For example, I am a leader, a resource, and a student. The students saw me as superior to them due to the leadership nature of my role when in fact I took classes and studied like them. I was able to be a resource to them as I have taken all the learning community classes they took during semester such as Human Anatomy and Physiology as well as Introduction to Cultural Geography. When leading events such as the Kahoot, a review session with their professor, or a scholarship informational session I could also be seen as a teacher. I was the one providing information to them and ensuring they understood what was happening. It is interesting to see how many roles I have held just through this experience as I feel it is often not something an individual thinks about (Teams Level 3). I think this concept of understanding the roles a person has within different environments will become even more important as I continue on in the healthcare field as a nurse as I will not be there just to complete my tasks, but also act as a support for the patients’ families and a counselor as I guide them through their journey.