Community and Connections Coordinator
First Experience
For two quarters (Winter 2019 and Fall 2019) I was one of the two co-points of the Alumni Relations Committee for the Community, Environment, and Planning major. This major is student run and is separated into committees, one of which is the Alumni Relations Committee. I organized this committee of about 12 people with another co-point, and mostly collaborated instead of splitting up the work. This committee maintained contact with the CEP alumni association and worked with them to plan events where students can interact with alumni.
I was excited to work as a co-point to be able to take on some extra work for the CEP community which has been so supportive and welcome for me. Additionally after an internship where I was able to connect with those who had done the same internship in the past, I was very interested in creating a way for CEP students to connect with alumni. Additionally the events that we worked on in this committee were focused on fundraising for extra curricular scholarships for CEP students. I have been lucky enough to benefit from one of these scholarships while I was studying abroad and I was happy to be able to help raise money for theses scholarships in the future.
During my time as a TA I was able to accomplish:
I was also able to develop the follow leadership competencies:
Group Development
There were about 12 students in the committee with me, and during the Fall 2019 quarter they were often strangers. This was the juniors first time in a committee and the senior’s first time meeting and working with the juniors. I learned that developing socially and personally as a group was important when we first started collaborating on projects and was beneficial later in the quarter when we ran into conflicts or unexpected challenges. For instance there were two women that worked together to get put together a newsletter to send to the alumni, and because they bonded in the first few weeks of class during week eight when they created the content for the newsletter and ran into issues they knew each other well enough to collaborate and tackle the problems quickly.
Supervision
As a point of the committee I delegated work to sub-teams within the committee and kept the members of the committee accountable. This was sometimes especially difficult because those in the committee were my peers and classmates. We are all in the same major and classes and all had a comparable work load. Since everyone in this committee had a lot going on outside of the committee supervising what was happening ended up find the balance of appropriately reminding people of their responsibility in the committee and making sure that everyone was supported and taking on too much work.
Systems Thinking
This committee was part of the CEP major and worked with other committees to run the major. Not only did we work together but the different committees relied on eachother to keep the major going and do their duties. The system of work and how things got done within my committee and then within the major helped me see how different systems worked together with different goals to contribute to a larger system. I was also able to see how the small group of committees in the CEP major was able to work within the larger system of UW.
Empathy
There are many different contexts for working with other students. This was a particularly unique setting as this committee was a smaller part of our course load and activities for the quarter but also was vey important to the major and to others. We needed to make sure that we got a lot done in a short amount of time, but as students everyone in this committee had a lot of other things going on and often wasn’t able to prioritize the work that the committee was doing. When I started as a co-point I was a junior and was figuring out myself how to work in a committee and balance the work with other activities I had going on, so I would sometimes get annoyed with someone if they seemed to not be getting enough work done. However in the second quarter that I was a co-point I was able to reflect and see that some people were having trouble doing the work not because they didn’t want to but because they had overloaded themselves and were overstressed. This taught me to remember to be empathetic when working with others, and as a way to do that during each committee meeting we started going around and doing a check in with each person to see how they were doing as a person and not just in the work that we had assigned them.
Decision Making
When I first started in this position as a co-point I was surprised and overwhelmed by how much responsibility they gave to those in this position and how much trust they had for us. There were many decisions to be made that often had a time deadline. Things like when and how to reach out to alumni and whether what kind of fundraising goals we had. These decisions at first overwhelmed me, but after a few weeks of overthinking and then picking something at the last minute, I learned how to process and think threw decisions instead of just staring at the choices and how to incorporate others in the process when necessary or useful.
This was the experience I have had that I believe is most similar to working with others outside of college. Everyone had many other things going on in their life and had to make sure that they were taking on reasonable work loads. Additionally everyone came into the group with different perspectives and goals for what they wanted to get out of their time working on the committee. Bringing everyone together to work cohesively and unite under a few common goals was challenging but lead to more work being able to get done.
First Experience
For two quarters (Winter 2019 and Fall 2019) I was one of the two co-points of the Alumni Relations Committee for the Community, Environment, and Planning major. This major is student run and is separated into committees, one of which is the Alumni Relations Committee. I organized this committee of about 12 people with another co-point, and mostly collaborated instead of splitting up the work. This committee maintained contact with the CEP alumni association and worked with them to plan events where students can interact with alumni.
I was excited to work as a co-point to be able to take on some extra work for the CEP community which has been so supportive and welcome for me. Additionally after an internship where I was able to connect with those who had done the same internship in the past, I was very interested in creating a way for CEP students to connect with alumni. Additionally the events that we worked on in this committee were focused on fundraising for extra curricular scholarships for CEP students. I have been lucky enough to benefit from one of these scholarships while I was studying abroad and I was happy to be able to help raise money for theses scholarships in the future.
During my time as a TA I was able to accomplish:
- Gathered community sponsors for fundraising event
- Worked with the Alumni Association to coordinate participation for fundraising event
- Started a community pot luck breakfast tradition
- Connected with new and additional alumni
- Started having students regularly go to monthly alumni gatherings
- Collaborated with the leaders of the major to brainstorm for future fundraising events
- Got juniors coming into the program interested in the committee
- Mentored two new students who took over as points when we left this quarter
- Send out quarterly alumni newsletters
I was also able to develop the follow leadership competencies:
Group Development
There were about 12 students in the committee with me, and during the Fall 2019 quarter they were often strangers. This was the juniors first time in a committee and the senior’s first time meeting and working with the juniors. I learned that developing socially and personally as a group was important when we first started collaborating on projects and was beneficial later in the quarter when we ran into conflicts or unexpected challenges. For instance there were two women that worked together to get put together a newsletter to send to the alumni, and because they bonded in the first few weeks of class during week eight when they created the content for the newsletter and ran into issues they knew each other well enough to collaborate and tackle the problems quickly.
Supervision
As a point of the committee I delegated work to sub-teams within the committee and kept the members of the committee accountable. This was sometimes especially difficult because those in the committee were my peers and classmates. We are all in the same major and classes and all had a comparable work load. Since everyone in this committee had a lot going on outside of the committee supervising what was happening ended up find the balance of appropriately reminding people of their responsibility in the committee and making sure that everyone was supported and taking on too much work.
Systems Thinking
This committee was part of the CEP major and worked with other committees to run the major. Not only did we work together but the different committees relied on eachother to keep the major going and do their duties. The system of work and how things got done within my committee and then within the major helped me see how different systems worked together with different goals to contribute to a larger system. I was also able to see how the small group of committees in the CEP major was able to work within the larger system of UW.
Empathy
There are many different contexts for working with other students. This was a particularly unique setting as this committee was a smaller part of our course load and activities for the quarter but also was vey important to the major and to others. We needed to make sure that we got a lot done in a short amount of time, but as students everyone in this committee had a lot of other things going on and often wasn’t able to prioritize the work that the committee was doing. When I started as a co-point I was a junior and was figuring out myself how to work in a committee and balance the work with other activities I had going on, so I would sometimes get annoyed with someone if they seemed to not be getting enough work done. However in the second quarter that I was a co-point I was able to reflect and see that some people were having trouble doing the work not because they didn’t want to but because they had overloaded themselves and were overstressed. This taught me to remember to be empathetic when working with others, and as a way to do that during each committee meeting we started going around and doing a check in with each person to see how they were doing as a person and not just in the work that we had assigned them.
Decision Making
When I first started in this position as a co-point I was surprised and overwhelmed by how much responsibility they gave to those in this position and how much trust they had for us. There were many decisions to be made that often had a time deadline. Things like when and how to reach out to alumni and whether what kind of fundraising goals we had. These decisions at first overwhelmed me, but after a few weeks of overthinking and then picking something at the last minute, I learned how to process and think threw decisions instead of just staring at the choices and how to incorporate others in the process when necessary or useful.
This was the experience I have had that I believe is most similar to working with others outside of college. Everyone had many other things going on in their life and had to make sure that they were taking on reasonable work loads. Additionally everyone came into the group with different perspectives and goals for what they wanted to get out of their time working on the committee. Bringing everyone together to work cohesively and unite under a few common goals was challenging but lead to more work being able to get done.
Second Experience
For the math major most of the classes that you take are not based around collaborative learning and mostly consist of being in lectures and doing your homework on your own. However through my time at UW I have met a few people that are frequently in my math classes and while I took Math 394 I was able to coordinate and facilitate study groups and homework meetings. These meetings created a community feel and also helped us do better in the class.
I had the benefit of growing up in many different communities, and was very surprised at the lack of community in the undergraduate math major. I think connections and supporting each other are very important, as well as working together and inspiring each other to do even better academically. I had been a part of similar communities in other classes, and I wanted to bring this community support and feel to this class if I could.
During this experience I was able to accomplish these tasks:
Problem Solving
Since this was a math class the homework that we worked on and the studying we did were focused on problems and how to solve them. We also had some problems in group dynamics, for instance when two people get different answers on a question and do not believe that they could have made a mistake. Then everyone would collaborate to focus to problem solve to find out what the answer was, while doing their best to not gang up or be confrontational to anyone about their answer. In this way we practiced both individual and group problem solving, sharpening our problem solving skills and our ability to work in groups.
Helping Others
Since these gatherings were study groups the idea was to help others with their homework or other material for the class while also receiving help yourself. However learning to help others even if they cannot return the favor at the time was something that I learned. One week during this class I was sick and had a hard time starting on the homework. I showed up to our study meeting expecting to basically sit alone and try to get any part of the homework done before it was due, but when I showed up and explained what happened the other members of the group instead worked closely with me to complete every problem even though they were much further along. I was thankful and surprised since this was the first time that someone had shown up unprepared to this group and I didn’t know how everyone was going to react. Their kindness and patience taught me the importance of helping others.
Others’ Circumstances
As mentioned above I showed up to one of our weekly homework study group meetings unprepared. I had been overwhelmed that week from illness and other assignments and I didn’t know how everyone would react, but they stayed late to help me get through the assignment. This happened to others throughout the quarter and I don’t think I would have been as understanding and helpful to those if they had not been so nice to me first. However through these experiences I learned to remember in group settings it is important to remember that this is not the only thing in everyone’s life, and that others may be overwhelmed at times as well.
Verbal Communication
Although numbers and math are not necessarily a verbal mode of communication, to work together we needed to learn to verbally communicate well. When explaining solutions and methods of solving problems to each other we couldn’t just hand over our work and expect the other person to understand. Instead we had to talk through the problems and do our best to verbally communicate what we were doing. In the beginning of the quarter there were some points of frustration because we had trouble communicating in this way, for instance there was a theorem that I thought that I understood and applied correctly and when someone disagreed with me and tried to explain why I was wrong I didn’t understand their point. We both ended up getting frustrated but after explaining things verbally in different ways we were able to finally understand each other.
Listening
In contrast to verbal communication we also needed to learn to make sure that we were listening as well as talking. Often when there would be a dispute about an answer one of the problems that would occur and often result in frustration is that one person would be so wrapped up in explaining their thinking and why they thought they were right they would not listen to anyone else explain their thinking. I have a bit of a competitive streak in me and in the beginning of the quarter I would often fall into explaining my side and sometimes interrupting others when they explained theirs. However after someone would finally be able to explain their thinking I would find that their thought processes helped me understand the problems and the subject as a whole bette.r
Plan
Like all college students those that were in this study group had hectic and ever changing schedules. Since I was generally the one that connected this group I usually took on the task of planning our meetings. This was sometimes difficult and often caused frustration if the meeting was scheduled when one member of the group couldn’t make it, but most of the other members could make it. In addition to planning these meetings I also helped plan how far along in the homework our group members should try to be before meeting to make sure we can all get the work done that we need to in the time we had together.
Working together is a large part of life outside of college, and learning to work together in different environments and different subject matters will serve me well in workplace environments. As mentioned above I have been lucky enough to be a part of supportive communities in the past but I had never been part of a study community like this in a math class. I hope to work in a STEM field professionally in the future and this experience will help me adapt to that workplace.
For the math major most of the classes that you take are not based around collaborative learning and mostly consist of being in lectures and doing your homework on your own. However through my time at UW I have met a few people that are frequently in my math classes and while I took Math 394 I was able to coordinate and facilitate study groups and homework meetings. These meetings created a community feel and also helped us do better in the class.
I had the benefit of growing up in many different communities, and was very surprised at the lack of community in the undergraduate math major. I think connections and supporting each other are very important, as well as working together and inspiring each other to do even better academically. I had been a part of similar communities in other classes, and I wanted to bring this community support and feel to this class if I could.
During this experience I was able to accomplish these tasks:
- Connecting other students who previously did not know each other
- Coordinated meetings to work together to better learn and complete homework
- Created a structure where we as students could support each other
- Helped facilitate new friendships
- Created a community feel when there was not one before, which I had not been a part of before in a class like this
- This group helped everyone complete their homework, study for both midterms and finals, as well as share tips for studying and other experiences in the math department
Problem Solving
Since this was a math class the homework that we worked on and the studying we did were focused on problems and how to solve them. We also had some problems in group dynamics, for instance when two people get different answers on a question and do not believe that they could have made a mistake. Then everyone would collaborate to focus to problem solve to find out what the answer was, while doing their best to not gang up or be confrontational to anyone about their answer. In this way we practiced both individual and group problem solving, sharpening our problem solving skills and our ability to work in groups.
Helping Others
Since these gatherings were study groups the idea was to help others with their homework or other material for the class while also receiving help yourself. However learning to help others even if they cannot return the favor at the time was something that I learned. One week during this class I was sick and had a hard time starting on the homework. I showed up to our study meeting expecting to basically sit alone and try to get any part of the homework done before it was due, but when I showed up and explained what happened the other members of the group instead worked closely with me to complete every problem even though they were much further along. I was thankful and surprised since this was the first time that someone had shown up unprepared to this group and I didn’t know how everyone was going to react. Their kindness and patience taught me the importance of helping others.
Others’ Circumstances
As mentioned above I showed up to one of our weekly homework study group meetings unprepared. I had been overwhelmed that week from illness and other assignments and I didn’t know how everyone would react, but they stayed late to help me get through the assignment. This happened to others throughout the quarter and I don’t think I would have been as understanding and helpful to those if they had not been so nice to me first. However through these experiences I learned to remember in group settings it is important to remember that this is not the only thing in everyone’s life, and that others may be overwhelmed at times as well.
Verbal Communication
Although numbers and math are not necessarily a verbal mode of communication, to work together we needed to learn to verbally communicate well. When explaining solutions and methods of solving problems to each other we couldn’t just hand over our work and expect the other person to understand. Instead we had to talk through the problems and do our best to verbally communicate what we were doing. In the beginning of the quarter there were some points of frustration because we had trouble communicating in this way, for instance there was a theorem that I thought that I understood and applied correctly and when someone disagreed with me and tried to explain why I was wrong I didn’t understand their point. We both ended up getting frustrated but after explaining things verbally in different ways we were able to finally understand each other.
Listening
In contrast to verbal communication we also needed to learn to make sure that we were listening as well as talking. Often when there would be a dispute about an answer one of the problems that would occur and often result in frustration is that one person would be so wrapped up in explaining their thinking and why they thought they were right they would not listen to anyone else explain their thinking. I have a bit of a competitive streak in me and in the beginning of the quarter I would often fall into explaining my side and sometimes interrupting others when they explained theirs. However after someone would finally be able to explain their thinking I would find that their thought processes helped me understand the problems and the subject as a whole bette.r
Plan
Like all college students those that were in this study group had hectic and ever changing schedules. Since I was generally the one that connected this group I usually took on the task of planning our meetings. This was sometimes difficult and often caused frustration if the meeting was scheduled when one member of the group couldn’t make it, but most of the other members could make it. In addition to planning these meetings I also helped plan how far along in the homework our group members should try to be before meeting to make sure we can all get the work done that we need to in the time we had together.
Working together is a large part of life outside of college, and learning to work together in different environments and different subject matters will serve me well in workplace environments. As mentioned above I have been lucky enough to be a part of supportive communities in the past but I had never been part of a study community like this in a math class. I hope to work in a STEM field professionally in the future and this experience will help me adapt to that workplace.