When I think of people that I look up to most, I realize that I look up to them because of their work ethic, integrity, and compassion. These are qualities that I seek to apply to each area of my life, including academics, student teaching, practicum experiences, and even volunteering. I enter each opportunity with ideas for not only what I can learn, but what I can contribute to the team or project. Each person or project that I work with deserves my best abilities and attitude. For example, each week I drive four hours round-trip in order to volunteer at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. I saw their need for a volunteer on Thursdays, so I purposely scheduled my classes in such a way that would allow me to fill this need. This quality pairs well with integrity, because I make it a point to always maintain commitments and hold myself to a high standard of ethics. Dependability is so important to me, because I want team members and children to be able to count on me. Even if I worked hard and had the best intentions for helping a family, if I didn't follow through on that commitment, I could easily do more harm than good. Finally, showing compassion to each person I encounter is something I pride myself on. Each person I meet is fighting a hard battle, especially those I plan to work with in child life. Being empathetic and compassionate are not always natural characteristics that people are born with, but I have worked to become conscious of each my interactions, so that I may show even the most difficult people the compassion they deserve. These three qualities, an unparalleled work ethic, integrity, and compassion, have molded me into the person I am today and have fueled my desire to serve individuals as a child life specialist.

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One area that I am currently growing in is public speaking. I used to become very nervous when asked to speak in front of large groups, but over the last year, I've been working on developing this skill. It is not something I have perfected yet. I still struggle during large group presentations, but I have been implementing strategies to overcome this weakness, and I am seeing significant progress from where I was this time last year. I have found that setting tangible goals by which I can assess my progress has contributed remarkably to the improvements I've seen in both my public speaking abilities and my willingness to take on speaking opportunities. This progress is promising, but I still have work to do to get the level of public speaking I aspire to achieve.