Reflection & Personal Philosophy

Hi Everyone.

We hope everyone is doing well!

I know were getting closer to the end of the semester now. How exciting! How’s everyone’s e-Portfolios coming along?

Part of your e-Portfolio assignment requires you to submit a Reflection/Personal Philosophy.

This is your chance to tell your story. This is where you can write about who you are and what drives you to make the decisions you make. You can write about what gets you motivated, the things you love, your values, and what makes you unique.

Here are a couple of helpful links to get you all get started.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6088211_write-one-personal-philosophy-statement.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?Writing-a-Personal-Philosophy-and-Mapping-Your-Goals&id=998468

-Tell us how you're planning to use reflection in developing your e-Portfolio content pages

-Share your understanding of reflection. How is it different from description?

GOOD LUCK!

Week 7: Cover Letters & Resume

A resume is a summary of background, skills and qualifications, which is sent to employers for review. Consider it to be your personal marketing brochure with the goal of gaining the employer’s attention and to giving them the information they need to bring you to the next step in the hiring process, an interview. Your resume is often the first document that an employer would typically look at, so it serves as your first impression in the employment process. A well-written and formatted resume tells the employer a lot about your professionalism, and improves the chances for receiving an interview. Consider that employers compare resumes to decide whom to interview. Also, a resume could be used to display our multiple fields of study, which have led to our IDS degree. 

The great thing about resumes is that it is your own personal document, meaning you can design it however you would like. However, just remember, it should be professional and stand out in a pile of other resumes. You have to understand when employers are reviewing resumes they are not just looking at yours but at least a hundred others. They briefly scan each resume for about twenty seconds and if they see something that stands out to their eye then they put it aside. It isn’t until they get down to the last ten or so that they really look in depth at your resume. Therefore, you want to be sure to make it no longer than a page and use key words that were presented in the job description. 

The Career Service building is a great place to go for help. Make an appointment, and bring in your resume. They will sit down and help guide you into creating an outstanding resume that will stand out and make employers interested in you. They will also provide you with worksheets of helps tips that you should consider when making your resume. 

What questions do you have about resumes? How do you plan to use your resume to highlight your interdisciplinary degree? Draft a portion of your experience section and give feedback to at least one other student. Share at least 3 tips, which you think, are the most important things to remember when composing your resume. Have you found a really great resource to turn to when looking for ideas? Please share it with the rest of us!

Remember, in addition to your original post, read the postings through out the week and reply to another classmates post with any helpful hints you may have. As always use the reply button and add your first and last name at end of post.

Have a nice week, 
Megan

Topic 6: Interview skills

Hey Cornerstone students, Cristie here!

I hope you all had a good and restful Spring Break.

This week our topic is interview skills.

You will start by going on this website: http://www.perfectinterview.com/ucf/

Select a short interview and choose three question categories you struggle with.

You may choose to complete with a video capture but if you choose not to you must write out your answers.

After your interview click on "Review Saved Interviews." Select the "Share" button. E-mail yourself your interview and include the links in your posting.

For your posting:

Reflect on your interview. Did you find the questions challenging? What areas did you find problematic? What were you strengths and weaknesses in responses? What could you improve? Did you learn from the “Coach” tool?

Also share some advice that you have learned through your past interview experiences.

Here is some advice that I want to share with you:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->o <!--[endif]-->When going into a room for an interview ALWAYS knock before entering the room even if somebody has escorted you to the door where they are expecting you. Chances are this is your first test. Second give a firm handshake to everybody in the room and introduce yourself individually to each person.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->o <!--[endif]-->When dealing with a panel interview make sure you’re looking at the person directing the question but when answering the question make eye contact with the other interviewers. Be aware of your posture because every interviewer will be looking at you from different angle. Acknowledge everyone in the room during the interview the last thing you want is for someone to feel like they were invisible to you.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->o <!--[endif]-->When dealing with a phone interview first and foremost be aware of your surroundings. Make you are somewhere where you won’t be interrupted. Stay seated so you won’t be tempted to pace around the room, which can be heard on the other line of the phone. Be sure your phone has battery capability to last longer than the expected time. Lastly remember to close this is your time to sell yourself and secure a face-to-face interview.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->o <!--[endif]-->Salary talk, chances are your employers will mention a starting salary this is your time to speak up. The best way to go about this if it’s your first time is to ask if the salary is negotiable this is a low-pressure way to open up the discussion. Some companies are more likely to offer more money if asked but if you never ask then they will give you the rock bottom.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->o <!--[endif]-->Never forget a key component of a successful interview is a thank you note.

Be sure to look over another student’s posting and comment.

Week 5:Professional Opportunities and Job Skills

Professional Opportunities and Job Skills

Hi Cornerstone students welcome to week 5, wow, we are more than halfway, it is flying by ;) This week we are discussing professional opportunities and job skills.

Upon contemplating my philosophy in regards to my professional life and how I have conducted myself over the course of the last 20 or so years of employment along with my odd jobs and employment as a teen I can say that my philosophy would be one of hard work pays off. I have always performed any task I undertake to the best of my ability. I feel that when performing work or tasks that I want to be represented in a way that is positive and said work or tasks are associated with as being performed by someone who cares about what they do. I have also always felt that I do not want to just have a “job” I wanted to have a career and I want it to be something I like to do, not “have” to do.

Take some time to address these questions and then look into the activities we have planned for you.

How have you used your interdisciplinarity in your professional life?

What has been your professional history?

What are your strongest and weakest job skills?

What can you do to develop and improve upon your weak skills?


Identify two professional clubs or organizations that are useful to your chosen career.

How have internship or externship helped your professional development?

Discuss your personal philosophy concerning your professional life

How is or isn't this philosophy interdisciplinary?

How have your career goals altered?

UCF Link to gain insight on internships

http://www.explearning.ucf.edu/categories/Overview/Options_and_Definitions/94_91.aspx

Explore this interns site and pick one or two areas that may interest you or be helpful for you to gain knowledge to ward your future career goals.

Maybe you should join the circus, here are some fun tests and activities to determine what role would fit you best.

http://www.ringling.com/TopLanding.aspx?id=11616

Explore the sites and have fun with them you may learn something about yourself ;)

Free career test

http://www.free-career-test.com/Inventory/items.aspx?guid={79f5fa5f-9b60-4f68-840b-ff2f2469570f}&page=1&utid=5269368

After you sign in and create a user name and password just answer the questions as indicated, upon completion you will be sent to an advertisement, just click not interested and then you will be sent to your results page.  There may be a few more advertisements come up, just click continue with report . You do not have to purchase anything, although it will ask, there is no need. Just gain some insight as to what your personality says about what career choices you would be better suited for. Being great at what you do can be very satisfying. Yet many people find themselves working in a career where their natural talents go to waste. For one reason or another, there's a mismatch between their Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA's) and their job duties.

In at least 2-3 sentences explain how your career choices and your personality either match or do not match.

 Please respond to at least 1other student (more is better to get a dialogue going) and as always respond as a reply not a new post and use first and last name at the end of your post.

Feel free to visit this link to explore other various forms of career and personality tests: 

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/careertests/Career_Tests.htm

Thank you,

Katina Bolton

Week 4: Interdisciplinarity in the Real World

Hi Cornerstone students!

My name is Rochele Medrozo, and this week we will be discussing how we can apply interdisciplinarity in our lives. Merely defining Interdisciplinarity is a task in itself. Simplistically speaking, it is defined as,

“…The essence of interdisciplinary studies, which is manifested through research involving two or more knowledge domains,” (Repko, 2008).

You will find that Interdisciplinarity is essentially focused on actual process of integrating several disciplines, which you learned about during Week 2. After having time to think about it, are you finding that you are able to demonstrate it even in your daily life?

Interdisciplinarity is used to describe a research process (Repko 2008). This process is a simple three-step model:

Step 1: Formulating insights into the problem or question

Step 2: Integrating these insights

Step 3: Reaching Interdisciplinary understanding

As a Studio Art minor, I can’t help but use art as a daily exercise for interdisciplinarity. For instance, if I wanted to create an artwork that needed to communicate a message, I needed to:

1.) Formulate insights or ideas (example: different media, tools and types of art) into the subject matter of my art piece,

2.) Integrate all of these insights (example: creatively blending the use of the different media),

3). Create an artwork that could have only been produced by the integration of different modes of art materials and genres.

Click here to read an article about Sung Rok Choi, an artist who is known for applying the interdisciplinary process into his art. Here is a link to Sung Rok Choi's work.

Increasing Your Interdisciplinarity

To increase your interdisciplinarity, consider your major areas and minor, and research volunteer opportunities in each area. You will find that many organizations need volunteers that are willing to be as creative and integrative as possible while volunteering. Volunteering allows you to help others, and allows you to integrate your disciplines into a new, meaningful cause.

I had the opportunity to volunteer with Arnold Palmer Hospital for about seven months now, and it culminated to a job offer! Every time I volunteered, I consciously tried to find ways to apply my knowledge of Education, Health Sciences, and my creativity through studio art. I suppose I did something right!

This Week’s Assignment:

1. How do you apply your interdisciplinarity in daily situations? Answer in at least two to three sentences.

2. What is interdisciplinarity not? Refer to your book, if needed. Answer in at least two sentences or more.

3. Upon answering questions 1 and 2, research a particular career (preferably one that you desire). You can then pick either of two options:

Option A:

-List at least 3 reasons why an Interdisciplinary Studies degree will help you get this job

-List at least 2 reasons why an interdisciplinary Studies degree will help you throughout your career.

Option B:

-Go onto YouTube.com and post a link of a video that displays how your future career uses an interdisciplinary approach. (YouTube is merely an example, feel free to use other resources)

-Be sure to identify what the career is in sentence form.

Week 3: Critical Thinking

Hi guys, I'm Katina and this week we are going to discuss critical thinking skills. Critical thinking includes a complex combination of skills.  Among the main characteristics are the following: rationality, self-awareness, honesty, open mindedness, discipline and judgment.

Critical thinking enables us to recognize a wide range of subjective analyses of otherwise objective data, and to evaluate how well each analysis might meet our needs. Facts may be facts, but how we interpret them may vary.

So to help us explore our critical thinking we are going to play a game. Bentham City is a game of thinking and reacting to different and sometimes difficult decisions.

Sometimes in life we have to make decisions that are not cut and dry. As a parent I experience this quite frequently. The movie John Q poses an ethical dilemma that would be every parents worse nightmare. Here is a clip to watch John Q

What do you think you would do in a situation like this?

My son had a brain tumor last year, the size of a ping pong ball in his cerebral vermis in the occipital region of his brain, he required brain surgery. if it was not for Children's Medical Services and the Neurofibromatosis Clinic at Florida Hospital, he would not have of been able to receive that surgery. We are all uninsurable since we have NF, it is a preexisting disorder and therefore we cannot buy insurance. It is scary to me that situations like this one depicted in the movie are real and they do happen.

This is the link to Bentham City,

http://sulley.dm.ucf.edu/~ethicsgame/bentham/game.html

once you access it you will enter your name and email address, then you will have to click over the characters to have them speak, click next when appropriate in the dialogue bubble. you will have to search around for items as well that will light up as you scan over them with the mouse. There are 6 scenes to work through make sure you click save when instructed between each scene. This is a fun exercise to explore various ethical dilemmas. Once you have completed this exercise briefly, in a few words answer the following questions:

1. How did the Bentham City score your reputation and self worth?

2. Did you find some of the situations difficult to come to a solution?

3. How does your critical thinking relate to being interdisciplinary?

4. From the comments you received about your responses, what insight have you gained about your own critical thinking and reasoning?

In at least 2-3 sentences discuss a situation in your own life that may have but you in an ethical dilemma.

Please respond to two other cornerstone members and remember to respond by replying, not starting  a new post and as always, put your first and last names at the end of the post.

I am looking forward to reading your responses,

Have a great week,

Katina Bolton

Integration of Disciplines

Hello Cornerstone Students,

We hope that all of you have gotten off to a good start. It can be overwhelming and exciting at the same time.  Once you settle into the process and the understanding behind Cornerstone it will be a great aid in helping you focus and organize your thought processes behind Interdisciplinary Studies.

The concept this week will be integration.  When you chose your areas and your minor what were your thoughts behind your choices?  Probably for some of you, it was what you felt comfortable with and or liked?  For some, it may well have been picking what sounded good. Whatever the reason, it is a good idea to start thinking and analyzing how your areas will integrate and what your ultimate goal is.

My areas of study are Letters and Languages and Health.  My minors are Sociology and Health Sciences. I started out with one minor in Sociology but last year added Health Sciences. So I have been asking myself how do these areas work together?  What does Spanish, Sociology and Health Sciences have to do with each other?  Well, it's interesting because just last week I started having more of a feel for what I can do to integrate these areas? 

I happened to go downtown Orlando with my husband and four children.  My 14 year old needed to take pictures of architecture for her Creative Photography class.   I had not been downtown in a very long time.  It was a rude awakening for me because I had not seen or been aware of how much the homeless population had increased in our city.  As a mom, I automatically became protective and scared for the safety of my children.  My husband was busy looking for good camera shots for my daughter to take while I was trying to control myself from having a panic attack.  Long story short, as we walked, thru the streets of downtown Orlando I was convicted about my attitude and also I felt so helpless. How could this crisis called homelessness have crept up on me? 

Homelessness has been on my mind since.   How do I integrate my studies to become a useful tool for the homeless?  Sociology helps me to understand the human interaction in our society and the dysfunction that is caused when life takes a dreadful turn?  How much of the homeless population is not English speaking which adds to their problem?  If someone is homeless there is not a plan in place to stay healthy and under a doctor's care? 

The following link will give you a glimpse of the ten year plan to end homelessness in our country:

http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/2982

Click on it and select any number of cities in our country and get a feel for the urgency of this crisis.

I am developing my plan to achieve my goal of contributing to society with the integration of my areas and minors.  Ask yourself the following questions and in 300 - 500 words post your response.

- How have or haven't you integrated your areas and minor?

- Why is integration of areas/minor important in terms of professional, academic, and/or personal developing?

- How can your areas/minors be better integrated? 

After answering these questions,  find a current news story and explain how it is interdisciplinary or what an interdisciplinary solution might be.  Share your story and your thoughts.  (Post using 150 - 250 words.)

Post a response to two other students.