REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Introduction:
My name is Katie Kovach and I am a 17 year old senior. I first came to ACLC in 7th grade from a school in which free speech and expression were greatly discouraged. Coming here, therefore, was like opening up the world! Walking in the first day, I saw people running to each other to talk about classes and seniors selling food and people with colorful “plumage” as my parents would call it, but it’s really just their hair. Today, after almost six years at this wonderful school I am the girl with the colorful plumage, running to her friends to talk about her classes, and selling food from the senior store on my shift. This environment has fostered my creativity, passion, and ownership of life and I hope to carry these qualities with me forever.
Personal Qualities, Work Habits, and Attitude:
Some things that I have always valued are responsibility, integrity, and honesty. I have always displayed a strong work ethic and a drive to show my best self. There have been many late nights and early mornings in high school so that I could come to school and be ready for the next day, the next assignment, and I have never once lost the passion I have for the work I do. Above presenting my best self to the world, however, I value presenting my true self. I make sure that my work is an apt representation of me and not what others have coached me in; I am open and honest when I talk to people about myself; and I do my best to own up to my mistakes and admit when I am wrong. But these are the values that I had before and carried with me throughout high school. In high school I have learned self-esteem and self-worth. Before starting here at ACLC I was a quiet bookworm of a kid from catholic school who had probably had undiagnosed depression for at least five years, and it wasn’t until I came here and I met the amazing people who are a part of this community that that changed. I gained a close circle of friends, some wonderful role models, and some pretty great facilitators who encouraged me to come out of my shell and start believing in myself. Since coming here, I am much more confident, positive, and self-encouraging than I used to be.
New Basics:
My favorite school subjects have always been math and science, and I have always done well in those areas. In fact, I have currently completed all of the math and science courses offered at this school and all of my high school classes have resulted in As. I plan on studying both psychology and biology in college because of how much I’ve loved the sciences in high school. What I wasn’t expecting, as I came into this school, was that I would learn to love other subjects too, and to excel in those areas. I’ve gained a deep appreciation for English studies, especially since being in Molly Fenn’s class and studying so many intricacies of the language and its applications. My essay writing, notably, has improved dramatically in the last few years and I am now comfortable writing four page analysis essays on a regular basis. I’ve also learned to love the arts in my time at ACLC. I’ve had a number of friends whose passion has been art and a variety of mediums within that. Their passion has led me to appreciate and dabble and that’s been an incredible opportunity for me. All of these skills and interests, those I came to ACLC with and those I gained through my years here, have helped make me the well-rounded person that I am today.
Thinking and Reasoning Skills:
I am a learner, a decision-maker, a problem-solver, and a reasoner. When learning individually I like to study material thoroughly and ask for help in concepts I don’t understand. When learning in a group, I want to make sure that all of the concepts are understood by all parties involved. This often means asking for more help from facilitators or getting things explained in a different way so that everyone is on the same page. When demonstrating the rest of these qualities, I’d like to use group projects as an example. In group projects, I am usually the person in charge. I know how to make a decision and how to solve a problem, and I also know how to negotiate talks between teammates. I hear out everyone’s ideas about the project, and I work to form them all into one, cohesive unit, while trying to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard. I take charge in a task by making an outline of who needs to do what portion of the project and by what date so that it all falls together. I am a type A personality and I take charge at school and in my life.
Interpersonal Abilities:
When working with others, I take a leadership role. I instigate conversations and often lead them and, going back to my example about group projects from my previous paragraph, I do my best to keep my group-mates on task. In fact, in eighth grade I confiscated a boy’s football from him for the duration of a class period so that he would focus on our group work and not on his sports abilities. I am happy to say that I have found more charismatic ways of keeping people on task through motivation and persuasion (it often helps to remind people that they’re actually being graded on their work). The most important interpersonal skill I have learned while at ACLC, though, is validation. Everyone wants to feel that they are being valued and appreciated so I try my best to recognise every time someone has done something well and to congratulate them. The general good-will this has brought to group-projects, classroom discussions, and friend group dynamics in recent years has been astounding. I think that the recognition of others is a great skill for me to have learned here.
Technology:
Before coming to ACLC, I was terrible at all things technology. I didn’t even know how to copy or paste on a computer with my limited skills. Since coming here and having so many assignments online, however, I have learned to become proficient at technology usage. Now, I actually love doing online assignments such as powerpoint presentations because they allow me to make organized and beautiful presentations as assignments. I think of them a bit like art projects. I do most of my homework online these days and I love using google drive for that. It’s easy to keep all of my files organized and presentable with that application. Other websites that I use for school are jupiter grades, which I have found incredibly useful, and canvas, the online portal for the peralta community colleges. However, I use technology for fun as well as work. For example, I love photography. I have a great camera and I like to upload pictures to the computer or my phone to edit the photos and sometimes turn them into videos. (I have some wonderful videos of prom the last few years that I’ve created.) I have grown to love technology in my time at ACLC, for its obviously useful applications in both work and entertainment.
Reflection:
As I come to the end of my days here at ACLC I am humbled by the knowledge I have gained and the friends I have made through my years here. It will be a bittersweet day when I graduation because I will need to leave this little gem of a school behind, but I will be looking forward at a bright future that this place helped me to dream up. (I plan to study psychology and biology in the coming years and eventually becoming a psychiatrist to help our youth.) A huge thanks to the school that has made me the woman I am.