Overcoming Challenges Faced during the First Year at University - Coursework Example

Reflective Review of the Year Name Course Professor Institution Date TASK 2 Teamwork Teamwork involves working with two or more persons collaboratively to achieve a goal. During volunteering, manager challenged us to teamwork and come up with phone application that would result in aid employee-customer relationship. We formed groups and on our group included three volunteers where we came up with ideas of an application that would be beneficial to customers. Each one of us had a role to research on the best app, and we came up with a variety of ideas. From the ideas and app suggestions, we had to choose the features of the app that would serve customers. We came up with an app called MeYu that involved social platform of clients connectivity and communication of ordering products and giving feedback. One week after the launch of the app the outcome was fantastic. Clients orders and sales improved drastically compared to the previous month orders and sales. Also, the customers gave us feedback on ways on improving products and services. Effective Communication Effective communication involves an explicit understanding a message delivered to a listener by a speaker. During my volunteer at British Heart Foundation, I had to communicate effectively with the clients. One day, I had a situation where one of the customers could not understand English. On our shop, no one was able to translate our message to the client. Therefore, I searched the internet and found a person who was nearby and could help in translation. I called the person, and he helped us pass a clear message and form a common understanding of the customer needs. We achieved the effective communication through the translator and hence we were able to serve the client. Initiative and Creative Problem-Solving The process involves the capacity to identify issues, difficulties, and openings so as to develop and also implement solutions that are effective. One acts on a problem without necessarily been asked to. As a volunteer in the position of Business Development Manager at Metric incorporation. My responsibility was to organize our customer’s events. The events are significant in generating revenue and attracting new customers to help raise funds for physically challenged. Unfortunately, in 2013-2014, the event attendance dropped by 17%. Therefore, I sent questionnaires to past attendees and partners for their suggestion on how to improve our events. The feedback enabled me to revamp our event programs to include additional opportunities and topics for networking. So I created a new marketing plan that included social media that is LinkedIn and Twitter to enhance improved 2015 agendas. There were instant changes where people registered for the events in advance through social media. Also, we realized a 28% increase in attendance compared to the previous year. The increase in attendance resulted in the development of our evaluation scores. Task 4: Reflective Review of My first year at University On my first year as a student in university, I experienced success and challenges. At the beginning of the year, I was shy and lacked communication skills. Also, I had less reading skills and did not know how to use available resources or make academic referencing. I attended all classes and through the year I developed a personal growth of communicating with my fellow students and instructors. In the end, I was able to read and maximally use resources available in the library to learn and reference on my assignments. To achieve this, I went through challenges and in this paper; I am going to analyze further on the reflective review of my first year at university. First, I was new to the learning environment where I had difficulties in managing my time on when to wake up, what to do when to read and finish my assignments. Also, I had to put in consideration on when to do my personal responsibilities like cleaning and cooking. It was hard to adapt to the culture as an international student (Zhou, et.al 2008). I had a hard time adjusting on when to wake up and when to go to class. Through my first semester, I struggled to adopt and on my second semester, I thought of coming up with a schedule to be able to manage my time well. I developed a plan that covered all the activities I needed to do since I had learned in the first semester on what was required of me. As I followed my plan on the second semester, I found out that the schedule was helpful as it eased stress and effort to do my activities at the university. As an international student, English is not my first language. I had difficulties in presenting my work to my fellow English students. I had to learn more English in my first year at school to be able to show my work well. Also, in my first year, I had to change from living with my family to living alone. Living alone comes with more responsibilities like cleaning, cooking and paying bills. Living alone has posed the greatest challenge as I am required to put more effort, capital, and balance between school and personal activities. I have managed to do this in the first year at the university and, therefore, it will be less difficult in the second year (Evans & Morrison, 2011). In conclusion, I am happy to have overcome all the challenges faced during the cause of the first year at university. However, there are some activities that I could have done differently to achieve more in my first year. First, I would have explored to know my university surroundings and not focus on the conformability but lather to stay on budget. Also, I would have socialized more with many people and take part in non-academic events to enhance my employability prospects (Buote et.al, 2007). I would have engaged myself in more of workload to learn to improve my English and to get used to hard work lifestyle rather than fun lifestyle. Through the social media, I would have kept myself up to date with the daily university activities and would have had a better time management schedule that would boost coverage of my course work. Finally, I would look for the best insurance of my properties such as phone and laptop for easier replacement and enjoy the experience as a first student year in university (Kantanis, 2000). Task 5: Personal Development Plan Aims: What do I want to achieve / learn? Actions: What will I do to achieve this? Resources: What resources / support will I need? Measurement: What will my success criteria be? Review and time scale: Date and method of review? Time Management Develop a time management schedule using the calendar to plan on everyday activities starting morning to evening. Calendar and school timetable To see if I have followed the timetable and achieve the allocated time schedule on every activity through a mark upon achievement. Monthly assessment starting January 1st to 31st through daily review of time management achievement till the end of the semester. Socializing Join non-academic school activities and communicating with as many students as I can. Students, School clubs. Social media Through checking school friends progress list on Facebook, Twitter, and my phone book contacts. Monthly assessment starting January 1st to 31st through a monthly review on percentage growth list of friends till the end of the semester. Volunteering opportunities Applying for volunteering opportunities in organizations Resume and organizations. Holidays schedule Increase my experience in my resume based on volunteering time period. Based on holidays schedule and availability of the opportunities. Assessment is monthly and review. The review is based on the volunteering opportunities. Better grades Manage my time well and allocate more time on learning. Keep constant communication with my tutors Time management schedule, teachers, and library. Through grades on my assignments and final exams while comparing the performance of the previous semester. Assessment based on the assignment and final exam results from start till the end of the semester. Review method is through grades. Live within the budget Budgeting available capital considering payment of bills and all my needs. Capital and Budget plan Through effective payment of bills within my budget plan. Monthly assessment based on payments made from start until the end of the semester. Review is based on if I met all my needs payments Reference Buote, V.M., Pancer, S.M., Pratt, M.W., Adams, G., Birnie-Lefcovitch, S., Polivy, J. and Wintre, M.G., 2007. The importance of friends friendship and adjustment among 1st-year university students. Journal of Adolescent Research, 22(6), pp.665-689. Evans, S. and Morrison, B., 2011. Meeting the challenges of English-medium higher education: The first-year experience in Hong Kong. English for Specific Purposes, 30(3), pp.198-208. Kantanis, T., 2000. The role of social transition in students': adjustment to the first-year of university. Journal of Institutional Research, 9(1), pp.100-110. Zhou, Y., Jindal-Snape, D., Topping, K. and Todman, J., 2008. Theoretical models of culture shock and adaptation in international students in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 33(1), pp.63-75. Read More

 

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