Changing my major multiple times gave me the chance to experience a wide variety of coursework here at the university. I participated in STEM courses, education courses, humanities courses, and studio art courses. All these courses were important to developing skills that could be applied to later careers. In these courses, I learned a variety of applicable skills and theories, many repeated throughout different courses in ways that could be used in a variety of post college settings. Although there are a multitude of skills taught in my courses, my own career interests all revolve around one skill: communication to both large groups of people and individuals. Although it is a broad skill, every single career requires effective communication. Through my experiences both within and outside of the classroom, I came to one conclusion: effective communication with both groups and individuals is important to quality leadership. 

I took a wide variety of courses that taught me different theories and practices for communication. For example, SPCH 145 was an online public communication course that aimed to give us practice in talking to large groups as well as writing effective arguments for things we were passionate about. While I was given a chance to put learned skills to practice in projects, it did not teach me how to best deliver the information I researched and wrote. A prime piece of evidence is this video of my speech project. You can see that the information I am sharing is informative, but the method of delivery is not effective because there was not enough practice. I certainly got some communication skills out of the course in the form of wording important information, but there was a lack of learning how to speak to others about the information in a group setting. The online format of the course also did not help because I never had to physically stand in front of the class and deliver information- I just had to record videos of myself or work with 2-3 other students to deliver my projects. Following my first introduction to group communication in this course, I was able to successfully pair the skills I learned in the course to my leadership involvement and begin practicing the communication skills. I learned how to effectively deliver the information from on paper to class facilitation through my role as a U101 peer leader. 

As a part of my role as a U101 peer leader, I co-facilitated a class of 19 students for 150 minutes per week. I was able to practice my group communication skills and develop into a stronger leader as a result. Through my roles outside of class, I watched my comfort levels and skills with group communication soar. My first day as a peer leader was filled with anxiety and unsureness of my ability to lead a room and make 19 students feel comfortable. After practicing for 2 semesters and counting, my confidence increased, and I can now to speak to a room of students with much more ease. The information I was delivering was no different over the course of 2 semesters in the role, but my skill at delivering the information and communicating to a large group improved vastly with practice. I was able to see good results compared to my projects in class through student feedback from my University 101 students. In this role alone, I was able to compare feedback from my students from my first semester teaching to my most recent completed semester teaching. You can see an improvement in some of the comments given to me as a peer leader. Effectively communicating with these groups and utilizing the skills learned in my speech course helped make me a higher quality leader. 

I also took EDCE 600, a course aimed for learning individual communication skills that could be applied to counseling situations, whether in a clinical setting or a classroom setting. We were given the opportunity to apply effective skills to our classmates in mock counseling sessions and were offered feedback on our application of skills. Some of the skills we practiced were microskills, which are the basic skills that every counselor uses to effectively communicate with their client. The hierarchy of these skills can be seen here. These micro skills build off one another to create an environment in one-on-one conversations that is supportive and open- one that allows the person you are communicating with to feel comfortable sharing sensitive information. For example, the bottom of the hierarchy is made up of multicultural competence, ethics, positive psychology, and resilience- and only after you make a safe space in a conversation to hear views different from your own can you move further in the hierarchy and ask questions to your client and dive deeper into what they are sharing. Using the micro skills to build off one another creates the perfect environment for effective communication. In our practice session, we were given the opportunity to practice using these micro skills. However, practicing 3 times over the course of the semester was still not enough on its own to ingrain the knowledge and practice of one-on-one communication skills. Microskills are only ingrained when repeatedly used and practiced to the point at which they become second nature. Included are my notes on one of our practice counseling sessions. In this session, we practiced the microskills and I took note of the ones we used well. However, a lack of practice using them made the session more awkward. Due to confidentiality, I cannot show the video, but the notes show the skills we tried our best to apply. With proper practice, more skills would be used more naturally, and individual communication skills would increase. 

I was already involved as a University 101 peer leader when I took this course and found that I was able to apply the microskills we were taught in one-on-one meetings with my students far more effectively than any in class exercise. Again, my student feedback for both courses can also be applied as evidence that this experience truly helped me to develop my skills in communicating with individuals. I found that using the microskills I learned in my EDCE class with real people was imperative to my development as a peer leader and my success at making these communication skills something I did automatically in conversations with my students. Without the application of individual communication skills, I would not have the same impact on my students as a peer and a leader. Many of my students felt a strong connection to me because of my empathy and listening skills and as a result still communicate with me even years later. 

The combination of both within and outside of the classroom experiences has helped me to learn effective communication skills in both individual and group settings and apply them to real life experiences. The development of my communication skills has been vital to my success as a leader and my growth is easily shown when comparing my work earlier in college versus after practicing in my leadership roles. As a result, I can take these communication skills and apply them to future leadership roles in a career and find success. Although my future is not set in stone, I know that the ability to communicate and communicate well will serve me in any career I pursue- whether it is directing a group of people in a leadership position, working with a team, or coaching others one on one. No matter how it is applied, effective communication to both groups and individuals is important to quality leadership.