Midterm Reflection for Practicum- Sarah Schanck

Describe your practicum environment. Identify your mentor, other employees, clients served, and the
organization itself. Identify some ways you initially tried to orient yourself to and gain acceptance within
the organization. Rank your practicum experience thus far on a scale of 0-5 with 0= poor and 5=
outstanding. Explain your response - two paragraph minimum.
My practicum is with the Department of Leadership Programs at Georgia College. Currently, this
department is led by the Coordinator of Leadership Programs, John Bowen, and has two undergraduate
interns in addition to myself. The department provides general leadership opportunities to the entire
student body. This is done primarily through five different programs. Emerging Leaders is focused on
freshmen students and provides them with leadership workshops and opportunities, under the
supervision of Peer Mentors, in which students can grow their leadership knowledge and transition into
college life. The Leadership Certificate Program (LCP) is open by application and is a yearlong cohorted
experience for sophomores through seniors. LCP students complete 6 credit hours of leadership classes
and a yearlong practicum. Junior and Senior students are also eligible to participate in the Georgia
Education Mentorship program where they are paired with an executive from the Georgia Chamber of
Commerce for a year-long mentorship experience. Leadership Programs also runs a student leadership
forum and the Omicron Delta Kappa honor society.
I am personally working with the Leadership Certificate Program. My responsibilities include coteaching this semesters LEAD 2010: Principles of Leadership class. We have 43 students participating in
the program this year. In addition to teaching, I also mentor 22 of the 43 students through one on one
coaching sessions. I also grade papers and plan the curriculum and lessons. I was already very familiar
with the Leadership Programs department. Throughout the year, my department (career services) plans
several events with them. In addition, I have served as the designated career advisor for the leadership
students for the past two years. For me, the transition into being accepted within that department was
very smooth.
Discuss/reflect upon at least one of the components of your portfolio and its application to your
practicum experience and/or a work experience one paragraph minimum.
In my History of Higher Education class, we were required to write a historical analysis paper
about a topic in higher education and how that impacts current higher education practices. I focused on
the history of liberal arts education and whether or not there is still a place for that in modern day
higher education. I came to the conclusion that there are split opinions on the worth of liberal
education in modern practices. I work at the states public liberal arts institution, so I absolutely think
there is a case for liberal education. Employers often state soft skills such as leadership, critical thinking,
and analytical reasoning as top skills they are seeking in their new hires. In the case of my practicum, I
am teaching students these critical soft skills that should hopefully serve them well regardless of their
chosen industry or profession. The opportunity to participate in a program such as the Leadership
Certificate Program is a hallmark of what the liberal arts speaks to. We are seeking to educate the tshaped learner. Individuals with great breadth in their skill set, but depth in their chosen area of study

and expertise. I am glad that I get to participate in this facet of a liberal arts education through my
practicum.
What has been the biggest eye-opener from your experience thus far? Explain your response two
paragraph minimum.
The biggest eye opener from my experiences is the diversity of backgrounds in the students that
I am working with. In career services, I dont often get to have really deep relationships with my
students. Even through half a semester of working with the LCP students, I have already developed
deep relationships through my coaching sessions and through the class itself. The class is very
discussion and activity based, and I have been so surprised and pleased to see how forthcoming the
students have been about their past experiences. The students assignments are based around personal
reflection and the students are very honest in their answers, which is refreshing. The students are all
very interested in bettering their personal leadership ability.
In addition, being able to coach 22 students individually has allowed me to learn more about
their backgrounds. I have been amazed at some of the struggles that these young students have faced
in their lives. For example, I found out that one young and outgoing male student also serves as a
campus custodian on the weekends and has been mocked by his peers for that. The introspection he
showed about that experience was incredible. It has been a great opportunity for me to dive in deep
with a small group of students and I really feel like I am getting to be impactful.
How is your and your mentors administrative philosophy the same? How is it different? Explain your
responses one paragraph minimum for each part.
John and I both believe in a student centered approach in all that we do. Teaching leadership,
we feel that it is very important that we model the principles that we are teaching. This semester, we
are using the text, The Leadership Challenge, by Kouzes and Posner. In this text, the authors focused on
five practices of leadership: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable
Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. John and I both feel that it is extremely important for us to
integrate the practices into individual and class interactions with our students.
My mentor and I disagree on very little. However, sometimes our style of approaching
problems and tasks can be different. John is a big picture thinker and talks and plans in terms of big
ideas. While I plan with the big picture in mind, I am focused on planning, the details, and the execution
of the plan. In a way, this makes us a great team. We are both able to play to our strengths. In that
same vein, John also tends to be more spontaneous and go with the flow. I prefer to have our classes
planned out in detail. Sometimes he is fine with just a vague idea of what he would like to accomplish
that day. It is helping me learn to be less stringent in our plans.
Identify areas in which you wish you had more content knowledge or skills to better perform within your
practicum experience. Explain the areas and the reasons one paragraph minimum.

I wish that I had more knowledge in the subject area of leadership. I have never studied this
topic in depth before. Luckily, our class is very practically based; more focused on the personal
integration of leadership than the theory. My personal knowledge of leadership and my study of our
text have been sufficient. If I continue to teach this course as adjunct faculty (which is a possibility), I
want to seek out more opportunities to expand my knowledge, whether that is through additional
readings, conferences, or mentorship. I am learning a lot in the area of teaching, as well as expanding
my knowledge in building mentorship relationships with students.