Mark Schleier February 4, 2013 Pre-Internship Report Task 1: Mission Statement I am at my best when I am relaxed, challenged, happy and

encouraged. I will try to prevent times when I am stressed, discouraged, dissatisfied and bored. I will enjoy my work by finding employment where I can challenge myself with difficult but exciting assignments, and learn new skills and lessons. I will find enjoyment in my personal life through maintaining a healthy and physically fit lifestyle, spending time outside and enjoying life with family and friends. I will find opportunities to use my natural talents and gifts such as athleticism, comfortability in working with people and enthusiasm about learning. I can do anything I set my mind to. I will be a professional Ironman Triathlete, where I will be able to travel the world training, competing and meeting new people. My life's journey is battling my way through life's obstacles for my future family, my God, my career and my life. I do this so that I can be as successful as I can in all areas of my life and that one day I will be able to help others do the same. I will be a person who others would be saying "That man did it all. There was nothing holding him back and I can only hope to feel the way he does about his life when I am his age. He clearly seized the day and has no regrets. Thats what I call a success, and absolute peace." My most important future contribution to others will be that I am available and open with my loved ones in helping them with whatever they need. Whether it is financially, emotionally, physically, morally or spiritually, I want to be a shoulder, a friend, a husband, a brother, a son, a father, a competitor, a mentor and a peer. I will stop procrastinating and start working on:

spending more time in prayer each and every day. It is something I have never been good about, but I know that when I am, magic happens in my life. practicing better self control. Whether it be sticking to a training regiment, doing school work early, eating less sweets or spending more time "out of the box." spending more time outside, in nature, alone. The times I have spent as such have been the greatest learning opportunities for me and my greatest happiness was achieved.

I will strive to incorporate the following attributes into my life:

Love Motivation Playfulness

I will constantly renew myself by focusing on the four dimensions of my life:

making time for physical activities daily implementing prayer and Bible time at least everyday learning new concepts and challenge myself with stimulating tasks regularly frequently engaging myself in both individual and social atmospheres daily

Task 2: My Strengths and Challenges - INTJ Extroversion: 4 Introversion: 4 Sensing: 4 Intuitive: 4 Thinking: 8 Feeling: 0 Judging: 5 Perceiving: 3

Usually have original mind with their own ideas and purposes. In fields that appeal to them, they have a fine power to organize a job and carry it through with or without help. Skeptical, critical, independent, determined, sometimes stubborn. Must learn to yield less important points in order to win the most important points. Response: These results do describe me well and I generally receive the same score for my personality type. I tend to be high in thinking and judging, and my extroversion vs. introversion tends to be the same. However, in this case my sensing and intuitiveness have changed. My intuitiveness is usually higher than my sensing, but it has changed in this test. I feel that college has seriously brought more balance to my score because it used to be very different. The descriptive paragraph that was written after the test describes me exactly. One of the biggest concepts that I feel relates to me from this paragraph is where it says In fields that appeal to them. This is most definitely one of my biggest challenges in life because I have to be interested and motivated in order to complete tasks. If I am not, then I procrastinate and get bored. I have learned how to force myself into this mindset, but it is a skill that I will have to work on for the rest of my life. The other piece of this paragraph that stood out to me is how I tend to be skeptical, critical, independent, determined, and sometimes stubborn. Each of these terms represents me. I have offended many people with my criticality, but since I have been in Outdoor Education I have seen this tendency and it is something I have worked hard at reducing when I work with others. My primary strengths are thinking and judging. I also have a 4-way tie with extroversion, introversion, sensing and intuitive. My 3 weaknesses are feeling, perceiving, and

the 4-way tie. One of the biggest weaknesses that I plan on working on during my internship is feeling. The ability to be out of the box and empathize with people is one of my weakest skills and is one that I want to become much better at. I can do this during my internship by slowing myself down and placing myself in others shoes. I need to think about perspective instead of making people feel inferior. Task 3: Professional Goals Exercise

Trust
It is imparative for me to constantly relfect back on the book Leadership & Self Deception as an educator of any sorts. I believe strongly in the "out of box philosophy" and as well as becoming an unknown leader. These concepts all tie into the idea that it isnt about me. It is about you and how I can help you get there.

Meaning
Patience and empathy are crucial skills that I will implement into my profesional career as well as my personal life. Humility is another lesson that I will be walking away with along with perspective taking. I find these lessons and skills to be among some of the richest information I have gathered yet in life and I will value it forever.

As an outdoor educator, I want to view students, peers and coworkers as people, such as myself. I am not going make others feel lesser than myself. I want others others to feel nothing but happier with themselves after I have worked with them. I want to know and become more proficient in using effective teaching methods in my lessons. This should lead students into a greater understanding on the topic being taught.

Hope
I have to maintain constant practice and recollection of these skills and lessons that I am taking away from this program. Another method that I can use in helping me achieve my goals is sharing these lessons and experinces with others.

Commitment
I am professionally committed to being be the best that I can be for others and being a valuable member and asset to any professional team I am apart of. I am committed to not letting my supervisors or subordinates down on the job.

Vision Pursuing Statements & goals: I will regularly reflect back on, and review, these concepts and lessons I have learned. I will actively practice and implement them into my professional life. I will share this knowledge with others to enrich their lives as it has mine. View everyday as a new opportunity to work with another person. One who walks a similar path as myself and that I am no more special nor better than they are.

Task 4: Internship Goals 1. Implement skills, lessons and experiences learned in ODED into my interactions and facilitations of others. a. Teach or share some of these lessons (out of the box) with at least 2 people this summer. b. Reflect on practices each week through the use of journal time.

2. Enhance adventure staffs risk management and safety considerations for taking campers on trips in the backcountry. a. Have regular in-services, evaluations and opportunities for staff development. b. Offer trainings and feedback sessions to staff. 3. Develop new skills whilst in the assistant adventure staff coordinator. a. Shadow the head adventure staff coordinator. b. Receive lessons and feedback from adventure staff coordinator on the daily operations and tasks for my intended position. 4. Refine old skills and experiences related to theory and best practice methodology. a. Compare my experiences and interpretations to that of the Falling Creek (FC) philosophy and their practices. b. Observe and reflect on these skills and experiences and determine refinements weekly through reflective journaling. 5. Expand technical proficiency and increase experience in the four main adventure aspects of Falling Creeks camp. Paddling, climbing, mountain biking and backpacking. a. Go on trips weekly and observe staffs methods and techniques in the different subsets of FCs adventure program. b. Reflect on skills, techniques and experience weekly through reflective journaling. c. Share these experiences with staff and give/receive feedback on it.