Madison Schaefer

Professor Michelle Kusel

ELPS 223 001

September 9, 2018

Reflection 1: Pre-Reflection

When I look back at my freshman year at Loyola and contemplate who I was and

compare it to the person I am today, I am overcome with gratitude. Although I lost myself for a

bit during my first year at Loyola, I realize, in retrospect, I had to lose myself in order to come

back a stronger and better version of me. I owe much of this regained confidence to my

position as a Peer Advisor for First and Second Year Advising because it provided a community

of people like me who love leadership, enjoy public speaking, and thrive in helping others. I am

excited to have already begun my second year as a Peer Advisor this semester, giving me the

title of a Returner. Having had experience in this role previously, I am enthused to come into

this year already possessing the knowledge needed for success in my position and knowing

ways, based on feedback from my students and advisors previously, that I can be a better Peer

Advisor for both groups respectively. My goals for this year involve being more engaging for my

students both inside and outside the classroom and I hope to take more initiative in the

relationship between myself and my advisor. I fear, however, that due to my busy schedule of

eighteen credit hours, working as a tutor in the Writing Center, and trying to stay involved in my

sorority that I will not feel the efficacy to improve upon areas I felt I neglected in my previous

experience.
 When I reflect upon how leadership impacts the Peer Advising organization, it is very

apparent how important but also confusing and multi-faceted it is. Every single member of the

Peer Advising team is a leader in one way or another. Whether it be our program directors, the

Lead Peer Advisors, Instructors, Returning Peer Advisors or new Peer Advisors, all have a role

that involves leadership at some capacity ranging from facilitating UNIV 101 classes to

legitimating how the organization is run. The fact that leadership is seen on each level of the

program could make it easier to identify how leadership works in my organization or, it could

actually make it more difficult as it is such a complex web of leadership dynamics. Additionally, I

feel it may be challenging for me personally to apply what I learn about leadership in this class

to my role as this is not an entirely new position for me and thus, I am comfortable in doing

what I know works best. I hope to strengthen my skills in adaptability and flexibility in order to

try to implement ideas or concepts from the class to my real-world experience with leadership.

Once I do gain this willingness for personal change, in application, I need to remain aware of the

challenge to not step on the toes or negatively impact my colleagues due to trying to apply new

leadership ideology to my role. In remaining respectful of others’ resistance to change and

considerate in not doing too much, I hope to overcome this challenge.

The only major concern I had with the course and internship was the conflict between

my weekly Peer Advising staff meetings and the scheduled class time for the course. Thankfully

it has been resolved as my supervisor was kind enough to allow me to miss our meetings when

our class meets the handful of times it does throughout the semester. However, because I am

missing a commitment of my Peer Advising role to attend class, I do want to get as much out of

it as I can. Through the experience I have had in the Leadership Studies Minor, I have learned
that I greatly value genuine discussion in my classes among my peers and instructor as I feel it

makes the often concrete ideas of leadership much more real and applicable. In relation to

that, I hope that in each discussion and in reflecting on every reading, emphasis is placed on

relating the learning outcomes of the assignment or class period back to our internship sites. I

really am looking forward to watching myself grow in my position as a Returner Peer Advisor

thanks to all I will be learning throughout this course. I know this will come to fruition as,

thanks to my involvement in the Leadership Minor thus far, I have most definitely seen a shift in

my outlook on and execution of leadership, for the better.