Insights of Standards and Competencies

From my own personal experience, I believe I have met all of the standards and competencies. The career developing process began in middle school where I went to school. My middle school was just for seventh and eighth grade. We were offered a multitude of classes to decipher our own interests and skills. We were also taught the differences in traditional and nontraditional classes. These classes included home education, technology education, along with the other typical courses such as math, reading, history, and science. During this time, I could cancel out any of the technology education courses and the home education courses because I was not interested in them. I focused more of my time on sports throughout middle school. I started sports when I was about four years old. I started dancing, then moved to gymnastics, then finally volleyball and basketball. I was able to develop hobbies and balance my time between work and my hobbies; it took great amounts of planning to make my schedule and create a balance. All other competencies were learned from either my sports teams or other teachers and the guidance counselor. By being on a team, I recognized the importance of working as a team and setting goals. I was able to learn about these skills and apply them right away since it fit my interests.

High school was where the actual planning began for a future career, specifically in ninth grade. With all of my sports teams, I believe many of the standards were met. I gained employability skills such as working on a team, organizational skills, and task management skills. I was able to learn the importance of responsibility and punctuality; my team counted on me and I was representative of them. I needed to show them respect in order to gain theirs. I learned to respect other individual’s uniqueness and could transfer this skill to any context. I always had a positive outlook on working. When I was young, my father would take me into his office and I would pretend to work for him. As I got older, he trusted me to answer the phones on the days I did not have school. I loved being able to learn and use set skills to help my father and his business. The only standard that was not met in ninth grade but was met in eleventh grade was creating a resume.

Moving on to tenth grade was where the search for careers began. We took an online quiz that produced three different careers that matched our personalities and interests. I cannot remember all of my outcomes but I remember interior designer was one and another was occupational therapist. Later, we needed to research one of the careers and present the information to the class. I chose to report on the occupation of occupational therapy. A couple months later I actually needed physical therapy for an injury and I loved the atmosphere and everything that came with the job. This became my ultimate goal at this age. I recognized my abilities for this career and shadowed multiple places to find comfort in the profession. With this goal in mind, I chose a university that offered a physical therapy program. Unfortunately I did not find happiness in that school so I transferred and ended up at Millersville. While at Millersville, I still had the goal of becoming a physical therapist. During a class, I was given an opportunity to intern with kids over summer and this is where I changed my career goal. I then catered my schedule to fit the needs of becoming a clinical psychologist.

Through all of my job experiences and the help of this class, I have gained the knowledge and met all competencies of Standard C. I can appropriately resolve conflict, use high quality interpersonal skills, and understand success and satisfaction. I believe all of my experiences in sports and previous jobs along with my education will lead me to reach success in my career.