Running head: EXPERIENTIAL PAPER

Experiential Paper Karen Angiulo Fall 2013 PSI Practicum

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Experiential Paper I have gained a lot of experience and knowledge from being a part of the PSI Practicum for the School of Communication Studies. Not only have I learned how to be more organized and proactive when it comes to scheduling meeting times and letting my students know of important information, but I have also learned how to be an effective leader. I will remember this experience for the long run and it will definitely help my future career. Before the practicum, my original thoughts were that I would be a sort of advocate for the students and be available for any questions they may have. I quickly came to the realization that I would be putting in more work than that. I have scheduled meeting times, scheduled rooms through the library for these meeting times, created Google Docs for the students to use, sent countless emails reminding them of important due dates and homework, as well as helped them with understanding the requirements of the course. Scheduling meeting times was probably one of the most difficult portions of the practicum. Some of the students were less than thrilled about meeting outside of class or their schedules were very hectic and difficult to manipulate. So, I tried to solve the problem by giving them sign-up sheets. They would sign up for whatever time they were available and I would also meet with them. This strategy helped until a student or two decided not to show up. After that, we all decided to have meeting times later in the evening, usually at 9 p.m., at the library and most or all of the students were present. I always found it fascinating when the students would give each other feedback and helpful advice for each others speeches. These meeting t imes gave them the opportunity to not only get help from an intern with communication experience, but also help from their peers to make their speeches more interesting for their audience.

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Ive learned that not only is organization important when being an intern for the PSI Practicum, but being proactive is also very important. I have noticed that it lowers the stress level of the students when I remind them of upcoming due dates or meeting times. I also enjoyed setting up meeting times with them and learning how to compromise or collaborate on other solutions. Being proactive is more than just scheduling meetings, it is also remembering to email or text message students about what is expected of them for upcoming speeches. It is also having knowledge of the requirements of the course and knowing how to answer the students questions when they arise. I have gained experience in being an effective leader from this practicum. This experience will help me in my future career, and it is helping me now in my current job. I am a student manager at Eastway Caf on campus and learning how to be an effective leader is an essential part of my job. I must have extensive knowledge of the inner workings of the establishment and solve any issues that may arise on a daily basis. This happened in the practicum as well. I had become well-acquainted with the requirements of the course and was able to answer any questions the students had. If I did not know an answer, I would ask the course instructor, McKenzie Pittman, and relay that answer directly back to the student. I have learned the hard way that not knowing a question, then asking someone who may not know the answer, is a waste of time and does not help the situation. So I go right to the source, which is either McKenzie or Blackboard in this instance. Being a leader does not only mean having knowledge of the area in which one is leading; it also means to be respected. I think this was established on the first day when I was introduced as an intern, but it also required me to be very professional when working with the students. Since the students are in college and are not

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clients for a company or anything like that, I was able to be a bit more casual in my interactions with them. I still remained professional when it came to discussions about the course or when emailing back and forth. I feel that the students gained more out of the course when I was not being overly professional and casually discussed with them how they can improve. I also gained respect when, instead of sitting and handing out criticism, I would go to the front of the room and speak like how I would like to see them present. I feel as though this really got the students attention and more of them listened to my advice after that. Teaching the class was a difficult thing for me to do, but I consider it a very worthwhile experience. The first thing I noticed that I should have done is bring in some sort of incentive. Usually an intern would hand out candy which caused more people to volunteer. Not having an incentive caused the class to be less responsive when I wanted to have a discussion. I chose to speak about nonverbal communication because I felt that this topic was very interesting and everyone can learn something from it. I prepared a PowerPoint presentation with many fun and engaging activities. One activity was to watch a clip from The Office on mute and discuss what we thought was going on in the scene by watching their nonverbal cues. Another activity was to examine many pictures of peoples shoes and associate who we thought them to be as a person. This was to demonstrate the artifacts category of nonverbal communication. I had many relatable clips and images, but the class, for the most part, was silent and it was very challenging to get a discussion started. At the end of class I originally thought from the experience I had learned to always bring candy, but that is not necessarily the case. I need to work on engaging the audience more and creating more relatable and fun discussions. Without

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the experience of teaching a class, I would not have known these things and now I can use this knowledge for future lessons. The theory I found most prominent throughout the course was Uncertainty Reduction Theory. In the first phase, or entry phase, all that people know of one another is the information given to them and are guided by rules and norms of their society. Students would sit at least one seat away from someone else if they did not know them and they would only speak to another if they were instructed to do so. This was mostly seen in the first few weeks of the course, but now students are talking more and holding conversations, which brings them to the second phase. In this phase, they form attitudes, values, and beliefs about others and communicate more freely. I have seen students form friendships over the past weeks just because they had to meet outside of class and spend more time than usual with other students. Uncertainty Reduction Theory also pertains to how students presented their speeches. In the beginning, most students would rely mostly on notes and act very nervous while presenting to the class. After more time has gone by and they have become more comfortable with public speaking, most students are confident and engage in more eye contact with the audience. I plan on becoming a web content manager upon graduation and many aspects of the practicum will help me with my future career. Being a manager is synonymous with leadership. I have learned to be more open to other points of view in given situations and listen to the students before I make a judgment call. It has prepared me to be more organized and proactive. Being in a leadership role means that that person is not looking out for only themselves anymore; it means that now they are looking out for the welfare of all the people they are managing as well. As a web content manager, I would maintain and update content on

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a companys website. I would also oversee my subordinates and make sure the work they are doing is appropriate and correct to be published on the website. I would have to communicate with other departments in the same organization and discuss what content they would like to be added to the site. This takes exceptional interpersonal communication and listening skills. One has to really listen to what their coworker is saying so that they get a correct understanding of the content they want added. A web content manager must also have a creative side. Once they gain a general understanding of what the client wants added to the site, they must mentally picture what the new content would look like and make rough sketches or wireframes of that content. I have developed my listening and interpersonal communication skills more while in this practicum. I have listened to direction from McKenzie in how to correctly go about explaining a certain subject to my students or how to solve any issues. I have also read documents for the course that outline what needs to be done for a certain assignment and I do that to the best of my ability. This could be when explaining how to make outlines to my students or when reading the requirements of this paper. Not only is the PSI Internship an excellent addition to my rsum, it is also an excellent experience to use in my future career and endeavors.