5/16/19 Final Blog Post

At the beginning of the year, on the card where I was supposed to write what I hoped to gain from the Global Citizenship Seminar, I wrote, "Networking, networking, networking! I want to have the courage to reach out to professionals, and to be able to hold my own when I speak with them one-on-one." When I consider how much networking I've done so far this year, and how much better I've gotten at it, I think that this "hope to gain" was a success! I practiced this skill in meetings with Ms. Edwards, my mentor for my grant proposal, and in meetings with Sarah, the director of Families Forward. I practiced this skill before I even knew what my grant proposal was going to be centered around, in reaching out to different organizations during the preliminary stages of the project. I gained a lot more this year than just networking skills, though. I learned how to stay consistently passionate about something, and to make sure may work reflects that. I learned how to absorb information about topics previously entirely foreign to me, and to diversify my sources of information. I learned how to be a smart, worldly consumer, and how to make connections between topics I wouldn't have even thought related. I also learned how to better appreciate the work of the students around me; some of the most amazing discussions, panels, and info sessions were run by none other than my own peers! All in all, I learned how to be a part of a group, an amazing group, and I learned that the world is much greater than I could ever imagine.

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