Today we had a meeting with Mike Kijowski and used a learning tool called StrenghtsFinder which gives insight into people’s natural given strengths and talents. The test gives you several sets of two questions to choose from and rate which you most relate to. The goal is to answer fast and get your initial reactions. I found that my number one theme was connectedness. This essentially means that the past, present, future, and people, are all connected. It focuses on an individual’s ability to listen to others and incorporate everyone’s ideas. Three out of the five of my StrengthFinder themes were under the relationship building category. This means thriving in group cohesion and team efforts. The other two themes were in the executing domain, which is the drive to accomplish goals.

From this exercise, I learned that I am very oriented in connections and building relationships. My group also had an interesting mix of themes from influencing and strategic thinking categories. These categories not only serve as basic traits to define our character but also ties into future careers and the nature of different kinds of jobs. The goal of this test is to find out what career is a good fit for you based on the themes of StrenghtsFinder. I will certainly keep these traits in mind when looking at potential degrees here at Pitt. This also plays a role when we develop our project for Carrigart. My group has a good mix of different themes that each add an interesting perspective. My personal theme of connections will help me identify relationships in the local village of Carrigart and how those businesses establish connections.