This has been a transformative experience for me, driven by a semester of growth, learning, and reflection. It has instilled a slew of skills, knowledge, and lessons, but something that stood out to me was the benefit of prioritizing reflection. It is easy to get caught up in the flow of the semester and the work and easy to forget to take time to reflect, but this would be doing yourself a disservice. These periods of reflection allowed me to fully process and intake the experiences and growth gained throughout the semester. This is one of the main pillars of experiential learning of which the course is modeled upon. We analyzed several readings on the topic to fully grasp the concepts behind our situation and one reading titled “What is experiential education” it was defined as occurring “when carefully chosen experiences are supported by reflection, critical analysis and synthesis.” These principles proved invaluable when examining my own experience within this program and allowed me to take an understanding of the full breadth of growth I underwent. My initial goals coming into the class were to fully appreciate this experience, seizing every opportunity in both an academic and personal way. I believe I have achieved both of those goals. This course has shaped me into a better leader, teammate, and critical thinker while also providing me with memories abroad that I will cherish for a lifetime. Academically, this course was critical in the development of transferable skills that I will be able to leverage and rely on well into the rest of my life and career. Many skills are cultivated during the course such as adaptability, communication, collaboration but one that I saw most impactful was the development of leadership among my group and I. The project is mostly student led and as such it requires students to take on a leadership role they may not be accustomed to. Additionally, it teaches you how to be a leader within a group. Many times, leadership can be rigid with one person commanding a situation leaving little room for movement. However, a skill that I learned throughout the course was how to practice a more fluid leadership style where everyone in the group shifts between leader and follower, depending on their strengths and the situation, ultimately resulting in a seamless flow of consistent high-quality leadership and team performance. 

The foundation of this entire course is based upon personal relationships. The consulting style of work that we did throughout this program is inherently relationship-dependent, which successes hinging upon a healthy, communicative, and supportive relationship between the two parties. The model of this class and the pre-existing relationships come with both strength and vulnerabilities. The strengths come from the length of the partnership being so long and in-depth, with multiple years’ worth of work connecting each organization and reinforcing the trust between them. One of the vulnerabilities is that each new crop of students enters this relationship in the middle, making it difficult at the beginning to form their own personal connections with the client. However, this obstacle was quickly overcome once we spent time in-country, forming close personal bonds with the members of Nature Seekers. These connections allowed us a unique understanding of our client and who our training was to be created for, and the success of our project was dependent on this personal understanding. We believe our project, with the potential for regionalization, will aid the skill development desired in Nature seekers and will ultimately continue to maintain the yearly relationship between our university and their organization.  

This entire experience is perfectly suited to be used to showcase your skills and accomplishments in an interview. Valuable traits shine through every aspect of the project: from its length, importance, leadership building, and consulting style format. When I talk about this experience in interviews, I will hone in on specific moments of the semester, things like our in-country presentation, and articulate how that situation exemplifies a semester’s worth or skill development. 

Success within this program comes from a variety of places that I could write about for pages, but I will highlight three: be adaptable, take initiative, and become a team. First, be adaptable. The nature of the entire course is incredible fluid and constantly changing. My experience in-country began with a 2-day delay in Houston and a complete shift of all planned activities. This class changes at a moment’s notice and if you want to succeed within it you have to be able to do that as well. Prioritize this adaptability and understand that plans can and will change and be ready for your response to these changes. Second, take initiative. This project is primarily student planned, led, and executed. To create the highest quality and most impactful deliverables your team can create, you must be willing and eager to take initiative. Most of the value of this project is created when students take initiative to create another piece of the project or research something that could be useful. This experience will turn you into a fantastic leader if you take advantage of the opportunity. Third, become a team. This, in my opinion, is the most important thing that you must do to succeed in this course and make the most of this opportunity. You will spend 2 and a half hours every week for a semester plus a non-stop full week in-country with your group, the sooner you make the transition from classmates to groupmates and groupmates to friends the better the course and the project will turn out. There are ups and downs for everyone throughout a semester, and the success of the project will depend on if your group is able to stay steady during these ebbs and flows. You will need to pick up each other slack and cohesively work together to achieve your desired outcomes. Not to mention, the class is a whole lot more fun when you’re with friends. 

I’d like to say one final goodbye and a huge thank you to my teammates who made the year fun, my instructors who promoted growth throughout the semester, and the donors that made this experience possible.