MY PRACTICUM- CPSP349T

1) What did I do for my practicum?

A: I took the class Service Learning: Science, Technology, and Society, a class that discusses infrastructure in the modern world. The goal of this class is to look at how human infrastructure was built and how it may not be the best, as well as potential solutions, and it extends to our general culture and how we take it for granted. Some of the topics that were discussed includes how infrastructure relates to the disabled community, smell and how it affects our lives, food culture, maintenance as opposed to innovation, community structure, and stakeholders in an area. This culminated in a project that asks us to update and envision a new version of a place we know and love.

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2) What did you learn from your practicum?

A: I learned that the culture that I often take for granted is often riddled with issues, even the small stuff. For example, the food culture relies heavily on profits instead of feeding everyone quality food, and the infrastructure set for food is often meant to get as much as possible instead of focusing on quality and community. I also learned that infrastructure in the United States is dying, which adds to the knowledge that humankind is focused on excess instead of valuing what we have. Maintenance in infrastructure is underdeveloped, and needs to be funded so that the larger courses of infrastructure can be safe for people.

I also learned about how one area can have so many people relying on it, whether for business reasons or for personal reasons. This stakeholder map, for example, details most of who and what defines the Natelli Community Center. This includes the amount of people and businesses that benefit from the center, the government behind it, the walk scores (the ability to walk properly in the area), the numbers behind the people who live in the neighborhood (average income, median age, population, etc.). From this, I understood where I lived better, and I learned how the center affects people. This is important because I fully appreciated how important one area can be to different people and how it reflects those people as well.

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3) How have you grown as a leader, student, and professional?

A: I've grown as a leader because I became more well-rounded in what is around me- I realized that the culture around me is flawed in little ways, and there needs to be massive overhaul in order to fix it. This made me a better leader because learning about the surroundings around me helped me understand the real world, and part of being a good leader is knowing the issues facing everyone and finding a way to fix it instead of merely charging into the wind. 

I've grown as a student because it made me think critically about what is around me and its variables- for example, I attributed smells such as cold air, fertilizer, and soil to mixed feelings I had for the cusp of winter, as well as how it might be affected living in the suburbs in Frederick County, Maryland. This is important as a student because critical thinking helps me connect the dots between what I learn and how it affects me in the real world.

I've grown as a professional because I improved on my interviewing skills and gained new ideas on topics I did not understand before. The interviewing skills helped me because I will find it easier to pick at someone's brain and gain new insights into what they believe and why. The new topics helped me because I understand how the workforce could be affected as to where I live and how I work, and it might be useful to understand infrastructure.

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4) How can you apply your practicum experience to your life/career moving forward?​

A: I hope that if I become a journalist, I would research and delve deep into the infrastructure problems that are currently ramping about more, and write about them in newspapers and expose the problems going on. If I become a businessman, I hope to take the infrastructure problems and make them better via my business doing things differently and/or the business tackling these issues.

As for my life, I hope to use this and understand struggles of those less fortunate than I, and I have also learned that maintaining what I have instead of adding something new is important in life (a cliche, but something on a bigger scale like this is important in the long run). I will also appreciate life and look at it differently, and fully see my surroundings as the infrastructure affects me on a daily basis.