For Fall 2016, I was selected to lead a semester-long, mandatory course—the LAS 101 Freshman Seminar—for 24 first-year students so that I could mentor them and help them to get a strong start in college. It is an annual program designed to assist freshman students in succeeding at the U of I. My initial reason for applying to this program was my interest in helping others. However, as it goes forward, I am becoming more and more interested in teaching itself.
One thing I've learned about teaching is that teaching is an interactive process, especially for this class. Students may choose not to listen or not to involve themselves while I try to encourage them to participate in the class, which can be challenging and exhausting. One thing that surprises me is that the effort that I put into teaching the students is way more than the knowledge that students gain from each class. I now can understand what one of my professors meant when they once said, "I have walked 99 steps, can you guys just try to walk one step?”
At the same time, I am honing my leadership skills. Some things I have learned about being a good leader are that it is important to learn from the negative feedback of your teammates, and that you should expect to have some disagreements with them, too. In this class, students were required to have a 15-minute one-on-one meeting with me – the intern. These were pretty casual conversations that gave me a chance to know more about my students and help them individually. At the end of the meetings, I asked them for feedback for me as well as for the orientation class. It turned out that most of their feedback was positive. Honestly, I appreciated those students who told me that they liked my way of interacting with them during the class, as well as those who said that this class helped them to overcome their transition period. Still, there were a few students who thought that this class was not that helpful (which sort of broke my heart). Yet, I thanked those who expressed that and referred them to other sources that could possibly help them. Even though they are all are freshmen students, they are still different because of their backgrounds, national origins and cultural differences. I learned that I could help them better only by talking to them or asking them how I could help them in person. I cannot assume that all of them have the same problems. This really reinforces my ideas of leadership. In the next several months, my goal is to know more about them and to help them individually. For example, I know one girl who feels too intimidated to speak publicly. To help her overcome this, I am currently planning to have several student volunteers make a presentation about their career goals.
I strongly recommend that those of you who are interested in teaching apply for this program. Since this program is under the LAS College, only LAS students can apply. However, even if you are not in the LAS College, I think that you can look actively for some other opportunities in your own colleges that have a similar structure. The U of I is always full of opportunities!