Work with me
MY LEARNING GOALS
One of my learning goals is to be more communicative to people that I do not know. Being more open to new faces and ideas. I set a goal to speak up when needed and to talk more to strangers. I already feel that I progressed. I am talking much more freely now and I am calmer when talking to people I do not know.
My second learning goal is to improve my time management skills. At the beginning of the year, I always came 5 minutes late for class and I did not like it to enter the class when they had already started. That is why I set this goal to be more punctual. I am dealing with this by setting the start-time 10 minutes before the class starts, this way I always come a bit earlier and do not miss the beginning of meetings.
My last learning goal is to enhance my business and finance knowledge. I want to be able to have a better understanding and knowledge about how business and companies work. In my time at the university, I already gained professional vocabulary and learned some theories to use in my future career.
I hope by the end of my university time, I will have achieved these goals, improved my skills and set some new learning goals for the continuation of my life.
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Specific: I want to be able to communicate with every person that I want, feeling more calm when talking to them.
Measurable: I set a goal to speak to at least one stranger per day.
Attainable: I want to feel more relaxed and confident when speaking with people that I do not know or in different languages.
Relevant: All of this is relevant for me, as I want to become a successful event manager and good communication is essential in this area.
Time-Bound: I want to achieve this goal by my time during the university, but also after, as there is always space for improvement.
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Inspirational: I got inspired to achieve this goal because of the importance of communication in our daily lives.
SMART FORMULATED GOALS
Specific: I want to be able to improvise more without feeling nervous rather than speaking memorized lines in presentations or speeches.
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Measurable: I set the goal to perform at least one presentation this semester, knowing about the subject but talking freely to the public.
Attainable: I want to feel more relaxed but also serious when presenting to bigger groups.
Relevant: It is very relevant for me, as an event manager needs to lead and guide many different people throughout their career and show confidence when speaking in public.
Time-Bound: I want to achieve this goal by the end of this semester, but there is always space for improvement after this deadline.
Inspirational: I want to achieve this goal because not always you can learn what needs to be said, sometimes you need to step up and say the right thing for the moment.
At the beginning of the year, I had difficulties presenting in front of the class, especially when I needed to improvise. This changed throughout the year because of many presentations made in class and also by hosting the DBE classes which gave me much more confidence. In the group work of the event, I received a task, not of presenting memorized lines, but I am going to be put in a position in which I need to talk much more freely and improvise my communication. I am going to need to take care of the evaluation part of the event which will be different every time because the visitors are going to have different questions and approaches to the feedback part. This shows the progression I was able to make this year and I am glad that I am overcoming this fear. Nevertheless, I still want to expand my vocabulary by researching more and reading more books.
MY PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
There are 10 leisure competencies that a manager should possess. As a Leisure & Events management student, I need to work on these competencies over time and master them by the end of my time at the university.
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The 10 leisure competencies:
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1. Developing a vision for changes and trends in the external environment and developing relationships, networks and chains
2. Analyzing policy questions, translating them into policy goals and alternatives, and preparing for decision-making
3. Directing within networks
4. Initiating, creating and marketing products and services; independent and enterprising
5. Applying HRM in the light of the strategy of the organization
6. Organizing, managing and improving company or organization processes
7. Analyzing and implementing the financial and legal aspects, internal processes and company or organizational environment to reinforce coherence and reciprocity
8. Developing, implementing and evaluating a process of change
9. Social and communicative competence (interpersonal, organization)
10. Self-directing competence (intrapersonal, leisure manager or professional)
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For competence 9, I can say that I improved a lot in regards to the first year because of the many group assignments we were directed to make. I can notice that I am much more communicative with my group members and I am also building stronger bonds with my classmates. I am notifying my coworkers if there is a problem, delay, or question regarding the work, I am being more available outside of the university, meaning being more reachable via social media, and I am trying to build the best relationship possible with my friends to have a stronger bond with them. All of the actions mentioned above did not take place so heavily in my first semester of the university, and I am glad that I could turn this to a more positive way. Furthermore, one of the things that most changed in me is that I am being more open to new friendships and people in general. I am delighted that I am succeeding in this matter because being open-minded is a valuable quality to have these days. Being communicative will help me a lot in my future career as well, and being social will provide me healthy relationships that I will keep for the rest of my life.
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Competence 9 put in the STARR Reflection method:
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Situation: Being more communicative, social, and open-minded.
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Task: Have better communication and understanding between me and my group members by notifying them whenever it is needed and being available.
Activities: Many group assignments that we participated in this semester.
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Result: I am much more communicative with my group members and I am also building stronger bonds with my classmates. I am notifying my coworkers if there is a problem, delay, or question regarding the work, I am being more available outside of the university, meaning being more reachable via social media, and I am trying to build the best relationship possible with my friends to have a stronger bond with them. being open-minded is a valuable quality to have these days.
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Reflection: Being communicative will help me a lot in my future career as well, and being social will provide me healthy relationships that I will keep for the rest of my life.
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For the 10th competence, the university helped me a lot to know which direction I will need to take and how to deal with different situations. In addition, my experience with different volunteer works where I needed to talk with unknown people and know how to deal with them, which is important for my career as a Leisure & Events management professional, as we need to know how to approach different people.
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Competence 10 put in the STARR Reflection method:
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Situation: Knowing how to direct myself as a leisure manager.
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Task: Doing as many volunteer works as possible to gain more experience in this field.
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Activities: Volunteer works, and Internships provided by the university.
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Result: The university helped me a lot to know which direction I will need to take and how to deal with different situations. My experience with different volunteer works also helped me in this area, where I needed to talk with unknown people and know how to deal with them.
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Reflection: It is important for my career as a Leisure & Events management professional, as we need to know how to approach different people and I am glad that we are learning these competencies during our time in the university because in my vision it is going to be very useful for us in our future jobs.
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For Competence 1, we as Leisure & Events management students need to have an open mind and view of the events happening on the external world to be able to recognize what are the current trends in the world and seize the opportunity to use them in our favor. Trends change quickly and to be able to recognize them and create an event based on the current trend is going to give us a great advantage before others. Being open-minded will also help us to create more connections that might help us in the future. Expanding our network and enhancing our chains will provide us with more contacts that could help us to create an event in the future. Besides, the ability to maintain relationships and strengthen them over time is fundamental not only for this career but for life.
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Competence 1 put in the STARR Reflection method:
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Situation: Being able to recognize trends and changes in the external environment.
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Task: Be more open-minded and have an open view of the external environment.
Activities: Be aware of current trends and news, and maintain relationships created during our university time and start new connections.
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Result: During my academic years I already made important contacts and connections that might help me in the future. I will continue building my network to have access to more contacts in the following years.
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Reflection: I think that building chains and having an extensive network is one of the most important things in life because it gives you connections all around the globe that might come in handy someday. Having awareness of different cultures is also important, as in each country the event should be done differently. People are different and work in different fields of work, so having connections all around is most likely to be helpful in any circumstance.
PROGRESS DURING THIS SEMESTER
In the first semester of the second year in the university, students learned how to manage the Grand Départ from the Tour de France event. Before this assignment, I barely had a vision on how to organize such a big event. This assignment gave me the attention to details one needs to take into consideration whilst organizing such a big event. The management of the crowd, the management of the security, the management of volunteers, and the financial side that is essential to any event. After studying one whole semester for this assignment, I can say that I learned a lot on how to manage an event of these proportions and all the distinct parts that need to be taken into consideration. I see myself as much more capable of organizing such an event and all the details that I have to give attention to. There is still a lot to learn, but I liked gaining experience on the subject. The Tour de France assignment will surely help me in future occasions where I will need to pay attention to all the details learned in this assignment.
