Exploring Paths for Academic and Personal Achievement
The goal of this category is to "use opportunities provided by the University context to complete activities that require you to face a personal challenge or to help advance your personal or academic achievement in new ways."
Boxing Lessons
For the personal and academic achievement category of my PDP project, I went to Mount Pleasant Fit Club to take boxing lessons on October 11th, 2020.
One of my greatest passions is exercise. It has always played a huge role in my life, from being involved in multiple sports, to running outside or going to the gym on a daily basis. My dad has also encouraged me and pushed me to be the best I can be at anything I pursue, including working out. One way I have always wanted to push myself to try is boxing. We rarely watched boxing in my house, well other than the amazing Rocky movies, so I really don’t know where I found the interest in this specific activity. I have just always loved expressing my need for physical activity in an aggressive and competitive way, and boxing fit both of those needs perfectly for me. However, I have never pursued the opportunity in fear of being made fun of for being a girl and taking up this sport. I did not want to be seen as weak just because of my gender, so I have always stayed away from it altogether until I worked up the courage to try it for the personal and academic achievement category of my PDP project. I believed boxing lessons fit this category perfectly because of the way boxing would allow me to grow my mental toughness and physical development.
I biked to the Mount Pleasant Fit Club on the Sunday afternoon of my group lesson. After passing a COVID screening, I picked a boxing bag and put on my gloves. The instructor started off with an easy warm-up, and then went right into the boxing. We started out learning about jabbing with our dominant hand and practiced the foot movement and arm movement combination on the punching bag. We moved on to cross punches, and eventually hooks and uppercuts. After learning these four basic punches, we went into specific combinations, making sure to constantly keep our feet moving around the bag. In between “sets” of combinations, we would be instructed to run a lap around the building once, as agility is one of the most important aspects of boxing. When our hour-long session had ended, we all helped to put away the punching bags, and then I biked back to Central's campus.
This activity not only taught me the basics of boxing, but I also learned things about myself. I was finally able to have enough courage to pursue something I have always had an interest in but I was hesitant to try because of my gender. Going to this class taught me to go after anything in life, no matter who you are. Nothing, including your gender, age, race, or religion, should hold you back from pursuing your passions. I also grew in mental toughness not only by making this bold realization but also by making it through the lesson! Boxing is a lot harder and tiring, both physically and mentally, than I had anticipated it would be. However, I preserved throughout the hour-long session and told myself I would not quit until the instructor says we are done. This taught me not to quit when things are harder than you thought they would be, which is a lesson I have noticed myself transferring to other aspects of my life, especially my academic career.
Virtual Job Shadow
As an event for the academic and personal achievement category of my PDP project, I met virtually with Ashley Kerr for a Job Shadow on Monday, October 26, 2020. She works at Auto-Owners Insurance in Lansing, Michigan as an Actuarial Analyst.
I chose a job shadowing activity for the academic and personal achievement category because I thought it would be a great step forward in my professional career path I have started to venture down here at Central Michigan University. Going into college, I did not know a lot about the different career choices that would be available with an Actuarial Science degree, and I thought that talking to someone currently in the field would be the best explanation I could receive. As I started learning bits and pieces about this job, I compiled a list of questions that I would want to someday ask an expert in this field. I thought that a job shadow would be the perfect opportunity to get my most valuable and pressing questions answered.
Before meeting with Ashley Kerr, I went back through my list of questions that I had compiled concerning Actuarial Science. I highlighted my top questions, and I also sent this list to other people to get their opinion on which questions they thought would be the most helpful or any new questions they thought would be beneficial to ask in a job shadow, as this was a completely new experience for me. I organized the answers I received and finalized the list of questions I wanted to have prepared for my meeting with Ashley. During our meeting, Ashley explained to me what she does for her career as an Actuarial Analyst at Auto-Owners. She talked about how she examines data from the past to create trends in order to predict the future actions of people that have insurance claims. This helps to set the policies of insurance claims in a way that is affordable for people to purchase, and at the same time makes a profit for the insurance company. Ashley then went on to talk about the team atmosphere that Auto-Owners creates, and how much she enjoys working for the company because their management is so approachable, one of her favorite aspects of the company. With the time we had left in our hour-long session, she answered some of my questions, which included “what would you suggest that I would need to know to best prepare for this career?” and “what’s something most people don’t know about this career?”
By talking with Ashley, I learned an immense amount not only about a career as an Actuary but also about the company Auto-Owners in Lansing. I learned what exactly an Actuary does, which can be quite confusing to explain. Most people are not aware of what they are getting into with this career, however, I now feel I have achieved an understanding of what the job of an Actuary consists of on a daily basis, which has progressed me further in both my academic and personal achievements. I also learned what it takes to be successful in this job outside of academic factors. Ashley explained to me that the most important soft skills in this career are communication and people skills. She also urged me to learn these skills prior to applying for a professional position through internships and job experience in any field. Outside of the things I learned specifically during my job shadow, I also learned how to push myself out of my comfort zone in order to engage myself with someone I don’t know in a professional way. By doing this, I have already begun to get my name out to future employers, which is a crucial step towards obtaining academic and personal achievements.