Critical reflection has had a prominent role in helping me to make meaning of my internship experience this semester. One of my first reflections was my Clifton Strengths reflection. My strengths, according to the quiz, were Communication, Positivity, Woo, Developer, and Empathy. At first, I did not know what to make of these results. I understood that I have always been a good communicator, and tend to be positive in the workplace. However, I did not understand what Woo or Developer meant in my life as a leader. After this critical reflection, however, I came to understand that each of my strengths were linked in some way. For example, my strength as a developer meant that I help others to achieve goals. I felt like this made a lot of sense, and could be linked to my strength of positivity! In my internship I often helped some of the other interns to achieve their work related goals, especially when they were having a bad day. I found that my strengths of woo, communication, and empathy were also closely linked, because they allow me to influence others through effective and compassionate communication. Overall my clifton strengths assignment allowed me to see and experience the benefits of critical reflection. At face value, I sometimes miss the meaning of some assignments. However, through this critical reflection process I have been able to recognize the importance of some assignments. Though tedious at times, critical reflection forces me to understand the bigger picture of what I am doing in my internship and/or education. 

​

      One way that critical reflection helped me throughout my internship experience was by helping me to draw parallels between my internship and school of social work coursework. For example, I am currently enrolled in a philanthropy, public policy, and community change course. The class examines best practices for nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, and how public policy affects them. This allowed me to understand some of the legislation that impacts the nonprofit that I interned for, Susan G. Komen Chicago. I even wrote a research paper about how some philanthropic organizations can actually perpetuate inequality, which I will include as an artifact on this page. In this paper I examine some of the effects of “bad” philanthropy, and how grant writing can sometimes negatively impact a nonprofit organization. Learning about nonprofit organizations and philanthropy from the “back-end” allowed me to understand more about my internship experience. 

​

      I plan on continuing to implement critical reflection in future professional and academic experiences through the use of a journal. This will help me to continue to reflect on my experiences as a student and my experiences in future internships and careers. This will also allow me to look back on my thoughts and feelings in the past, that will aid in making decisions about my future. One concrete example of how I’ve implemented critical reflection is where you’re reading this right now, my learning portfolio! Learning portfolios like this one are a great tool to reflect on an academic/internship experience, because it allows students to “build personal and academic identities as they complete complex projects and reflect on their capabilities and progress” (The Benefits of E-Portfolios for Students and Faculty in their Own Words, Ross Miller & Wende Morgaine)