Week 2: Setting Achievable Goals for Personal and Professional Growth This Semester

During my time here this semester, I want to spend a lot of time and focus on growing personally. My first personal goal this semester was to make new friends and get to know people who share the passions that I do. I have already begun to achieve this goal as I have made lots of friends that I look forward to continuing to grow with throughout the semester. Secondly, I want to be a participating and contributing member of all my classes. I have found in the past that the more of an active participant I am in the activities going on around me, the more I learn and grow. Lastly, I want to push myself out of my comfort in all areas. By participating in this program at the Smithsonian I have already started to do this; for example, this week in our scientific sketching activity we did on Wednesday. As you can see, I am not the best artist, but I did my best and tried something new. I hope to keep this going throughout the semester and continue to expand my skill set and be exposed to new things.

                  Professionally this semester I want to begin to narrow in my career focus. I have many passions and areas within the field of environmental science that I enjoy, however, I am at the point in my life where I am beginning to think about my future and my transition from undergraduate to looking at future jobs and graduate school. I need to narrow my focus to what I want to do moving forward. Secondly, a large part of looking at jobs and graduate school is networking with other professionals in the field. I have not had many opportunities in the past to network with others who are actively in the field of conservation, and it is something I am looking forward to doing and participating in. Lastly, I want to get hands-on experience in the field that I can apply to future career paths. A large part of being here and doing this program is the immersive aspect of classes and learning skills that I can take into my future career paths.