Valentina Gutierrez

Advisory
Beth Thurber
March 31, 2015
Habit of Mind Summary - Junior Year
For an abundance of reasons, my junior year has been the most difficult year at
Blackstone, yet I continued to work hard and succeed. My success is most noticeable in my
grades, which remained high even though I took every challenging honors class that was made
available to me. Nevertheless, there is more to me than my GPA, and this year I mastered
multiple Habits of Mind and continue to work to excel in many more. Through my own
observations and those of my advisor and teachers, I will identify how Ive developed my Habits
of Mind and how I plan to work on them during my senior year.
Over the course of my junior year, Ive demonstrated mastery of multiple Habits of
MInd, however, Grit, which is persevering despite difficulties; finishing what is started, and
working independently with focus and intensity, is definitely one of my strongest qualities. I
have demonstrated this facet in all aspects of my life, and they often overlap. At home, for one, I
had a difficult year. There was an entire month during which I spent my weekends at a relatives
home; my parents separated, money was and remains tight, my mother, brother and I moved
away from my father; and I cut ties with some friends. Through all of this, I blocked out the
yelling, the judgement, the pain, and instead concentrated on school with the hopes that my
education will someday ease some of these problems and many more. This quality will help me
for the rest of life. Whenever I am faced with a challenge, I know that I will be able to stick with
it and work as hard as I can.
Similarly, Ive mastered the Habit of Mind known as Organization. In school and at
home, for example, everything I do goes towards my goal of going to college (with a great

scholarship, I hope). My organization helps me work towards this goal, by helping me turn all of
my work in well done and on time. Outside of school, my life still seems to revolve around
school, so the structure to my work, thinking, and life is unquestionably set. Since organization is
one of my strengths, I will be able to prioritize the most important aspects of my life.
In addition to having grit and being organized, another one of my assets is my ability to
Self-Advocate. In school, I constantly show that I have the agency to become empowered by
asking for help--whether it be on projects, homework, or personal issues--whenever I need it.
Even though I know that there are hurdles that I will be faced with that I will have no say in, I act
as the director of my own life, because I know that it is up to me how I respond to the situation.
As aforementioned, this year was difficult for me at home. Regardless of this, I chose to channel
everything into school instead of into something negative. Self-advocacy will help me take
charge and make decisions based on what is best for me.
The final Habit of Mind that I excel in is Optimism, or believing that ones life,
community, and world can get better with effort. Personally, Im hopeful that my life will
eventually get better with effort, especially towards my education. In addition to this, I work to
making the world a better place too. For example, this year, I attended a Feminist conference at
Brown University. At said conference, I was not only able to meet with like minded high
schoolers, but also students at Brown University and professionals who work there. Moreover, I
was able to learn more about what it means to be a feminist, and how important it is for everyone
to identify as one in order for the world to move forward. I left Brown that day very optimistic
with the idea that not only will Rhode Island be better thanks to the many feminists in my
community, but also because I left with the tools to spread the knowledge to my peers. As a

result, I want to start a feminist club at school next year with Stefany. Its unquestionable that I
have hope that my community and the world can become better with effort.
As I have strengths, I acknowledge that I have weaknesses, as well as Habits of Mind that
I am currently working on. For one, I am trying to improve my level of Community Engagement,
which is active participation in the school, local, state, and global communities. Although I do
actively take part in school activities, such as honors classes, and extracurricular activities such
as Student Government, Yearbook, Creative Writing, and the Events Committee, I do not
vigorously participate in activities in my local, state, or global communities. On the other hand,
through my service learning project, I worked with Carolyn with fundraising as well as email,
social media, and event marketing. This form of outreach helped me immerse myself in
something larger than the school -- the entire community of 250 people who attended the Born to
Run road race. Not only did I interact with participants but other people, such as the t-shirt
printer, FuelBelt employee, and possible sponsors. As another part of my service learning, I was
lucky to meet the school board members, including Gayle Gifford, who works in the community
and invited me to shadow her for a day. Either way, I must continue to work on immersing
myself in the community outside of my school.
In addition to my level of community engagement, Im also currently working on
Integrity, which is, telling the truth to oneself and others through words and actions even when
its difficult. I demonstrated this habit in my personal life this year, when I opened up to a
teacher about my stressful home life. However, I still struggle doing this with people like my
peers, who I often dont feel that I can relate to.
Moreover, Im working on Gratitude. Although I take advantage of the opportunities
presented to me, which in a way, shows how much I appreciate my options, I dont feel like I

appreciate the people in my life enough. For example, Marti presented a few students, including
me, with the opportunity to apply to the Great Books summer program and receive a full
scholarship if accepted. Due to the fact that I was interested in the program, and to show that I
was grateful for being considered in the small group of possible applicants, I applied and got
accepted. However, I feel like I failed to thank Marti sufficiently for the opportunity. In order to
improve how well and how often I show gratitude I plan to start writing hand-written thank you
cards.
In addition to community engagement, gratitude, and integrity, I continue to work on
Creativity, which is, daring to think flexibly, being willing to reconsider ideas, solve problems
by taking appropriate risks, and discover more about oneself through the process. In school,
Ive learned what works best for me, and as a result, I dont try anything new. However, Im not
sure how much of a negative this really is. When its truly hard for me to take appropriate risks is
when Im working with a group, which ties into my ability to collaborate. However, I have been
working on this skill in my classes as well as outside of school in Student Government.
The final Habit of Mind that I continue to work on is Upstanderness, which is,
Demonstrating active compassion even when afraid or in front of a crowd; righting a wrong;
helping those who are situationally disempowered. As someone who is considered
situationally disempowered as a young hispanic woman and immigrant from a low-income
family, I often dont know where to start in order to help those who are in a similar position or
one worse than me. Either way, Im not afraid to support those who I know are oppressed.
Therefore, I think the problem lay with the fact that I do not know how to reach out and help
those people. I need more platforms where I can learn about the injustices in the world and stand
up for those in need.

Although I know that I have a firm grasp on multiple Habits of Mind and am also
successfully working towards excelling in others, I am conscious of the fact that there are others
that I still struggle with. For one, Im striving to get better at being humble (awareness that
everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Humbly acknowledging success while bravely
confronting ones weaknesses and encouraging others who do the same). In school, I have a hard
time working with people because its easy for me to see what they do wrong, instead of focusing
on what they can bring to the table. This also ties into Collaboration, which is, Working
successfully with others by listening empathetically, leading sensitively, contributing
meaningfully, and learning from group members. Outside of school, in Student Government, for
example, I struggle with these Habits of Mind when I see that people arent contributing as much
as they should be. As a result, I see them more negatively and ignore their strengths. If I continue
this practice, then I will eventually lose the respect of my teammates, because they will notice
that I do not appreciate them. Moreover, I will lose the capacity to learn and better myself if I
ignore that there is room for improvement in everyone.
Participating enthusiastically and passionately; invigorating others, otherwise known as
Zest, is another Habit of Mind that demands more attention from me. Although I feel
passionately about battling issues of oppression, my education, creating positive change, and
more, I know I dont always participate enthusiastically enough to invigorate others. Although I
have the determination necessary to stick to any challenge, I still have a hard time facing every
problem with a smile on my face. For example, as Student Body President, I feel a personal
responsibility for how much Student Government accomplishes this year. Therefore, when I
noticed that my fellow representatives were not participating as much as they should have been
and very little was getting done as a result of that, I felt defeated. When a peer came up and told

me that I came off like a bitch, Student Government became too much to deal with for the
following weeks. Recently, Ive come to accept that I cant control how passionately my peers
feel, but I can change how I look at the situation, so now at meetings, I take on a more relaxed
role and encourage conversations in small groups where everyone feels more comfortable with
the hopes that they will feel more enthusiastic about what they were voted into office for.
Every year, I have struggled with Wellness -- Actively working to maintain a healthy
mind, body, and soul. Focusing on sleep, nutrition, exercise, and managing stress in an effort to
reach peak performance. Although I see the value in this practice, I find it extremely difficult to
stick to. As an overscheduled high schooler, its extremely hard for me to get 7 hours of sleep at
most, even though the necessary minimum is 9 hours and 15 minutes for a teenager per night.
Moreover, because of my lack of time, I dont have time to go to the gym (let alone money), and
sports teams dont catch my attention. As a result of this, I dont really care about what I eat,
even though I feel guilty for it. Finally, I have no ways to relieve my stress other than binge
watching tv shows and catching up on sleep on the weekend. My current course of action is
unquestionably unhealthy and will surely lead to various health risks in the near and distant
future if I do not bring up my act.