Vlad L.

02/20/23
Formal Core Competency Reflection

a. Personal Awareness & Responsibility

Strengths:
- “I understand my decisions and actions can affect me .”

I am able to foresee what the outcome of my actions will be, whether it be negative or
positive. To be precise I know that based on the amount of work I put in, a result of
equivalent reward will follow. I often times use this ability of mine to give myself motivation
to work harder if I know that the end result will be bad, or to carry on with the pace I’m
going at if I know that the result will be good.

- “I understand learning takes patience and time.”

For a long time now, I have known what it is like to struggle in unknown waters. Starting
martial arts at a young age, I was taught a really important lesson at 7 years old: it takes years
to become good at something, and a lifetime to perfect it. Then heading into high school and
Pre-IB, I went from what was basically a vacation, to the most turbulent and stressful time in
my life. All the assignments that piled on top of me were leagues above my level in difficulty
and size. I went from writing my first essay in grade 8, to being forced to write a 3000-word
essay that was worth 70% of an entire course, within less than a year. Looking back on it
now, I’m glad I was subjected to that handcrafted hell of mine, because now I understand that
to succeed at something a never-ending amount of blood, sweat and tears needs to be spilt.

Weakness:

- “I can set goals, regulate my emotions and persevere in difficult situations.”

I’ve learned over the years that my planning capabilities, emotional, and mental health
are impervious most of the time, however I completely crumble when it becomes too
much to handle. It first starts with my planning capabilities and my desire to do the things
I planned disappearing, then my emotional health, and then severe damage to my mental
health. I’m still suffering from the final step in the process I described, even after 2 years
have passed, however I’ve been able to gain control of it and regulate it. I’ve always
known that all of this could have been avoided if I had just been able to push past my
procrastinative tendencies, however it’s a lot easier said than done.

b. Social Responsibility

Strengths:

- “I am aware of my community and environment and work independently and

collaboratively for the benefit of others.”

 I take the lead in many of the projects I partake in, and I’m able to synthesize and act
upon many of the ideas that I come up with, however I am also open to my teammates’
ideas. I often times pull my own weight, if not more. What motivates me to do my very
best in team projects is not personal failure, but the fear of dragging my teammates down
with me. For many of my engineering projects I was basically the only one doing
anything; from designing and building to recording data and writing the report.

- “I can identify and appreciate different perspectives on issues and use and evaluate
strategies to resolve problems.”
At first try to see it from their perspective and see the benefits and pros of their idea in
comparison to mine, and if I find their idea to be better I implement it. On the flip side, if
I think the idea is worse, I try to respectfully rationalize with my teammate to change
their mind, or I deal with it if it isn’t going to affect the project too much.
Weakness:
- “I have positive peer and intergenerational relationships.”
My productivity suffers when my team is not only unfamiliar with each other but is also
unwilling to work with each other. In these situations, I struggle to take the lead and end
up running around like a headless chicken. This also happens to a greater extent when
I’m put into a group after it was formed, or when I have no confidence in the subject.

c. Critical Thinking

Strengths:
- “I can analyze and critique my work and my learning.”

I am able to analyze my work for any mistakes and fix any misspellings. I am also able to
critically view my views and my educational background in comparison to other people.
This skill is highly applicable in essay writing, and research papers.

- “I can ask good quality questions, gather relevant information, and come up with well-
developed conclusions.”

I am able to synthesize questions by connecting the topic and my previous knowledge,

and I am also able to collect data and information from reliable and unbiased sources. I
check the reliability of the author, the source, the date that it was written, whether or not
the data is biased, and consider any other factors and motivations of the data and its
author.

Weakness:
- “I can assess my progress.”

I often times have difficulty seeing how far I have come and how much I have improved
from my former self. I’m often times too critical of my current self and I am rarely
 satisfied with the work I have done. One way I could fix this is to look at my previous
projects and look at the projects I have done or created recently.

d. Creative Thinking

Strengths:
- “I can create new and unique ideas that may provide new perspectives that influence how
people think about topics.”

I am able to synthesize new and creative ideas that are usually original. These ideas may
pertain to topics, solutions or points of view different from my original one. In one
instance, I can use this to quickly create a brainstorming list of topics for an essay or a
research paper.

- “I can persevere and understand that failure can be productive.”

I can take works that I am not proud of, and use that work to understand where I’m
lacking, where I need to improve, and where I can continue off. When given feedback or
constructive criticism, I can further my progress even more.

Weakness:
- “I can create new and unique ideas that may provide new perspectives that influence how
people think about topics.”
While this is not something I’m necessarily bad at, it’s a skill that is not as polished as others.
Often times I have a difficulty understanding cultural, political, educational, and religious
barriers that may bar other people from understanding the ideas I present. One thing that I
could do is educate myself on the group I’m trying to influence and start from there.

e. Communication

Strengths:
- “I can listen, learn to contribute meaningfully to discussion and debate, consider
different perspectives, and build consensus.”

I understand that a group of people will produce something much better than a single
person. This especially stands true when every single group member has a designated
task, works cohesively, listens to each other, and support each other. I am often times
able to put aside my self interests for the sake of mutual success.

- “I can work with other students to plan, inquire, and solve problems.”

I have the ability to make plans with other students, and to follow through with those plans.
My groups would often create a layout and a timeline of the things we’re supposed to do, and
each group member would be responsible for following those plans by themselves. Creating
layouts and planning out the needed time for something is the first step in creating a quality
project or paper.
Weakness:
- “I can engage in deep and meaningful inquiry for a variety of purposes and audiences.”

I am not able to fully create an inquiry for all audiences because my world view is limited to
mine alone. While it can be influenced and changed over time by other people’s world views, it
is still limited and the variety of audiences I can reach or appeal to is quite limited. One way that
I can improve upon this area is to expose myself to other cultures, and beliefs.

f. Personal & Cultural Identity

Strengths:
- “I understand how to use my strengths and abilities to my advantage and I can explain
how I use them to contribute to my community”
I know the measure of my abilities and will almost never overstep them unless I’m confident
in my ability to somehow pull it off. I often times use my abilities to the best of my extent
and leave the things that I’m not good at, to people that are better at it. Then I try to improve
the areas I lack by observing the people that are good at it.
- “I understand that culture is a broad concept that includes things like my geographic
region, nationality, sex/gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality, language, and religion.”

As somebody that has multiple cultural and ethnic backgrounds, I have a good
understanding of other people’s cultures, religions, and nationalities. Adding onto that,
I’ve also travelled to many countries and have many friends that come from a large
variety of backgrounds. I always remain respectful and mindful of their cultures and
beliefs.

Weakness:
- “I understand what is important to me”

While I may come from multiple cultural backgrounds, I’ve lost touch with myself ever
since the beginning of the pandemic, and many of the things that shaped me were slowly
forgotten or lost due to stress, quarantine, and very little time. I’m still in the process of
trying to figure out who I really am and what I stand for. The only way I can do it is to
just revisit the things I have lost and to absorb things I have not yet experienced.