Liora Chaya Levich

Augstana College Learning Portfolio - Intergrative Learning Statement 

   

      First and foremost, hello and welcome to my personal Learning Portfolio! Throughout my past four years at Augustana College, I've been fortunate enough to experience some amazing adventures that not only created a challenging, inspiring, and deeply knowledgeable college experience for me, but also shaped me into the person that I am today. Throughout this simple, yet detailed, portfolio you'll come across the Learning Outcomes that stuck out to me the most throughout the years from various experiences, what I learned from them, and how they deeply impacted my life each in their own way. Augustana strives to ensure that each student receives the full liberal arts college experience throughout their years. This is done by setting certain learning requirements for students to complete in various fields and perspectives. By doing so, a more well rounded approach to education overall is taken, and as a student who just completed her studies, I truly feel like I gained so many valuable insights and lessons from classes I would have never thought to take otherwise. Some learning requirement examples include: intercultural competence, ethical citizenship, collaborative leadership, critical thinking, and more. Each requirement outlines its own set of standards for what a student should achieve when obtaining this requirement, and there are always a variety of classes and even out of class experiences that Augustana offers to obtain these requirements.

 

Throughout my time at Augustana, the out of class experiences I’ve had as well as the majority of the classes I took always left me with new knowledge about a topic and a new outlook for life overall. There were certain learning requirements that I connect with more on a deeper, more personal level and others that while I still connected with, I didn’t have enough time to fully develop them into something substantial. My three main learning outcomes that I connected with the most include: intercultural competency, creative thinking, and intellectual curiosity-- these three combined outline some of my most memorable and meaningful experiences that I’ve had at Augustana. Through intercultural competency I was able to travel abroad and volunteer with an amazing organization that brought people from all over the world together. I strengthened so many of my personal skills through meeting people from different parts of the world, and interacting with them on a daily basis. Furthermore, the experience of traveling alone to another country for an extended amount of time really helped my confidence level in terms of being able to handle such a task on my own. Through creative thinking, I was able to channel into a part of myself that brought out the most creative side of me in order to communicate with my Augustana peers about a very meaningful topic. I was forced to think completely outside of the box-- in fact, for the duration of this experience the box simply didn’t exist. I was challenged to come up with a way that impacted my peers around me in a positive, lasting, and meaningful way about something that was very personal and important to me. Throughout my creative thinking experience I realized that there really are no limits with creativity besides your own imagination. I also learned the importance of being organized and concise with my creative ideas, in order to execute them appropriately. Through intellectual curiosity I was able to channel into my curiosity about a certain topic that ultimately changed my life and day to day lifestyle. Throughout experiencing this learning requirement, I realized the power in taking a topic that I learned in class outside of the classroom walls, and applying it to my life. This also led my curiosity to get the best of me and educate myself further on the topic, beyond just what was discussed in the class. I quickly realized that there is much more to learn about many other topics and studies that students learn in the class; there should always be a healthy dose of curiosity to explore the topics that strike you the most further. This is the mentality I took on through intellectual curiosity, and am now living my life in a completely new and improved way.

 

Beyond those three main learning requirements that I’ve had the most meaningful and impactful experiences, there were other requirements that I connected with as well. Through collaborative leadership I was able to strengthen my leadership skills when I took on the role of Global Ambassador for international students; through communication competency I was able to present on Symposium Day on a topic concerning social justice and my personal take on it; and through ethical citizenship I was able to join a group on campus that allowed me to connect with students of all backgrounds and faiths who wanted to improve campus life overall.

 

Lastly, there were three learning requirements that although I had a chance to connect with, I did not fully develop throughout my time at Augustana. That doesn’t mean that they weren’t meaningful experiences, but given my major and interests there just weren’t many opportunities to fully develop out these requirements. Through disciplinary knowledge I was able to volunteer for a great organization that allowed me to put my English major skills to the test; through critical thinking I was able to take on a topic and successfully debate it in a class full of my peers; and through quantitative literacy I was able to assist a great group on campus with their fundraising for a spring break trip that I participated on.

 

Overall, when we think of the "typical college experience" we imagine a smooth ride throughout the years, with everything planned perfectly and strategically; however, as I have come to find out, it's far from that. In fact, if I had to relate my college career to another experience it would be roller coaster ride-- a sometimes bumpy, often scary, with many turns and surprise twists, but overall exciting and adrenaline pumping experience that leaves you feeling like you can fly and take on anything you set your mind to. My hope is that while navigating throughout this portfolio, you'll allow me to take you on the roller coaster ride that was my Augustana experience, and how incredible it was as I look back on all that I've been able to accomplish.