Brian Blackiston

After reflecting upon the past term of BA 352, I realized the vast amount of things I learned, activities I participated in and overall the effort I put forth.  In regards to my professionalism grade, I felt I did a great job in regards to most of the requirements on the rubric however there definitely was room for improvement.  After careful thought and consideration, I feel like I deserve 46 out of 50 possible points for my professionalism grade.

The first category, punctuality, I gave myself an 8 out of 10.  Although I arrived on time to every class, as well as every meeting I attended, I had a couple struggles towards the end of the term with my resume workshop.  Firstly, I signed up late so I had to send Todd an email to get an appointment time.  There was a lack of professionalism on my part for forgetting the deadline for signing up.  In addition, I came down with a sickness the day of my appointment and let Todd know after my appointment time had already finished.  Telling him after the workshop was unprofessional on my part.  Overall I was on time to all group meetings, classes and the career services workshop however my two mistakes hurt my punctuality, which warranted an 8 out of 10.

Participation wise, I felt that I deserved a 9 out of 10.  In the beginning of the term, I was slightly hesitant to participate due to new surroundings, new teacher and a new class.  That is something that happens with me every term and it takes me a week or two to get comfortable.  After those two weeks, I actively participated in class as well as outside the classroom.  Through challenging the process I will start to participate more in the beginning weeks of my other classes, however due to my lack of participation in the beginning, I only deserved a 9.

In regards to respect for others as well as preparation, I felt that I deserved a 10 out of 10 for each.  Respect is something that is very important to me and when it came to my group, I treated everyone equally and fairly.  There was no negativity and whenever I suggested something for them to change, it was through construction criticism.  Whenever side conversations occurred, it was with the entire group and never distracted the progress of our team.  Also, I constantly had read the required readings, never had to rush out of class to print something, nor was I every unprepared entering the classroom.  I constantly stayed on track with the requirements in the course schedule.  These reasons are why I deserved 10’s on these two sections.

Finally, in regards to initiative and motivation, I believe I deserve a 9 out of 10.  Although I never attended office hours, I constantly was trying to find research on our topic and always trying to succeed outside the classroom.  Whether this was trying to get in contact with different recruiters, or having multiple people looking over my resume and cover letter to perfect it, I felt that I was very strongly motivated to succeed in this class.  I could have done a little more however I believe I deserve a 9 on this aspect of professionalism.

In total, after adding up all of the totals, I believe I deserve a 46 out of 50.  There were things I could have done differently and looking back I could have been more of a professional in punctuality and motivation, however I learned a lot and was very happy with my overall performance.