
Academic
ARTIFACT
AVID Program
The AVID program has been integral to my academic success. Through my involvement with AVID over the last three years, I have developed my leadership, organizational and communication skills as well as consistently strengthened my ability to work with a team. Some of my favorite aspects of AVID are tutoring my fellow classmates and collaborating with my AVID teacher on upcoming AVID activities. I am continually improving as a public speaker by giving speeches at each meeting. AVID has helped me grow into a leader through tutoring, volunteer opportunities, and test prep. Through these situations, I have learned how to best solve problems on my own and with a group. I have also become a more efficient student by applying the program’s organizational requirements and note-taking standards in my everyday schoolwork. This program provides many beneficial tools that I have used in high school and look forward to applying to my college success.
RESPONSE
The artifact shown above is a response that I composed to answer a variety of different questions I was asked throughout my college application process. Whether that was to get a scholarship or to get into a program, or for different types of financial aid applications. I was being asked about what I was involved with in high school or how I chose to get involved with my school. It briefly summarizes the experiences I had in the AVID program. AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. I also went over the various resources AVID gave me the opportunity to utilize throughout my high school career. I selected this artifact because the AVID program was my home-base in high school. The AVID room is where I would hold meetings, study, collaborate, plan, brainstorm and even where I would spend my lunch hour. Because of this, any academic artifact I could have chosen would have been created in or thought of in the AVID room, which I would be remiss not to mention. The AVID program has shown me how to be an efficient student and how to better understand my notes. All of the academic values and study habits I currently hold can be attributed to the AVID program’s guidelines and tips. This artifact shows how dedicated, organized and responsible I am when it comes to academics. This is because those three attributes are some of the key ideas of AVID’s mission as a college prep course. My AVID instructor was formerly an AP English Language and Composition teacher so she could assist my classmates and I in our essays and English coursework. She often gave us essay writing tips on setting up a foundation before we start the essay. I enjoy writing about topics that concern me or that I am interested in. This topic was enjoyable to write about because I am passionate about the AVID program and it is something I would recommend to any high schooler looking to have a better academic career.
Professional
ARTIFACT
Resume (Redacted)
RESPONSE
This artifact is the resume I used in my college application process. I created this resume so to use when applying for scholarships or grants, to use in my university applications, and even for job interviews. I plan on using this resume for internships, or for occupational needs in which it will need to be adjusted to fit a more professional mold instead of an academic one. I feel obliged to mention that I was assisted by my mentor for proofreading and structuring assistance in the revising stage of my resume’s composition. I chunked my resume into five subsections in order to separate my varying experiences. I tried to showcase the wide variety of experiences that I took part in in high school as well as include the date of when each activity took place to show that all of the events did not take place at once. I selected this artifact because it encompasses the entirety of my professional experiences. My resume will continue to be a living/breathing document in which I continue to update in the future as I gain more professional experience whether that is a part of an internship or job I hold in the future. This artifact shows the multiple different techniques I utilize in my writing. I chunked the information together and separated it into different groups in order to make the information easier to digest. Chunking is one of the first techniques I use in my pre-writing process as I compile the information I will use to back up my claims. The academic and non-academic activities I took part in can show a lot about me as a writer because they make up my unique perspective as a writer. One’s experiences can greatly influence their perspective because their previous experiences are a foundation for how they will choose to make decisions and what they choose to stand for or represent based off them discovering their interests and discovering the world and how they choose to view it. My resume shows what I have experienced and is my foundation for what I will continue to build upon as a writer, student, or as a professional.
Personal
ARTIFACT
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Essay (Redacted)
RESPONSE
This artifact is another essential part of what I used to fill out my college applications. I wrote this essay to answer the question I kept seeing in different wording but essentially asking the same question; “Describe one difficult life circumstance that you overcame and what have you learned from your experience?”. This artifact is very personal to me because it basically describes my life story. In my essay I went through and highlighted some of the most important experiences I've had that have shaped me into who I am today. This essay includes some sad topics but in the end I lighten the mood as I show my optimism. I originally titled this essay as “Strong” to show that unfortunate life circumstances can prove to be very beneficial if it they are dealt with the right way. This artifact shows a vulnerable side of me as a composer as well as showing that when the topic consists of something I am interested in I can write a lot about what I am passionate about. I started this essay because of a prompt I received in my AP English Literature and Composition class but it has grown into something much more than just something I created to fulfil a grade requirement. My mentor did assist me in the proofreading/revising process as I wanted to make sure there were no errors or typos as I was submitting this to Universities. This style of writing is different from my other essays because this time I am kind of telling a story rather than persuading in an argumentative essay or informing. This essay describes some of the values I hold and the origin of those particular values. They serve as a reasoning for why I do the things I do or why I think a certain way compared to another person.
REFLECTION
To me, composition could be any form of expressing yourself; whether that is telling your story or simply elaborating on whatever it is that you are passionate about. I thoroughly enjoy both forms of composing because I feel as if I could go on and on about those topics. In an academic context is where I feel the most comfortable as a composer because that is what I am the most familiar with. When I transition to a more professional body of work, my diction becomes more formal as I attempt to use more sophisticated English to showcase my vocabulary. In a personal context, I tend to be more informal and speak from a first-person perspective. Collectively, these three works show my foundation as not only a composer but also as a person in general. This foundation is essential to my writerly process because it is what I will continue to expound upon as I compose more. As a key component of my writing process, I always try to stay organized in my composition. My artifacts show proof of my dedication to organization. For example, in my professional artifact, I chunked out each of my accomplishments/experiences to contrast my resume. Organization was one of the most important factors for my resume because it improves the overall appearance of the document; which is what the reader/audience would want to see in a resume. Collectively, these three artifacts represent me as a person by showcasing my experiences, accomplishments, what I am passionate about and what I have overcome. These artifacts also show who I am and what my foundation is in which I will continue to build upon as I venture through college and beyond. As a writer, I used to find myself very slow in pace. My peers could crank out an essay in much less time than me. I now realize that it is something that I can control and I try to stay conscious of that throughout my drafting processes. I have learned to not overthink the task at hand or the prompt I have been assigned, but to address the key points I have outlined out in my pre-work. As well as making sure I expand upon those key objectives and also keeping the subject matter on topic and as concise as it needs to be to fulfill the prompt’s requirements. When constructing an essay, I usually focus most of my effort on making sure that my body paragraphs are the most persuading or informative they can be; depending on what the prompt requires of me. I tend to focus on compiling the best evidence to support my argument as well as polishing my assertions to clearly articulate my point of view. In the revision stage of my process, I tend to focus on repairing and sometimes even rewording some sentences that contain some of the mistakes or errors that occasionally occur. Those sometimes include sentence fragments or the need to add more variety to my diction. I tend to overuse the same words a few times and require revision in order to add more of a variety to my word choices. As the last step in my revision process, I usually run my composition through the website; “Grammarly”, in order to make sure there are no spelling or grammar errors. In the future, I hope to be able to sophistically articulate my arguments in any manner necessary; whether that is professional, academic, personal, or any other mode. I also hope that by improving my writing skills and literacy, I will become a more efficient speaker whether that is in a conversation or debate.