FIG Leader

Empowering Others Through Education

In the start of my junior year at the University of Washington, I was asked to teach a class as a First-Year Interest Group (FIG) leader. My FIG class had 16 freshman students in my class and we met once a week to go over topics relevant to being a college student at UW and living in Seattle. Topics of our classes ranged from health and wellness to academics and involvement on campus. My part as a FIG leader was to educate my students on these topics while also keeping class exciting each week. I worked on incorporating activities into each of my lesson plans to make for hands on projects and for my students to get to know each other better.

This class was my first formal teaching experience and has opened up a true passion of education for me. I was hired for this position because of my dedication to being an Orientation Leader for First Year Programs at UW. The FIG Program had someone drop because of other commitments and First Year Programs asked me to step in even though my first class started the next day. It was a big commitment last minute but I was up for the challenge and proved to myself that I am capable of that flexibility.

First Year Interest Group Class on Last Day of Fall Quarter

FACILITATION

Each class I taught was centered around a lesson plan I had built about a topic relevant to college students. It was my responsibility to teach effectively and in an engaging way while managing my time to keep my class on track. It was important to me to make sure my classroom was built from a place of trust. I opened up to be vulnerable with my students to build a trusting atmosphere in my classroom. Every week I incorporated exciting games into my modules which allowed for my students to interact with each other and enjoy this classroom experience. I prompted questions based around our topics of class which would help them learn and use their own knowledge to reach conclusions on their own. Facilitating group discussions and activities in the classroom helped me become a more confident peer mentor throughout the quarter.

When I first started teaching a real class at the University of Washington, I thought I didn’t have the full authority to be qualified in this position. I was nervous and uncertain of my capabilities to educate others through lesson plans I was building every week. Since I was replacing a FIG leader who had to leave the program, I was stepping in with no formal training. Each week I was reminding myself why I was asked to be in this position that I was qualified for a reason. My students were the ones who changed that all for me. One of the most defining moments I had in building my confidence to teach was during my one-on-one meetings I had with my students. My students told me their favorite parts of the class and what I was doing well. All of the questions they asked me helped me see that my students looked up to me and had the confidence in me that I didn’t have in myself. I built myself around those confirmations I received from them and by the end of the quarter I had full confidence in myself to teach a class that would help others.

CONFIDENCE

SCOPE OF COMPETENCE

Understanding that I was capable for this position was a big part of accepting to commit to this role. When working with students with such a wide variety of backgrounds, I was constantly reminded that no two people have had the exact same experiences. So much of my knowledge of UW comes from what resources are important to me and that might not always be the same things for someone else. It was so important to me to give my students the resources they needed even if that included referring them out to someone else because I was not fully qualified to answer their questions. I was aware of my comfortability with teaching for the position when coming in and it was just as important for me to know my weak spots so that I could work on those.

When I became a FIG Leader, there was a lot of immediate preparations needing to be made for my first day of class. My first day of class was the day after I was hired and I needed to know exactly what I would be teaching and how I would effectively do that so that I was ready. When I met my students for the first time and understood more about what their interests were, I decided to customize my lesson plans geared towards what would benefit them the most. As I got to know my students more and more, I was constantly working towards a classroom experience that would help these freshmen thrive their first fall quarter at college. My quarter as a teacher was unclear to me the first time around but as I plan to return as a FIG leader in Fall 2018, I am now more equipped on how to adjust to my student’s needs.

RESPONDING TO AMBIGUITY

The experience of being a FIG leader has opened up my eyes to how much I value education. Teaching my first class on my own has shown me my capabilities of leadership and mentorship. Educating others in an empowering way has guided me to hope to pursue leadership in higher education at graduate school. I hope to be in a position where I can help university students feel comfortable through major transitions in their life and be a place for them to trust and find themselves.