Posted by John Eddy
Professional Development
- Presentations at Research Symposium Days
- I have presented at our Research Symposium days every year I have been at Longwood University. Either through work in my honors classes, or through the summer research I completed through the PRISM program. My first two presentations were online and asynchronous (due to the COVID-19 pandemic), while the subsequent presentations were in-person. I have done presentations in not only my field of Computer Science, but also for courses in Education, Music, and Environmental Science. Through these presentations, I was not only able to practice public speaking, but all of the other facets of crafting an academic presentation. My first in-person presentation was for my honors music appreciation course (MUSC 224), where we explained and analyzed musical themes in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I was very nervous going into that presentation, not only because it was in-person, but because the presentation was not even in my field of study. However, I was able to learn that the greatest takeaway from presenting at research days is that, even if you are outside of your comfort zone or field of interest, you still need to be confident in whatever you are delivering.
- Resident Assistant Training
- I served as a Resident Assistant for two years, and prior to each semester we underwent training. We were trained on policy and procedure to handle various scenarios that we may encounter. I enjoyed our fall training, especially the “behind closed doors” scenarios that we did. BCD’s are a part of training where returning RA’s act as residents and a team of RA’s respond to the incident. I always enjoyed this because it was our first experience seeing the types of incidents that we may have had to respond to on duty. I think the biggest takeaway from RA training, and BCD’s in particular, is (no matter how cliche it sounds) is to expect the unexpected. The first time that I did BCD’s, i had no idea what to expect, but keeping a level-head and not panicking when responding to an incident proved to be a very valuable skill.