Girl Guides Of Canada – Communication & Leadership
I volunteered with Girl Guides of Canada. I was a part of a team of other unit leaders and girls. I assisted by planning activities and programming for eight amazing 7 and 8 year old girls. I used my communication skills to help empower the girls to reach outside of themselves and learn new skills and ideas for them to help in the community. Not only was it a fantastic opportunity for me to improve my skills but it was a grey way to teach the girls to develop and use theirs and to help make them responsible, strong citizens and create a better world. Working with 7 and 8 year olds can be challenging but the training I received from GGC was very helpful and created new techniques to better myself and my communication skills. Working with Girl Guides was such an amazing experience for me and made me want to pursue teaching more than I have ever wanted to before.
Tim Hortons – Problem Solving & Teamwork
When I was a shift leader at Tim Hortons I learned a really important lesson about conflict resolution. On weekends I was in charge of the morning team. I arrived twenty minutes prior to opening and assigned my coworkers their positions for the day. There were two people who did not like to work together and caused a lot of problems for the whole team. At first I tried to put them in separate positions and delegated different tasks so they would not have to interact during their shifts, but they would still find ways to argue and disrupt the flow of work. This was the first time where conflict in the work environment lasted over a long period of time and caused stress for me before and after work when I got home. I really wanted to solve the problem myself without having to go to management. I tried talking to both people separately to figure out if there was a way that I could solve the problem for them and create a less stressful work environment for everyone. This did not solve the issue because there were different problems everytime the two worked together. When I sat them both down they expressed their dislike for each other and I told them that they did not have to like each other, but they needed to treat each other with a professional level of respect or we would have to bring the problem to management. I explained that their conflict was negatively impacting everyone else and making our work environment stressful for the other workers and casting an unprofessional light on us with customers. They seemed to understand that it was affecting everyone and they were able to work with each other professionally from there on. This job taught me so much about trying to solve conflict between people to try and get a better outcome for everyone around me. Working as a teacher will be full of trying to solve conflicts between children but I have the skills to be able to try to solve any and all conflicts and try to help get everyone working as a team.
Adaptability and Work Ethic
Throughout the years I have had a few different jobs because I’ve moved around quite a bit. I always bring a positive attitude and desire to be efficient in everything that I do. I am a very quick learner and I like to be successful in the tasks that I am handed. In all the jobs that I have had, I excel in customer service and working with people because I’m good at it. Being a teacher will be a rewarding experience, not just a job I have to work from 9am-5pm because I have to.