TTGs
Creative Learner
The tasks that I did to improve as a creative learner were of a wide range of topics, helping me improve my creativity through collaboration, creating posters, designing things, and coming up with brand new ideas. I also improved my creativity when working in a group, and learned how creating things when in a group is very different from when you are doing creative tasks alone. Designing the t-shirt gave me an interesting view of desigining things and creating things around a specific theme. Making the travel brochure helped me to improve my skill of creating infomational but still interesting content about specific topics. Creating a new app was a difficult process but let me combine my interests with sustainability, which is a skill that will be needed in the future when sustainability will become essential for the world. Being able to combine both of those things into something like an app is also something very unique I haven’t done before. Overall the eagle apprenticeship program helped me grow as a creative learner in a unique way that I haven’t tried before. Doing tasks of such a wide variety really helped me grow as a creative person over a wide variety of topics and types of creative work, which will be very helpful in the future.
Critical Thinker
I grew as a critical thinker by doing tasks that took on a new perspective on how to think about and solve problems effectively. Now I have multiple new ways to solve problems and understand complex questions so that I can take on tasks at school and in the future with less challenge than before. The Tower of Terror activity challenged me to think about how to perform normal tasks when restricted by unique rules, while the Gomoku game developed my strategic thinking and decision-making abilities in competitive situations. These experiences taught me to analyze problems from multiple angles and consider different approaches before making decisions, skills that will be helpful in my academic and personal life. Through these tasks, I’ve learned to take complex problems and turn them into parts and develop systematic approaches to finding solutions. The competitive nature of games like Gomoku pushed me to think several steps ahead and anticipate potential outcomes, enhancing my strategic planning abilities. I’ve also discovered the importance of learning from failures and adjusting strategies based on experience. Most importantly, these activities have shown me that critical thinking isn’t just about finding the right answer, it’s about adapting to different types of challenges. This growth in my critical thinking abilities has already helped me approach my schoolwork more effectively and will continue to benefit me in the future.
Resilience
Through the Eagle Apprenticeship program, I developed significant resilience by challenging myself with new experiences and learning to persevere through difficulties. The mindfulness walk taught me to stay present and calm when facing challenges, while the character strengths assessment helped me indentify how I should take challenges on my own and in a group, and how I can use my strengths to do things more effectively to avoid problems. These activities pushed me to step out of my comfort zone and tackle unfamiliar situations with confidence. I learned that resilience isn’t just about bouncing back from setbacks but also about adapting and growing stronger through challenges. The program helped me develop better stress management skills and a more positive mindset when facing obstacles. I now approach difficult tasks with more patience and self-awareness, understanding that struggles are opportunities for growth.The skills I gained have already proven valuable in my daily life, whether I’m dealing with academic challenges or personal setbacks. I’ve become more adaptable and better equipped to handle stress, and I’m more confident in my ability to overcome obstacles through persistence and strategic thinking. Most importantly, I’ve learned that building resilience is an ongoing process, and each challenge is an opportunity to strengthen this vital life skill.
Skillful Communicator
Similar to being an effective collaborator, I think that being a skillful communicator brings many positives and benefits when it comes to group work. I had to work with my teammates to build big structures as well as consider which T-shirt was best when voting for the T-shirt competition. Additionally, I had to learn how to give useful feedback when groupmates weren’t helping us reach the goal. This also included learning how to discuss with others during disagreements. I think that being an effective collaborator also means that you are adaptable, which shows how effective collaborator and resilience can be combined together in a large portion of instances. Being a skillful communicator can help me in other tasks, such as in sports teams. As a rugby player, I can learn from these tasks to tell my teammates where to improve or what to do on defense or offense. As the nature of rugby is fast paced, this quick communication can really help me out. Overall, I found that being a skillful communicator takes more than just speaking up and participating, but also includes things like problem solving, quick thinking, and being empathetic. I found the eagle apprenticeship program really helped me improve my communication skills.
Effective Collaborator
Through the Eagle Apprenticeship program, I developed valuable collaboration skills by participating in various team tasks, that made me into a more effective collaborator. The Build a Tower activity challenged me to work effectively in a group setting, where we had to communicate and distribute tasks. This taught me the importance of listening to others and knowing how to split projects. Creating a fitness routine required thinking of others to design exercises that would work for everyone, teaching me how to be empathetic towards others that I would work with. I learned that effective collaboration isn’t just about contributing my own ideas, but also about creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts. These collaboration skills have already proven useful in my academic projects and will undoubtedly continue to benefit me in future endeavors, whether in school or sports. Like I mentioned before, by being an effective collaborator I will be able to contribute to the rugby team even more and be able to have the skills to be a captain and lead the team to improve in the upcoming years. The Eagle Apprenticeship program has shown me that effective collaboration is essential for achieving goals when in a group, and I feel much more confident to work in teams now.
Class Project
Last semester in robotics we had a really fun project where we were supposed to make a RatBot, or a robot that could autonomously navigate through a maze using 2 buttons at the front of the bot, or “whiskers”. It was a really fun project, since it was something I hadn’t done before, where we had to make the robot almost completely from scratch, with only an arduino and motor controller. We designed a chassis to mount the components, soldered wires onto motors, and coded the robot to be able to detect walls and know where to turn. The project helped show us what robotics really could be and helped us develop multiple useful skills in the real-world, from coding, designing 3D models, how to use electronics, and how to use simple tools. At the end of the project we had to navigate through a somewhat complex maze, where many people had issues and showed off their unique designs, since we had so much freedom during the project. Overall the RatBot project really helped develop many new skills that would be very helpful in many different tasks in the future.
Extracurriculars
Last season I did touch rugby, a new sport to me that really helped improve my leadership and collaboration, as well as helping me build and make new friendships. Being the only freshman on the team really helped me with building confidence and mentally becoming stronger. I built leadership skills by helping people out and telling people what to do and planning strategies even when I was younger, giving me a new perspective of leadership and helping me improve. Touch rugby helped improve my collaboration since it is a sport that relies on your team so much, that the best teams are the ones that have a generally good team rather than a few amazing players. Touch rugby has also been extremely fun, giving me a break from always playing tennis and having less pressure in some sense. The coaches made everything fun and were really dedicated to teach us all since lots of us were new players who had never played touch before. Overall I found that touch rugby was a great experience and really helped me develop my skills and have a ton of fun.
