Volunteering Teaching Assistant
Citizenship at the University of Central Florida
My most meaningful experience in the high-impact learning milestone was becoming a volunteering teaching assistant, VTA, for the Human Anatomy course at the University of Central Florida, UCF. I was able to take part in this wonderful experience because I received the letter grade “A” in the course. After going through the interview process and being selected, I now teach other students the material in lab and facilitate library sessions where students can come supplement their learning. Some of the skills I gained or improved as a VTA were leadership, patience, and presentation/communication skills. The biggest way I was able to improve on my leadership skills was through library sessions. This is because during the sessions I must know all the models the students are learning and all the secondary information the students don’t have to know. Additionally, I must be ready to answer questions that students may have about any given model or structure within a model during these sessions. As a result, hosting these library sessions really challenged me as a leader because I was now in a position where students looked up to me and expected me to know almost all the answers.
What I Learned
Being a VTA has also taught me more about patience since I’ve gotten to work with many different students that each have their own abilities and backgrounds. I know everyone doesn’t learn the same and that can be challenging to overcome in a group setting like in the library sessions. So, when there is a student who still doesn’t understand the material, I try to restate it or engage the other students in the group by asking them if they can answer their peer’s question. Lastly, I was able to greatly improve my presentation and communication skills. This is largely due to having to teach the material during various lab sections. Each lab is different, and you see different faces every term which would make anyone nervous. So, getting exposed to all the different students, teaching assistants, and professors has helped me become more comfortable presenting and being able to effectively relay the information to a large audience.
How I Applied It
These skills not only help me in my endeavors as a VTA but also at my place of work since I work as a tutor. These skills have also helped during my tutoring sessions as I need to be proficient in content for the courses I tutor. In the future, I believe these skills will come in handy as I want to pursue a career in medicine and potentially also as a teaching doctor. In a medical setting, communication and patience are skills that are super important, and I believe all doctors should have them. Being a doctor is to be a leader, they lead the situation which includes being patient with their patients and being able to effectively communicate with their staff with regards to the patient.