While the learning gained at school is of great importance in gaining knowledge, using such knowledge outside the classroom and applying it to solve problems in the real world is of greater significance. In fact, using such skills lead to a more rounded education (Cuba, Jennings, Lovett, & Swingle, 2016). One of the most crucial skills that I have gained in the classroom is literacy, reading and writing, that is crucial for gaining skills outside the school. The current dynamic world has seen more students graduate from college while jobs have continued to decline. As a result, education within the classroom is not enough for achieving a competitive edge when it comes to seeking for employment. Employers are looking for students with transferable skills, which reduce the amount of time required for transitioning from school to employment. One can gain such skills through extracurricular activities (Cuba, Jennings, Lovett, & Swingle, 2016). My literacy skills help me in learning outside classroom through reading and writing. These skills help me in comprehending and taking excellent notes that I can refer to later for clarification as well as to inform my decisions in various activities including projects.
One key area that my literacy skills have helped me in learning outside of class is in project management. One of the classes in my campus requires all students to undertake a project and complete it. While there were lectures concerning project management, I found it difficult to fully understand without practical skills. As a result, I got an internship that allowed me to gain skills in the field f project management. I took the internship with a community service organization that sought to improve awareness on health matters pertaining specific areas and their risk factors. The team I joined was creating awareness in an impoverished community with low literacy levels. My tasks involved organizing materials for educating the residents of this community. This required literacy skills, both in writing and reading (Yuong, 2013).
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To create educational materials, my first task was to understand the scope of the project and its value as well as its intended goals and objectives. This required me to undertake a lot of reading especially on materials provided to me by the team members concerning the areas. They provided a lot of information concerning the issues revolving around the chosen areas such as demographics and security issues common within the community as well as health concerns. Much of the information was from Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA), which provided a basis for knowing the needs of the community. With a short deadline to prepare the material, reading and summarizing the content was of great importance. The summaries assisted in identifying areas of awareness that majority of residents within the community did not understand. Some of these areas included safety in traffic and reduction of motor vehicle deaths, wellness, education and prevention of diseases, sexually transmitted diseases and access to healthcare. The topics were applicable to different age groups such as STIs being more prevalent among young adults and teenagers in comparison to older adults.
This project was of great significance to my learning experience outside of the classroom. The first thing I learnt is that each project differs from the other and requires different planning and preparation (Yuong, 2013). However, the most valuable lesson I learnt from the project was the importance of literacy skills in any working environment. I realized that reading and writing does not end at school. Rather, it is a continuous process needed across different areas. Without proper literacy skills, it would have been almost impossible to participate in this project. By articulating the right points, the entire team was able to create awareness to the chosen community with positive results.
In addition to the importance of literacy skills in projects, I realized that the same skills determine how well a person can learn. Without proper reading skills, it becomes difficult to understand content that is important in undertaking any project. With the right literacy skills, I was able to read and understand the needs of the community chosen, which further evoked more critical thinking on ways of solving the problems. By reading different problems and their contributing factors, this project gave me insight into looking at my school projects from a different perspective. While initially I saw school projects as just a mere test for graduating, I could now view them as problems to be solved far beyond completion of a course.
This project further gave me the confidence and moral to engage in extensive reading, which I came to realize, was important for tackling any issue whether at school or the workplace. Extensive reading offers an individual vast amount of information to use in solving specific problems. However, it is also crucial to learn that not all information can be used as the same time as I found out during the project. While trying to create awareness materials for the team, I used too much information in some instances that would have been too technical for people with limited literacy skills to understand. This taught me that the audience plays an important role in the success of any literary work.
References
Cuba, L., Jennings, E. N., Lovett, S. & Swingle, J. (2016). Practice for Life . Boston MA: Harvard University Press.
Yuong, T. (2013). Successful Project Management . London, UK: Kogan Page Publishers.
