What are Core Competencies?
A core competency is the essential set of knowledge, skills, and capabilities that a person possesses in order to be successful in the workplace. They are developed over time through varies experiences and are continuously improving.
Core Competency #1: TeamWork
Teamwork is a core competency I have developed over the years and am still improving upon everyday. Teamwork is the ability for people to work together, all providing quality contributions and efforts to the group. Teamwork experiences inside and outside classrooms throughout my educational career have helped develop this skill. Being a part of the environmental studies program at CSUMB has fostered my in-class experience in working in group settings. Many of the in-class research is facilitated in groups and has allowed me to work with others and hear their perspectives along with contributing my own. This is very valuable because it has allowed me to become more open-minded with different views which add to my own. Along with in-class settings, outside settings have also contributed to my teamwork skills. Being apart of a cross country team for 7 years and taking the role as team captain for 2 of them has honed my skill in working in large group settings. It also taught me how to value other people's contributions to a team and allowing their strengths to fill in my weaknesses and learning from one another to improve the teams overall efficiency.
Teamwork is a core competency I have developed over the years and am still improving upon everyday. Teamwork is the ability for people to work together, all providing quality contributions and efforts to the group. Teamwork experiences inside and outside classrooms throughout my educational career have helped develop this skill. Being a part of the environmental studies program at CSUMB has fostered my in-class experience in working in group settings. Many of the in-class research is facilitated in groups and has allowed me to work with others and hear their perspectives along with contributing my own. This is very valuable because it has allowed me to become more open-minded with different views which add to my own. Along with in-class settings, outside settings have also contributed to my teamwork skills. Being apart of a cross country team for 7 years and taking the role as team captain for 2 of them has honed my skill in working in large group settings. It also taught me how to value other people's contributions to a team and allowing their strengths to fill in my weaknesses and learning from one another to improve the teams overall efficiency.
Core Competency #2: Integrative and Applied Learning
Integrative learning is an understanding and a disposition that a student builds across curriculum and co-curriculum, from making simple connections among ideas and experiences to synthesizing and transferring learning to new, complex situations within and beyond the campus.
Integrative and applied learning is a skill I have been able to develop very well at CSUMB. Throughout my semesters I've had the ability to connect many of my classes to one another and apply my knowledge from different courses to real life settings. Environmental studies is a major that relates to more than just the environment; it partakes in many other worldly aspects such as the economy and social equity. I have been able to take information from general education courses like sociology and business to make connections to my core courses and how to approach environmental issues. Valuable lessons on how to approach the general public and encourage new outlooks are skills that I have acquired from courses outside of my specialized curriculum that are useful in solving environmental issues. Other opportunities within my curriculum have also started to reach out beyond the classroom; I recently have been given the opportunity to turn an in class assignment on biophilic design into an extended research opportunity through the university in a closely related topic.
Integrative learning is an understanding and a disposition that a student builds across curriculum and co-curriculum, from making simple connections among ideas and experiences to synthesizing and transferring learning to new, complex situations within and beyond the campus.
Integrative and applied learning is a skill I have been able to develop very well at CSUMB. Throughout my semesters I've had the ability to connect many of my classes to one another and apply my knowledge from different courses to real life settings. Environmental studies is a major that relates to more than just the environment; it partakes in many other worldly aspects such as the economy and social equity. I have been able to take information from general education courses like sociology and business to make connections to my core courses and how to approach environmental issues. Valuable lessons on how to approach the general public and encourage new outlooks are skills that I have acquired from courses outside of my specialized curriculum that are useful in solving environmental issues. Other opportunities within my curriculum have also started to reach out beyond the classroom; I recently have been given the opportunity to turn an in class assignment on biophilic design into an extended research opportunity through the university in a closely related topic.
Core Competency #3: Creative Thinking
Creative thinking is both the capacity to combine or synthesize existing ideas, images, or expertise in original ways and the experience of thinking, reacting, and working in an imaginative way characterized by a high degree of innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking.
Being able to take what I have learned in curriculum and translate the knowledge into fun and creative projects has been one of my greatest accomplishments during my time as an undergraduate. Stemming from core courses where I learned about topics of urban sprawl, biophilic design, sustainable infrastructure, and systems; I was able to synthesis key aspects and spearhead my own research project and individual capstone, creating a botanical garden design to be used as a space for learning, garnering environmental stewardship, and recreation for my university campus. This project also goes beyond the scope of my curriculum and has given me the opportunity to develop transdisciplinary skills in design and landscape architecture. I hope to carry on this as I further my education in at Cal Poly Pomona's landscape architecture masters degree program where my creative skills can also be further developed.
Creative thinking is both the capacity to combine or synthesize existing ideas, images, or expertise in original ways and the experience of thinking, reacting, and working in an imaginative way characterized by a high degree of innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking.
Being able to take what I have learned in curriculum and translate the knowledge into fun and creative projects has been one of my greatest accomplishments during my time as an undergraduate. Stemming from core courses where I learned about topics of urban sprawl, biophilic design, sustainable infrastructure, and systems; I was able to synthesis key aspects and spearhead my own research project and individual capstone, creating a botanical garden design to be used as a space for learning, garnering environmental stewardship, and recreation for my university campus. This project also goes beyond the scope of my curriculum and has given me the opportunity to develop transdisciplinary skills in design and landscape architecture. I hope to carry on this as I further my education in at Cal Poly Pomona's landscape architecture masters degree program where my creative skills can also be further developed.