Kyle Rosa - Honors Portfolio

When I think about where I want to be in the future and what my goals are, I tend to separate my train of thought into two categories. These categories are where I want to be in terms of my career and education, and who I want to be as a person. Applying this way of thinking into considering my honors experiences gives me a very clear idea of how I want to go about things. Because I only must do two honors experiences, splitting them up equally in order to help me accomplish each goal seems like the best way to go about things. I want to be a part of one honors experience that will help me advance in my future career, and one honors experience that will allow me to grow as a person in my community.

So far, the UC Blue Ash honors program has done a great deal to help me understand what kind of experiences are available to me and how I should go about completing them. This saves a lot of time on my end and allows me to do a lot more self-reflection to decide which experiences are right for me. For example, seeing each group present in class about different internships and volunteer experiences certainly filled my mind with a lot of good ideas about what direction I could go for my honors experiences, allowing me to look at my own life goals and compare what will and will not work for me. I have really enjoyed getting a solid overview of what the honors program looks like and considering a lot of thought-provoking questions about what I want my college honors experience to look like.

So, what are my goals for growing as a person? There is no doubt that college is a critical time for many students to build connections and friendships that could potentially last a lifetime. I believe that really getting to know my peers both inside and outside of the classroom will benefit my life in many ways. This is actually a very exciting idea for me, while most people might look at the prospect of meeting people and get nervous or scared. This is mostly because of my background in musical theater, which has helped me develop great social skills. I believe building connections also can tie into advancing my future career in the IT field, especially if those connections are related to the field. Even looking back on my first semester at UC Blue Ash, I have already made some great friends and gotten a lot of valuable insight from one of my IT professors. Undoubtedly one of the best honors experiences to help me accomplish this goal would be becoming a Student Orientation Leader. As a Student Orientation Leaders, I would help new students get introduced and accommodated to UC Blue Ash, while also building a strong team relation with the other SOLs. Based on the requirements and expectations, I believe I would do a great job as a Student Orientation Leader, and it would help me in developing valuable connections on campus.

Looking at my future career in the IT field, I think a lot of my goals involve my knowledge, work ethic, and dependability in the workplace. On a base level, I want to be knowledgeable worker, understanding the ins and outs of Information Technology and how to apply it to wherever I end up working. My specific career focus, which is cybersecurity, is a very technical field, meaning understanding potential problems and how to fix them is going to be a critical skill for my future. There really is only one way to ensure I am knowledgeable by the time I graduate, and that is to completely apply myself in my studies, no matter the class or topic. Constantly paying attention in class and making sure I understand the material is going to be paramount in order to excel in the future. Not only is knowledge necessary to be a valuable employee, but also a solid and consistent work ethic. I want to be a person who always shows up on time, ready to face whatever challenges await me in the workplace that day. This goes hand in hand with dependability, making sure I am always around to answer questions and always have a willing attitude to do whatever is needed of me to get the job done. This is also a skill I can develop during my time in college, even if it is not specifically in class or involving something IT related. For example, I can practice being a dependable worker at my current part-time job, even though it is very different from what I will spend the rest of my life doing. Showing up on time, having a positive attitude, and not letting minor inconveniences ruin my work experience are all ways I can start acting like a responsible and dependable person in the workplace.

When looking at potential honors experiences that will help me hone these skills, I cannot think of a better experience than to just get plugged with an internship. There are countless IT internship opportunities to consider through UC Blue Ash, and I believe many of them will work well to help me grow in my knowledge experiences. Since my goal is to grow in my workplace skills, what better way to do that than to get involved with a company who can give me a realistic idea of what an IT job looks like? There are so many ways an internship will help me grow as a student and future worker in the Cybersecurity field. Firstly, I will build connection with active workers in the IT field, in all sorts of positions and specializations. This will give me a lot of insight as to what people do on a day-to-day basis and how they handle certain problems that they face as a part of their jobs. This will also give a company a chance to see how I perform in the workplace, and possibly even consider hiring me once my time in college is over. The more I can prove myself as a reliable worker early on, the higher my chances are of securing a great job in the future. There really seems to be no downside of pursuing an internship as one of my honors experiences, and I am excited to look further into what opportunities will suit me best.