Introduction
Hi! My name is Sara Jass, and I am from Geneva, IL. Geneva is located about two and a half hours north of Champaign, and about an hour west of Chicago. My hometown is pretty small compared to some of the other suburbs of Chicago. Many people refer to Geneva as a “quaint” and “historic” town. Some might think that these are negative qualities, I, on the other hand, love Geneva for being different in those ways. With regards to my family, it’s great. My mom, dad, little brother, and I are all very close, and love spending time together. I also live very close to my grandparents and cousins, so I spend a lot of my time with them as well. Spending time with my family is incredibly important to me.
When it comes to my intrinsic motivation, I have two kinds within me. For starters, I have intrinsic motivation with regards to my swimming career. I began swimming at the age of six because my parents always encouraged me to be active. Now, I am on the swim and dive team here at Illinois. I have motivations within me to perform to the best of my ability in the pool because I love the feeling of swimming an amazing race. That feeling of winning or going a best time motivates me to push myself during training. I want to be my best because I am a competitor. I always compete to be the best that I can be. I also have intrinsic motivation in the classroom. I hope to one day pursue a career in healthcare where I can help people, and in order to do that I must work hard in the classroom.
I chose to attend the University of Illinois for two main reasons. First, the amazing swim team that I get to be a part of. Second, the amazing academics offered at this university. I was recruited to be a part of Illinois’ swim team right after my sophomore year of high school, and I immediately loved the team culture. Once I knew I loved the team, I picked Illinois because it offers academics that will allow me to be successful later in life. Illinois has offered me the major that I want to pursue, Kinesiology. Once I figured out I would get a great education and be on an awesome team I knew Illinois was perfect for me. I have decided to major in Kinesiology because, as I mentioned before, I want to help people. I want to be a part of the healthcare community, but I am not totally certain in which direction I want to go. By majoring in Kinesiology, I feel that I will get exposure to many different career opportunities. With this exposure, I will be able to make the best decision for what career path I want to pursue within healthcare.
By being a part of the I-LEAP program I hope to gain a lot. First, I hope to learn how to be a good leader. I hope to learn the qualities that make up a leader, and to find opportunities to practice leading. I also would love to find research opportunities within my major to help boost my resume for graduate school. Most importantly, I hope to make some amazing friends with people that have the same career goals and values as I do. One personal value that I believe is important is hard work. I believe that most things in life are possible if they are achieved through hard work. As a student-athlete, hard work has always been a part of my life. Whether I am at practice, or studying for a test, I always try and give 100% of my effort and attention. With this mindset, I have been able to accomplish my childhood dream of swimming for a Big Ten school. I will continue to use the personal value of hard work to help me excel through these next four years at the University of Illinois.
When it comes to my intrinsic motivation, I have two kinds within me. For starters, I have intrinsic motivation with regards to my swimming career. I began swimming at the age of six because my parents always encouraged me to be active. Now, I am on the swim and dive team here at Illinois. I have motivations within me to perform to the best of my ability in the pool because I love the feeling of swimming an amazing race. That feeling of winning or going a best time motivates me to push myself during training. I want to be my best because I am a competitor. I always compete to be the best that I can be. I also have intrinsic motivation in the classroom. I hope to one day pursue a career in healthcare where I can help people, and in order to do that I must work hard in the classroom.
I chose to attend the University of Illinois for two main reasons. First, the amazing swim team that I get to be a part of. Second, the amazing academics offered at this university. I was recruited to be a part of Illinois’ swim team right after my sophomore year of high school, and I immediately loved the team culture. Once I knew I loved the team, I picked Illinois because it offers academics that will allow me to be successful later in life. Illinois has offered me the major that I want to pursue, Kinesiology. Once I figured out I would get a great education and be on an awesome team I knew Illinois was perfect for me. I have decided to major in Kinesiology because, as I mentioned before, I want to help people. I want to be a part of the healthcare community, but I am not totally certain in which direction I want to go. By majoring in Kinesiology, I feel that I will get exposure to many different career opportunities. With this exposure, I will be able to make the best decision for what career path I want to pursue within healthcare.
By being a part of the I-LEAP program I hope to gain a lot. First, I hope to learn how to be a good leader. I hope to learn the qualities that make up a leader, and to find opportunities to practice leading. I also would love to find research opportunities within my major to help boost my resume for graduate school. Most importantly, I hope to make some amazing friends with people that have the same career goals and values as I do. One personal value that I believe is important is hard work. I believe that most things in life are possible if they are achieved through hard work. As a student-athlete, hard work has always been a part of my life. Whether I am at practice, or studying for a test, I always try and give 100% of my effort and attention. With this mindset, I have been able to accomplish my childhood dream of swimming for a Big Ten school. I will continue to use the personal value of hard work to help me excel through these next four years at the University of Illinois.
Resume
OBJECTIVE
I am currently a student-athlete at The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I am working toward an undergraduate degree in Kinesiology through the College of Applied Sciences, and I am interested in gaining work experience in the field of exercise science. EDUCATION
University of Illinois Urbana, Champaign IL (2022-Present) Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology Rosary High School Aurora, IL (2018-2022) Degree Conferred: May 18, 2022 Final GPA: 4.2 INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS
University of Illinois Swim and Dive Team (2022-present)
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EXPERIENCE
Captain of Rosary High School Swim Team (2020-2022)
ACHIEVEMENTS Rosary High School and Student-Athlete (2018-2022)
REFERENCE Todd Capen: Academy Bullets Swim Team – (847)-571-7644 |
Career Research
For my future career, I plan to work in healthcare. As of right now, I think I want to become a physician’s assistant. To help me figure out what career I wanted to pursue, I thought about my interests. I knew that I always really enjoyed my science and math classes during my K-12 school years. I also knew that I did not really like my English and Grammar classes because I did not find them as interesting. Then, in 8th grade, I had an amazing chemistry teacher. He made learning fun, and I enjoyed going to his class every single day. He made me fall in love with science, and that is when I made the decision to pursue a career in science. Once I had narrowed down the fact that I wanted to pursue a career in science, I needed to figure out exactly what career I would want to pursue. I figured what career I wanted to be my freshman and sophomore of high school. During these two years, I got very sick with a lot of different illnesses. Around this time, I met a physician’s assistant at my doctor’s office. She really helped me through this tough time. Once I got through this period, I knew that I wanted to be there for someone in the future in the same way that that physician’s assistant was there for me. In terms of what my ideal work environment would be, I think that it would be something “hands on”, meaning I would stay active. I do not think I could have a job where I, for example, sit in a cubicle all day. I think I would need a job where I interact with other people and use my mind and my body. I think that being a physician’s assistant would be perfect for this because I would use my mind to help diagnose people, but I would also be moving around a lot because I would be seeing multiple patients. In order to achieve these career goals, I plan to finish my undergrad with a high GPA, and to fill my resume with the qualifications needed to get into graduate school. I plan to attend graduate school for however many years it takes me to graduate. Then, I hope to get a job as a physician’s assistant at a hospital.
I think that a great alternative career choice for me would be to work with my dad. My dad has his own business, and he is a qualitative researcher. This means, he gets hired by companies to perform focus groups with various people to find out these people’s thoughts on certain products for that company. I’ve helped my dad with a few of his projects, and he has taught be a lot about how to best perform a successful focus group. I think that if my plan of becoming a physician’s assistant doesn’t pan out, I would make a good qualitative researcher. I think that I work better when I am interacting with other people, so this job would be great for this skill of mine. I would get to talk to a lot of interesting people from all over the world, and I would also get to travel. I think that working as either a physician’s assistant or a qualitative researcher would be great for me because I would get to be active and interact with people at my job.
I think that a great alternative career choice for me would be to work with my dad. My dad has his own business, and he is a qualitative researcher. This means, he gets hired by companies to perform focus groups with various people to find out these people’s thoughts on certain products for that company. I’ve helped my dad with a few of his projects, and he has taught be a lot about how to best perform a successful focus group. I think that if my plan of becoming a physician’s assistant doesn’t pan out, I would make a good qualitative researcher. I think that I work better when I am interacting with other people, so this job would be great for this skill of mine. I would get to talk to a lot of interesting people from all over the world, and I would also get to travel. I think that working as either a physician’s assistant or a qualitative researcher would be great for me because I would get to be active and interact with people at my job.
Community Service
Serving my community is incredibly important to me because I care about the people that live in my community. I have lived in my hometown my entire life. I have grown to love it, and the people that live there. I care about my community because it is my home, and I want my home to be the best that it can be. To do this, I think that it is important to do all sorts of community service. A few examples of community service that I was a part of in high school are: Feed My Starving Children, Special Olympics, various food banks, and volunteering at my mom’s school. These were just a few examples of the community service I participated in to reach the required hours for my high school. My high school required 80 hours of community service to graduate, but I completed a little over 100 hours. I completed 100 hours because I found helping people to be very rewarding. I could tell that people really appreciated the help, so I continued to help in any way that I could.
One of my favorite community service jobs was when I volunteered at the middle school that my mom works at. I went there very often with my mom to help the other teachers in any way that I could. At the time that I went to help, a lot of the teachers were struggling with the new realities during the pandemic. A lot of teachers were overwhelmed with all the new changes, and they really appreciated an extra hand to help with little tasks. Whether I was helping grade assignments, creating bulletin boards, or just making copies, the teachers really appreciated the help. This community service also helped me because I met a lot of great people. I met some very nice volunteers, and a lot of amazing teachers. This experience in the classroom made me realize that I want a career where I work with others. I think that a career in healthcare as a physician's assistant or physical therapist would allow me to work with others, like I did volunteering in the classroom.
After completing this community service, I know that I want a job where I can be “hands on”. I learned from this community service that a job where I always have something going on is the best for me. I also learned some great personal qualities like compassion, leadership, and time-management. To be a teacher, I learned that a person must have an incredible amount of compassion. Teachers also must be incredible leaders. Finally, I learned the importance of time-management. Teachers must be on top of everything all the time. I was taught some great strategies for time-management. Overall, this was one of my favorite acts of community service. I hope to be able to continue to do community service like this in the future.
One of my favorite community service jobs was when I volunteered at the middle school that my mom works at. I went there very often with my mom to help the other teachers in any way that I could. At the time that I went to help, a lot of the teachers were struggling with the new realities during the pandemic. A lot of teachers were overwhelmed with all the new changes, and they really appreciated an extra hand to help with little tasks. Whether I was helping grade assignments, creating bulletin boards, or just making copies, the teachers really appreciated the help. This community service also helped me because I met a lot of great people. I met some very nice volunteers, and a lot of amazing teachers. This experience in the classroom made me realize that I want a career where I work with others. I think that a career in healthcare as a physician's assistant or physical therapist would allow me to work with others, like I did volunteering in the classroom.
After completing this community service, I know that I want a job where I can be “hands on”. I learned from this community service that a job where I always have something going on is the best for me. I also learned some great personal qualities like compassion, leadership, and time-management. To be a teacher, I learned that a person must have an incredible amount of compassion. Teachers also must be incredible leaders. Finally, I learned the importance of time-management. Teachers must be on top of everything all the time. I was taught some great strategies for time-management. Overall, this was one of my favorite acts of community service. I hope to be able to continue to do community service like this in the future.
Leadership
A good leader can be defined as someone who wants to create a change that is positive and benefits a group. Being a good leader can be difficult because it requires many different attributes and competencies that not everyone has. For me, I possess a good number of competencies, but I am lacking in certain areas. To improve my leaderships skills overall, it is important to reflect on the characteristics and competencies I do, and I do not possess.
For me, one competency that is a strength for me is my personal/self-level competency. For someone to be a good leader, they must have a strong sense of self, so that they can influence others. Having good self-knowledge, self-management, empathy, reflection, integrity, and openness all make a great leader. For a person to lead, they must first have a strong base. A person must be a strong individual with good morals before they can even attempt to try and lead a group towards a positive outcome. I believe that I have a lot of the values and morals that make up the personal and self-level competency. I believe that I know who I am, and I can learn from my mistakes well and make changes. I also think that I am an empathetic person that can listen to the needs of people around me. These attributes will be very helpful for me now, and in the future. Now, these attributes have helped me to figure out what I want to do with my life. For the future, these attributes will help me in any career I decide to pursue. Knowing myself and being able to learn from my mistakes will be incredibly important for any job that I get in the future.
One competency that is a weakness of mine is the interpersonal and team level competency. I can follow people well; it is just that I am not the best communicator. I tend to be a little more on the quiet side, and I usually keep a lot of my thoughts and opinions to myself. This competency is important, and something that I need to improve on, because it allows for communication and collaboration. Being able to work well with peers is crucial for being a leader so that improvements can be made as a team. Improvements and goals cannot be accomplished alone. To improve this weakness of mine, I will start small. I think I will start by participating more in my classes. I will also try and introduce myself to new people I meet on campus. Overall, I think that I am a good leader, I just need to make a few small adjustments so that I can be a great leader.
For me, one competency that is a strength for me is my personal/self-level competency. For someone to be a good leader, they must have a strong sense of self, so that they can influence others. Having good self-knowledge, self-management, empathy, reflection, integrity, and openness all make a great leader. For a person to lead, they must first have a strong base. A person must be a strong individual with good morals before they can even attempt to try and lead a group towards a positive outcome. I believe that I have a lot of the values and morals that make up the personal and self-level competency. I believe that I know who I am, and I can learn from my mistakes well and make changes. I also think that I am an empathetic person that can listen to the needs of people around me. These attributes will be very helpful for me now, and in the future. Now, these attributes have helped me to figure out what I want to do with my life. For the future, these attributes will help me in any career I decide to pursue. Knowing myself and being able to learn from my mistakes will be incredibly important for any job that I get in the future.
One competency that is a weakness of mine is the interpersonal and team level competency. I can follow people well; it is just that I am not the best communicator. I tend to be a little more on the quiet side, and I usually keep a lot of my thoughts and opinions to myself. This competency is important, and something that I need to improve on, because it allows for communication and collaboration. Being able to work well with peers is crucial for being a leader so that improvements can be made as a team. Improvements and goals cannot be accomplished alone. To improve this weakness of mine, I will start small. I think I will start by participating more in my classes. I will also try and introduce myself to new people I meet on campus. Overall, I think that I am a good leader, I just need to make a few small adjustments so that I can be a great leader.