EDCEP 111 Second Reflection Paper (Personal Educational Entry)

Instructor: Casey Finnel
Time: T 1430-1520
Assignment: Reflection Paper 2
Date: September 8, 2009

Prelude

We did a stand-up activity, and this involved elimination. It was about a job we like. First, the ACIC director announced the pay, and it was good enough that nearly everyone remained standing. Then she said that this would involve working for the government. Many sat down. I guess many sat down because more and more people believe that the government is the beast. I don’t think so, at least in my position in life. I’m receiving SSI for my disability so I look upon them as a pretty helpful entity. (Hey, it pays my rent, otherwise I’d be homeless and have a tougher semester.) She went through numerous more questions about this job. There was one about constantly needing to be retrained for new technology that comes out often. I’m an aficionado of new technology so I would think this seemed appealing.

Finally, when she said that this would be a high-stress environment where wrong decisions would involve mass death, that’s when I finally sat down. Then she asked us to guess what this job was. I was in the front row, far right, so she didn’t take the liberty to notice me. I knew it was an Air Traffic Controller. Someone else got to guess it right.
What surprised me was that she said it pays $112,000/year now. When I took the same EDCEP 111 class in 2005 with another instructor (whose name I don’t remember now,) the ACIC director said it paid $86,000/year. (Or she might have said $88,000/year.) A 23.2% increase in just 4 years? That’s 5.8% per year, a little ahead of inflation. I had a feeling that the pay increase was more than it should have been. (If you were wondering, events in life interrupted my schooling back in Fall 2005 so I had to drop all classes that semester.)

The ACIC director went over whatever had to do with our job interests and job prospects, so this brings us to our focus questions:

1. What resources are available for use by K-State students in the Academic & Career Information Center (ACIC)?
a. Answer: There, we can take career assessments, explore jobs related to our major, search their career library for job ideas, take a career class, and find information on graduate schools.

2. What information can you learn about yourself through the use of the interactive computer program DISCOVER?
a. Answer: I can figure out from my interests and skills inputted, what my best possible career fields are.

3. What is the Honor Pledge that applies to all K-State students with regard to assignments, examinations and other coursework?
a. Answer: “On my honor, as a student, I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this academic work.”