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Portfolio Reflection Paper

Martha Nowacki

Loras College
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Portfolio Reflection Paper

Loras College’s mission statement claims that due to being a Catholic and liberal arts

college, it will create a “community of active learners, reflective thinkers, ethical decision-

makers and responsible contributors in diverse professional, social and religious roles” (Loras

College mission statement). Those who attend the college have the opportunity to broaden their

knowledge base from a wide range of academic options, belong to extracurricular groups, and

grow personally. Students walk out of Loras on graduation day set apart from other college

graduates, because of the liberal arts basis—not just having focused on one discipline, but having

been subjected to various perspectives. Personally, out of the four dispositions that make up the

Loras liberal arts education, I have grown most as an active learner and ethical decision-maker.

Also Loras has helped me become better at making connections and seeing the bigger picture of

things. I know now that so many pieces of my Loras experience are related, instead of being

individual, separate parts.

Prior to starting my academic career at Loras, I always loved learning. I sought to

understand why things were the way they were and how they came to be. Whenever something

did not make sense to me, I would be prompt to ask questions, because understanding was and

continues to be so important to me. I came into Loras with that internal push of wanting the

answers as well as explanations, but that was that. I had the drive, but my experiences at Loras

helped me to become a perfected learner. Instead of standing at the edge of the cliff and getting

my answers, Loras literally threw me off the edge so that I could learn to fly, and from here I will

keep flying. I think that being an active learner is one of the most important dispositions, because

the act of learning and being open to learn new things helps one become a more intelligent

person, both “book” wise and “people” wise. By learning new things and gaining higher
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intelligence, you can have conversations with just about anyone. Specifically, I would be able to

relate my learnings to other peoples’ life experience no matter what they are.

One of the elements of an active learner is that they value opportunities of diverse

experiences, because diversity encourages learning. Before coming to Loras, I did not know

anything about other cultures, but my experiences at Loras led me to gain more of a cultural

understanding. Two courses in particular and their coursework were central in prompting

students to think outside the box (the box being the culture into which they were born), in order

to not only become more accepting of others but to see the similarities between cultures that, on

the surface, seem entirely different. In my Cross-Cultural Psychology class, one of our

assignments directed us to attend several cultural events during the semester and write journal

entries about the experiences. In doing this I learned about many cultures, including the

Marshallese and Muslim communities. I was able to witness a traditional group dance by the

Marshallese people, which was both unique and beautiful. In the same class, we were also

instructed to compose our own ethnographic paper by completing interview research. We had to

pick two different cultures and interview someone belonging to that culture for an hour or so. I

chose to interview a girl from Colombia and an elderly woman from Ireland. This not only

forced me out of my comfort zone, but it helped me see the differences and similarities of two

cultures. Through this class and its assignments, it opened my eyes. Instead of ignoring or rather

being ignorant of other cultural contexts, I now embrace them. I seek out learning material from

other cultural perspectives, and this class even prompted me to take other classes at Loras

dealing with culture: Culture and Psychopathology, World Religions, Gender and Society,

Pilgrims in Their Own Land, etc.

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Before beginning classes at Loras, I had no idea how to effectively research a topic and

find credible sources on that topic. I also was not very articulate with presenting information.

Presentations in high school were my absolute greatest fear, and I hated them. However, my

experiences at Loras have helped shape the piece of active listening dealing with using reliable

resources, researching pressing issues, collaborating with instructors/peers, and communicating

learned material. One example I can think of improved my research skills and communicating

those research findings into a paper was the research proposal assignment in Research Methods

and Statistics II. In this class, after learning all about statistics and the components of research, I

was able to come up with an issue, suicide and its relationship to bullying in adolescents, and

create an entire research paper that proposed a study that could be done concerning this

relationship. Through this experience, and course, I learned how to write a thorough APA

(American Psychological Association) styled paper. After taking Research Methods I and II, I

was then invited to become part of the advanced research team at Loras. Through that

experience, I was able to perform an actual study with a small group of students and present the

findings in a poster presentation at the Loras Symposium, thus further improving my research,

collaboration, and communication skills.

Along with these experiences, I have also enhanced my resource finding skills pertaining

to a social problem, as well as collaborating with peers to present the findings to a class, in the

sociology course, Social Problems. For this project, we were each supposed to write down our

top four social problems that we would be interested in research/presenting on. One of my last

problems was racism. It definitely was not my first choice, but Dr. Anderson advised two other

students and myself to research institutional racism. I learned so much about the prevalence and

progression of this problem in our society, through scholarly research, collaborating with my
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group members, and presenting our cohesive presentation to the class—I learned much more

than I thought I would. In doing this project, our group attended a speaker event at Loras in order

to collect more information, which made the experience that more worthwhile. We were able to

connect and implement things that we learned within the speaker event into our own

presentation. We learned that despite racism not being as obvious as it once was, it is still a

significant issue in the United States.

Lastly, in regards to my development of being an active learner, I have been able to

enhance my already existing appreciation of creation as well as my valuing of artistic

dimensions. Ever since I was little, I loved making art of my own (drawing, painting, coloring,

and writing) and was in constant awe of other peoples’ ability. Creating something, whether that

be through writing a poem or painting a landscape, is like a signature—it’s yours and you have

produced something beautiful. Loras has helped me to both express my artistic abilities and learn

while making use of them. Specifically, in my Sensation and Perception class, I remade a

drawing of a hallucination that a young girl was having due to her schizophrenia. In order to

cope and try to help people understand her disorder, drawing out her hallucinations was an

effective tool. Along with my re-creation of her hallucination, I researched art and its benefits for

people living with schizophrenia. I was able to compile my research, reflection, and drawing into

one document. Along with this example, I took a class called Creative Non-Fiction Writing, in

which I wrote a variety of pieces, each revolving around a certain theme (personal life story,

question/reflective essay, and literary journalism). In taking this class, I was able to gain more of

an appreciation for authors and the art of writing. I learned that within non-fiction literature, one

can show their creative side, making the piece come alive.
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Just as I thought of myself as a fairly active learner before attending Loras, I perceived

myself as an ethical individual as well. Treating others with compassion has continued to be a

defining factor of who I am as a person, and this includes animals too. I think one of the reasons

why compassion has stuck with me through life is because of my faith in the Catholic religion. I

have never once in my life doubted the claim that Jesus loves everyone, and that all of God’s

creation should be treated with kindness. In my mind, all people and things are deserving of love,

which aligns with the Catholic tradition/values. As my time at Loras comes to an end, I can think

of several examples that helped me in developing my ethical decision-making skills.

Obviously, because Senior Seminar is based on ethics and ethical issues that arise in

psychology, I have further improved my reasoning about ethical dilemmas and moral problems.

In class, we learned about the code of ethics pertaining to psychologists and the number of

principles that they need to abide by in order to practice, several ethical issues presented on by

students (animal research, use of deception, torture, psychotherapy, etc.). We also wrote a paper

about one of the ethical issues presented on, but it could not be the same topic we presented on

so that we would gain a deep understanding of another problem. I conducted my research on

torture and argued that torture is both unethical and ineffective, and therefore it should not be

used. In the paper, I found reliable research against the use of torture, but also found a few

sources to set up counterarguments and rebuttals. By researching about the ethics on torture and

finding evidence for my claim, I improved my skill of reasoning with ethical dilemmas.

Another project that has helped me to develop reasoning with ethical dilemmas was a

website making assignment that I had to complete for Physiological Psychology. For this project,

we each had to create a website that contained several ways of presenting information on

anything relevant to physiology and psychology. I chose to research drug addiction—specifically

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the debate on why addiction is a disease and not a choice. Based on my research findings, I

concluded that addiction was in fact a disease of the body and mind, in which both become

dependent on the drug. I included videos, infographics, images, and case studies in order to

creatively state my point. Another element of the ethical-decision making disposition is that one

acts in ways that are consistent with their beliefs, and this project helped me to practice just that.

Because of my study of psychology and family situations, I never believed addiction was a

choice, so asserting this in a project was my way to practice speaking up according to my beliefs.

Lastly, in regards to my growth in the ethical decision-making disposition, I was able to

develop in valuing the Catholic tradition, building a community of faith, and being a leader,

through an experiences at Loras. Like I said earlier, I had always been secure in my faith, but I

never taken an active role in building the faith community, or for that matter being a leader. I

envisioned myself as a leader, but was too shy to consider myself a true leader. However, all of

this changed when I decided to be part of the Antioch retreat team. On this three day retreat away

from campus, my position was one of the chapel team leaders. We planned prayers, a skit, and

prayed for speakers while they gave their talks. Even though we were not front and center, we

worked tirelessly in the background. In nervously deciding to sign up as a chapel team leader, I

gained confidence in myself as a leader and someone who can help bring a community of people

together. I also learned more about myself and others in terms of the faith.

Along with becoming an active learner and ethical decision-maker, Loras has provided

me with a variety of courses, and in some cases required me to be in classes that I would not

have chosen, due to the liberal arts piece of the college education. Despite my initial annoyance,

taking multi-disciplinary courses has revealed a number of connections that can be made.

Although I have made several connections between courses and activities, the three that have
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stood out the most are as follows: in connecting Cross-Cultural Psychology and Culture and

Psychopathology, one thing that Dr. Grinde stressed in Cross-Cultural was that before going into

a culture, you have to have an open mind or open slate. You cannot let your culture influence

how you see another, putting your judgements aside. Just because something is abnormal in one

culture, does not mean it is perceived in the same way in a different culture. Throughout Culture

and Psychopathology, we have learned a very similar set of ideas to that of Dr. Grinde’s lectures.

For example, in a chapter about PTSD within one of our texts, we learned that western therapy

does not work or apply everywhere in the world. Just because we use it, does not mean other

countries do or would benefit from it. Specifically, the use of trauma therapy for individuals in

Sri Lanka hinders the healing process, because they have a very different set of beliefs—getting

back into the community is encouraged, physical instead of psychological symptoms are seen,

and social impacts are more common (Watters, 2010). Culture and Psychopathology has given

me examples to apply back to Cross-Cultural. Both of these classes really bounced off of one

another, and by taking Cross-Cultural before the other culture class, I was in a sense prepared

partly for the theme of the class.

Secondly, before really delving into my major of psychology, I was able to connect

psychology to my MOI topic, Hurricane Katrina. In my final paper for the class, I wanted to

somehow bring in my discipline of interest. While researching about the natural disaster, I found

information about the psychological effects that it had on the community and the pre/post

Katrina mental health system in Louisiana. In writing this paper, it made me realize just how

relatable psychology is to other factors. Because the discipline is so adaptable, if you will,

conversing with others who are not psychology oriented and are involved with other disciplines,

can be done. And since taking MOI, I have discovered more discipline centered connections that
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can be made in regards to psychology. Concepts in both sociology and social work mirror

concepts in psychology, such as the micro/macro system of the individual, therapy, mental

illness, etc. Besides the social sciences, I have also made connections between the classes,

Creative Non-Fiction Writing and Chemistry of Art with psychology. In the former of the two, I

was able to improve my writing skills, which is important in psychology, and in the latter I

connected the sensation and perception aspect of psychology to learning about what art and

chemistry entail (visual illusions, rods/cons in eyes, etc.).

Lastly, the versatile academic opportunities at Loras has helped me connect classes so

that I can understand better. I decided to take World Religions as an elective, because I had a

hole in my schedule so I thought this class would fit somewhat with psychology (diverse

background of people). This class helped me in understanding aspects of another class that was

part of the advanced general education at Loras, Pilgrims in Their Own Land. Due to taking

World Religions prior to the other class, it made the main topics clearer/easier to understand:

Judaism, the African American church, and Islam. I found myself constantly remembering that I

had learned the same thing before in World Religions, which was a nice precursors to Pilgrims in

Their Own Land.

Thanks to Loras and all the opportunities it has provided me, especially its emphasis on

the liberal arts, I was able to grow tremendously. Throughout these four years, I have learned so

much about myself, others, and the world around me. I have become a perfected active learner

and ethical decision-maker, as well as become equipped to make connections between differing

topics. Loras has helped me become the person I am today, and has impacted my future goals for

the better.
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References

Loras College mission statement. https://www.loras.edu/about/mission/.

Watters, E. (2010). Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche. New York, NY:

Free Press.