Reflection Paper
Amber N. Railey
Communications 1130 Section 105

Reflection Paper
Hello my name is Amber Railey and I will be writing about my time in and at the community service learning center, and the project that followed. I will be talking about my experiences and what I did at Watermelon Mountain Ranch, about how I deal with the anxieties of presenting, How I prepare for a presentation and speech, the communication concepts I learned, what speech types I used, also I will talk about my group and how the process of doing our project went. , My community service learning was at Watermelon Mountain Ranch. I was in charge of helping the pet dogs get adopted out, I was also in charge of setting up cages, cleaning them out and breaking them down. I also fed the dogs, watered the dogs, cleaned up after them, waste wise, I also walked the dogs. I removed them from the transportation vehicle and brought them into Petsmart. I had to go to the orientation which was held on a Saturday at noon. I had to also take a class on how to walk a dog and put on a leash correctly. I am also in the process of becoming an adoption counselor. I spent a total of 23 hours with them in the months of June and July. I enjoyed my time with the people of Watermelon Ranch and the dogs they both have such great personalities. They take care of dogs, cats, goats, chickens, and a pig that are all at the shelter. On Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays they drive the dogs to Petsmart off of Coors and Ellison. Which is where I would meet them to set up for the day of adoptions of dogs, I only worked with the dog portion of Watermelon Mountain Ranch pet adoptions. The communication skills I learned were learning to speak in public, I learned how to improve my confidence by speaking to numerous people at once about adopting our dogs. I figured out the reasons for my anxiety I fear the humiliation of failing at my speech and stumbling over my words, I worry about my appearance and I am a perfectionist so I beat myself up when I mess something up or goes wrong. I learned how to decrease my anxiety by deep breathing, Drinking an energy drink before class, I know that doesn’t work for most people but it does for me it gives me the energy boost and confidence that I need to get up on front of people. I feel like I come prepared to class to do my speech and come prepared for any questions I might receive. I also focus on my presentation and not my fear. I knew how to determine my purpose before I start my speech preparedness. I select and narrow my topic, I gather my supporting material by looking on the internet, and then I gathered my presentation aids such as : photographs, charts, maps, graphs, flipcharts, the chalkboard, and then I sit down and prepare my speech in PowerPoint or Prezi (which I learned just for this class I had never used it before). Then I rehearse my speech and then delivered it in my class in front of all of you.
I Learned how to become an active listener during speeches, and how to comment my thoughts out loud to someone after their speech. I learned to ignore certain outside thoughts that came to mind during a speech, I also learned how to minimize outside distractions, I became a selfish listener, and I identified my listening goal I listen for pleasure and for information. I try to do a good job when giving my feedback I am honest , I try to be descriptive, positive even in my critical answers or judgements by prefacing with something they did right before and after. I also try to be sensitive.
When it came to gathering info from my audience I tried to do that to my best ability. I learned how to judge an audience by their demographics, and gender. I tried to use a favorable voice when doing my writings. I learned to watch an audience and listen to their responses verbally and tried to watch their non-verbal responses to my speech. I tried to make eye contact, use my facial expressions to motivate the audience, I tried to be more aware of my movements and where I put my hands at all times.
I used all the different types of speeches when I did my service learning, Persuasive, informative, impromptu and prepared. I used the persuasive in order to try to talk people into adopting our dogs. I used the informative speech to inform the people about Watermelon Mountain Ranch and what we do for the dogs and people and how we bring them together. I also used the impromptu speeches for when I would just walk up to someone looking at our dogs and begin talking to them about all the same stuff. I used the prepared speeches when talking to bigger groups of people.
Now I will talk about my group experience. I had in my group. We were the mismatched group if you ever called one. We had Arca, Roadrunner foodbank, Good Samaritan, and Watermelon Mountain Ranch, we were supposed to also have the animal humane society but at the last minute Chris found out all the slots were full at animal humane so I got him in at Watermelon Mountain Ranch with a few well-placed calls and a few emails to the woman who I’ve come very close to Kim the head coordinator for the pet adoptions and head of the learning service and volunteer program at Watermelon Mountain Ranch. Anyway I got him into Watermelon Mountain Ranch and he finished there so that turned out pretty good. I put together all of our PowerPoints together and made sure they all matched with Craig and Sarah’s help. Over all the group experience was a good one. We all meet Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:15am until 11:15am usual sometimes just Wednesdays. The group project was fantastic experience I learned to work through disagreements even though there were only a few of them and we learned how to talk to Chris about all the problems he was having with meeting with us. We offered him rides and different time to meet. The group of Sarah, Craig, Rob, Chris and I worked really well together we all had a pretty set way of what we wanted to get done and got it all accomplished and I hope you like our presentation.
In conclusion I learned a lot in this class from preparing, Making and delivering a speech, working in a bigger group for a speech. As well as taking a lifelong appreciation for volunteering for Watermelon Mountain Ranch and everything they do for the Dogs, Cats, Goat, Chickens, and pig that they have at the shelter. I will continue to volunteer for them as long as I physically can, and enjoy doing so.