Please reflect on and articulate how working toward the first four of the student learning objectives common to all sections of LDR 101 has informed your understanding of leadership or your capacity to lead (250 words minimum). 

The first four LDR 101 student learning outcomes are:

• Summarize and explain the main ideas of a text, speech, doctrine, principle or belief.
• Identify and analyze significant issues, problems, and questions, and evaluate or develop effective responses.
• Articulate, compare and judge the strengths and weaknesses of two or more competing arguments about an issue, problem or question, supporting your comparative judgment with appropriate evidence.
• Develop, focus and organize ideas concerning a central topic, and create, revise and present these ideas in written, spoken, visual and digital forms using appropriate sources.

I feel that after taking LDR 101 my leadership skills have definitely been enhanced based on the learning outcomes. In response to the first learning outcome, I feel that after this course I am more equipped to be able to receive a complex text and dissect what point is trying to be made. I can take these different forms of information and break them down to my level of understanding and to a point where I can articulate what is being said in my own words. I can also learn a new topic and form a well-developed and intellectual opinion on it and present my views in a written and visual format to express my beliefs and interpretations to others. This outcome is really essential in the development of my leadership skills because it allows me to interpret someone else’s ideas and present them in a way that applies directly to me or in a way that I understand the most and can show just how well my understanding is. In response to the third learning outcome, I can see different viewpoints of conflicting arguments or topics and understand how in their own way they are correct. I am better able to see these different ideas and understand how they can be applied in certain situations whether I agree with them or not. Overall, LDR 101 has had a substantial impact on my leadership skills and communication skills, two aspects that I feel go hand in hand. I have gotten better at expressing my opinion and contributing to group discussions and even sometimes facilitating them.