Reflection:

EES Outcome and Artifact: Interpersonal skills are demonstrated through my artifacts: photographs of me participating in various competitive sports teams throughout my life. All sports teams I have been a part of have required working with a diverse group of individuals towards a common goal. My experience growing up playing team sports shows that I enjoy working in a group setting and that I work well in it. I love being able to collaborate and contribute effort towards a common goal.

Self Assessment: I would assess myself as Competent in this essential employability skill. I am great at listening to others, communicating my ideas, collaborating, and contributing my share of work towards a shared goal.

The Artifact - Successes and Challenges: One of my most recent successes is playing Rugby competitively at the provincial level. Playing at this level required a lot of training, communication, time, and effort from all players. Our team committed to practicing 3 times a week, in addition to games 1-2 times a week. This meant you spent most of your time outside of school and work at the field practicing or playing. As I played Hooker, a front-row position, practicing plays for games involved several teammates you work closely with to win scrums, rucks, mauls and lineouts. One challenge that came up while preparing for our final games was learning how to communicate with one another on the field without the other team understanding our plays. We were able to overcome this challenge by assigning unique names and numbers to the plays and moves we came up with, so the competition couldn't understand what we were trying to set up. By using clear words to trigger specific plays and setups, we were able to communicate effectively across the field, regardless of other variables like crowd noise, music, or weather conditions that made it difficult to talk among teammates. These experiences have taught me that a clear line of communication among teammates is vital in succeeding and understanding each other.

New Learning: These experiences working on different sports teams have helped me realize that interpersonal skills require more than just getting along with others on a surface level. Effective and successful teamwork requires cooperation, accountability, clear communication and active listening. I also learned that everyone has different perspectives and experiences to offer, and it's important to be willing to consider other perspectives and approaches to things you may not have thought of, as this often yields a stronger result and a stronger team in the process.

Future Impact: Interpersonal skills are an essential employability skill, important not only in sports but also in everyday life, such as at school or at work. Learning to communicate respectfully facilitates collaboration and working with others while adapting to many different personalities and approaches.  Having the privilege of growing up playing team sports has made me more aware of the importance of building relationships with my teammates based on trust and reliability. This encourages me to continue strengthening my communication and collaboration skills with those around me, whether that be in the field or in an office.