It's Not Just About Ideas

My name is Faith Lopez and I was born and raised in Houston, Tx. I am currently working on getting my masters degree in ADL and I am working remotely as an Admissions Counselor for Lamar University. I am excited to welcome you to my ePortfolio where I share my personal journey through my education and career! I am very interested in how we can use technology to help grow our student’s knowledge in their transition to higher learning. In May of 2022 I graduated Lamar University with a Bachelors in Social Work. Now that I am currently working on my masters degree, I am realizing how much ADL connects to Social Work to. ADL so far has taught me so many different ways to help students and ever since I started Social Work back in college, I knew I wanted to work with the student population which is how I got into College Admissions. I have grown up with the mindset of always having to be a high achiever when it comes to school work and now I realize that it is so much more than that. It makes me want to help students see now what I saw when I grew up so it is not too late for them to succeed in this digital age.

Before I started the ADL program and had any ideas about fixed and growth mindsets, I had the mindset of both fixed and growth. In my head I have always wanted to grow and learn as much as I can in my career since I am young. When I found my current job as an admissions counselor, I fell in love with Admissions. But I only wanted to do what they told me to do. The fixed mindset comes in because until I started the ADL program, I didn’t want to get up and do anything to further grow in my career. I did not want to try to do more in my job even though I wanted in my head to go higher up the ladder and keep learning. I used to be so set in not getting my masters until one conference changed my whole opinion. As of now as I look, see and understand the COVA model and that learning approach, I see it impacting my learning by being able to be creative and take ownership of my learning.

When I started this program, I knew I would learn more about technology but I had no idea that I was going to be making an Innovation Plan. When I was first introduced to the innovation plan I was confused and I didn’t know where to start. It was difficult for me at first to come up with an idea for a plan for my students but once I figured out one, I was ready to go and invest in creating this amazing online platform. Throughout the ADL program I did assignments that required me to grow and develop my innovation plan to make it great. Now that I am at the end, I have this amazing sense of accomplish met that I did something amazing for my students. I am really excited to implement this plan in the future when it is ready.