Dinner With Our Alumni: bubblingBreeze14

Hi everyone!! I wanted to present this year's first Dinner With Our Alumni! With a very special person, @bubblingBreeze14! For those that don't know, 'Dinner With Our Alumni' is a small series across the 7 Cups Academy where I will do a small interview with our leaders who graduated the Leadership Development Program. The aim is to spread more awareness about the program and hopefully everyone gives it a read!

So who is Breeze? Breeze is a recent graduate and works as a professional in the IT industry! They love baking with their sister on the weekends. And also loves to play the piano, to read books, and walk around their garden in their free time! They strongly say, "Music, books, and nature are always good at making things better!" Apart from that, Breeze has been with 7 Cups since 2017 and has been able to help a lot of people since (no doubts there!). They are a project agent for the verifiers team, a Quality Mentor, an AL grading team member, and importantly, a listener to members!

A few words from them: I've been able to guide fellow listeners and enhance the quality of our community through the above roles so far and I'm super happy that I joined this wonderful family to help more people around the world.

What was on the menu? Noodles, french fries, and Breeze's signature chocolate cake O:

Here's what they had to say:

What made you join the LDP program?

I always thought I had the skills needed to be a great leader and I thought enrolling in this program would allow me to see my leadership qualities and showcase them as well.

How was your experience doing the coursework?

I must say it wasn't always perfect. I had days when I had to complete multiple lessons at a stretch (mainly because I had to do it all while I balanced my personal and professional life 😄) However, it was amazing. I've got the opportunity to learn a lot of things about leadership and personal qualities. Not only that it gave me new insights and allowed me to be more confident of my skills.

Did you find it easy to navigate through the forums for each course?

Yes I did. The initial document that was shared with me had all the details about the program; how many courses were there, what we had to submit and when, how to talk with a mentor, etc. Apart from that, each individual component of a course (called as discussion in this case) had a link to the next component, which made it easier to navigate instead of trying to find them in the forums section.

How did you dedicate your time to doing the coursework?

Well, I didn't get a lot of time to do it daily, but I kept some time every weekend to read through each component and do as much as I could. Whenever I had time on weekdays I would go through the course to see what I had to do. If it was something that I could complete within the time I have I would do it, if not I would plan when I'm going to do it and stick to it. I also didn't forget to take breaks. Some courses were big and required a lot of attention to details and had a lot of reading materials which took the majority of my time. For the last two courses I created a technique where I would read through all the components in each course to see how it goes so that I could evaluate myself and predict how much time it'll need me to complete them. I must say that was a great move. With that I was able to complete all courses and all paperwork three days before the deadline. Massive success for me personally 😋

Which course did you like the most? And why?

I think I liked all of the courses but mainly course 2 and 3. It gave me a lot of information on being a leader and gave me the chance to learn more about my leadership skills. It also gave me new insights to better handle my tasks. I must say I've used what I've learnt through here in both my life in and out of 7 Cups and it has had a positive impact on my daily tasks.

What role did you get into after the program? How are you liking the role you got into for the LDP?

While working through the LDP course I became a Quality mentor and enrolled in the active listening grading team and have been mentoring listeners for a while so far. It has been an awesome journey in my new role. I've been helping many listeners and it makes me feel as if I'm doing a great thing to make this community even better by helping listeners increase their quality and use their skills to be the best they could be. I must say it made me busy as well, but I'm tackling things by finding ways to better manage all of my tasks and to have some time to support a few members as well while being active in all other roles 😊 After all that's why I joined here, to support people.

If you had to give one tip to the current trainees, what would that be?

I'd say plan early and enjoy the journey you're taking while doing the program. Take a few minutes to see what kind of content the upcoming discussions bring, so that you know if they require a lot of time when compared to others or not. That will give you a lot of time to think and plan how you can complete those discussions. Try doing this with every course and eventually you'll find a rhythm that gives you a strategy to work on the items. There are some items that require a lot of reading and understanding, taking a considerable time than others. Give yourself to enjoy the program, have fun and learn. So you'd have a lot of time to concentrate on things and re-visit materials if you have to. Also don't forget to have some time off. As much as you want to complete the course you need some time to relax and boost your energy as well 🙂

What can we do to make the program better?

I think it's best as it is. It had all the details one could need to get familiar with the program and find the course materials. Great job on making such a wonderful coalition of contents Academy team!

Thank you for reading till here! I would love to hear any suggestions/question ideas that I can add to this series. If you are an LDP graduate and would love to contribute, please PM me so we can set up our dinner! Meanwhile, please give a big shout-out to @bubblingBreeze14 for doing this!

If you want to apply for the LDP, please click here.