Dinner With Our Alumni: kindFish9215

Hello all! It’s been a while but I am excited to announce a new mid-week dinner! For those that don't know, Dinner With Our Alumni is a series of small interviews that I conduct with 7 Cups Academy alumni to know more about their journey in the program - this post is dedicated to the Leadership Development Program! The aim is to spread more awareness about the program and hope everyone gives it a read!

Today, we have @kindFish9215! Fish is currently a 3rd year full-time university student in the Life Science program and is a Canadian. They have an interest in working for the healthcare field, particularly in public health or epidemiology (nerrrrd - jk, very ambitious :o)! Fish also loves to work with animals and be a researcher on finding ways to conserve animal populations! Essentially, our Fish is an avid animal lover (ditto!) 😊 Fish's hobbies are reading, playing the piano, watching Netflix and Youtube, and walking their dog.

What was on dinner? Pasta, without a doubt!

So without further ado, here's Fish:

What made you join the LDP program?

Since I was also part of the 7 cups internship, one of my requirements was to graduate in another academy program. There were a variety of academy programs offered by 7 cups, but I chose the LDP program in particular because this would drive me into enrolling in a 7 cups leadership role and therefore being more involved in the 7 cups community aside from being a volunteer listener. I felt that being more involved in the 7 cups community would look good to put on my CV, showing off my leadership experience which would look attractive to future employers. Speaking of that, another reason why I joined the LDP program is to improve my leadership skills which would come in handy in my career once I join the workforce.

How was your experience doing the coursework?

Overall, I'd say that my experience has been pretty good. The content was really easy to understand and I learned new things everyday from taking that course.

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

For me personally, it was pretty straightforward, but only because I bookmarked a lot of the forums. Without bookmarking them, you'd find it difficult to navigate through all the forums since there are so many links to click through. So being organized is really important when taking the LDP program, otherwise you might end up being too overwhelmed with navigating all the forums and links.

How did you dedicate your time to doing the coursework?

Everyday, I set a certain amount of time to dedicate my time into completing the coursework. For me personally, I set around 1-2hrs everyday into working through the coursework.

Which course did you like the most? And why?

I'd say that course 4 was my favorite because it was about understanding my leadership style. I found that it was important for me to better understand my own leadership style, that way I know what kind of leadership style would work best for me when taking on leadership roles both in the 7 cups community and in my career.

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

I got three roles: peer supporter, room supporter, and sharing circle host. So far, I am liking my roles. Everyone is very kind and supportive of me with my roles, especially the sharing circle host. 😊

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

I'd say, keep on track with your courses (don't leave them all to the last minute), and apply to leadership roles as early as possible. Don't make the mistake I made, where I didn't apply for leadership roles until the very end. This is because I was rushing and stressing about making sure I got a leadership role in order to graduate.

What can we do to make the program better?

In my opinion, I don't have any recommendations.

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 @kindFish9215 for doing this, you're amazing!

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