• Were you successful in carrying out the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?

This course definitely pushed me to extreme limits and there were times when I doubted myself as a grad student and leader and often wanted to give up. Fortunately I rose to the occasion. The assignments were extremely lengthy, especially Week 4, as were the discussion board expectations. Posting a response to each of the weekly readings was definitely within reason. However, responding to two other quotes from fellow students on the same readings was a bit excessive and discouraging. It was also difficult if other students did not post in a timely manner. I thought about giving up on a few of the weekly assignments, especially week 4. I tried to rationalize that my grades for weeks 1-3 were high and that it would be fine to slack for one week. I decided against this and quickly tried to push those thoughts out of my mind. Even though the course was challenging, I was learning a lot. My personal motto is “Failure Is Not An Option”. By not doing one of the weekly assignments, I was failing in a sense, and to me, that was unacceptable.