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Undergraduate Studies ePortfolio

Lauren HunnicuttBA Psychology, 2011

Personal Statement

I consider myself a career student, in life and academia. I have been attending college for twelve years, taking one or two classes per semester at night and on extended lunch breaks, all while working in multifamily property management. My interests going into my first year at university have changed over the twelve years, leading me to pursue programs concentrated in Real Estate, Interior Design, and finally I/O Psychology. After completing my Associates Degree in 2006, I took a break from my studies to concentrate on an advanced management position, becoming debt free in the interim. In the winter of 2009 at the worst possible economic time, I made the very difficult decision to resign from my job, my security, and return to school full-time to complete my degree and start my own business staging model apartment homes. I did miss the learning and focus on something greater than the small bubble that surrounded my industry of employment, but more than that, I had an obligation to myself to achieve these very personal goals. With little savings and my financial welfare hinging on the good graces of Sallie Mae, I prepared myself to jump off of my very stable cliff, hoping that my parachute would lead me safely to the ground below. With a crowd of supporters at the bottom encouraging me, I knew I would be safe, but it was going to take a lot of guts.

Fast-forward to present, and I am three days away from completing my degree in I/O Psychology, have an active website for my design business with a few design projects under my belt, and have accepted an entry-level HR/Office Manager’s position at Earthworks, Inc., a landscaping company I have used throughout my years in property management. My parachute is open and I am drifting towards the ground now in sight.

After completing my degree, as an extension of my education I look forward to completing some of the certification programs offered by the Society for Human Resource Management or SHRMS, such as SHRM Essentials of HR Management for those just starting out in the field. Other programs offered require varying degrees of experience in the field, upwards of two years, so with time I will use these to my advantage with the overall objective of becoming an executive.

ResumeProfessional Highlights

Positive team leader, quick to master new roles, diplomatic in communicating and diffusing difficult situations, well versed in Macintosh and PC platforms, excels in administrative work and project management.

Education

Argosy University, AZ, Bachelors of Arts in Psychology 2010 – 2011

Northlake College, TX, Associates in Liberal Arts 2003 – 2006Professional Experience

Sole Proprietor January 2010 – PresentRooms – Interior StylistCoordinates and budgets design schemes for model apartment homes.Selects paint, furnishings, artwork, and accessories for assembly, installation, and arrangement.Centerstone Management Corporation April 1998 – December

2009Bent Oaks Apartments – Property ManagerManaged a 200-unit apartment community in North Dallas with strong focus on budget compliance and maintaining high occupancy

rates through resident retention, quality control, efficient production, and customer service.Directed a team of six in daily operations, leasing, administration, and maintenance.Coordinated and supervised vendor repairs.Spearheaded exterior and interior enhancement projects.Compiled daily, weekly, monthly reports, and end of month P & L data.Achieved the highest performance percentages in the company on monthly corporate audits involving areas of safety,

administrative, utility conservation, landscaping, structure, and make-readies.Centre Oaks Apartments – Assistant Property ManagerMaintained occupancy goals of a 320-unit apartment community in Ft. Worth.Managed rental income, delinquencies, evictions, and collections.Reconciled resident accounts and monthly income books for property.Implemented targeted marketing programs including print and digital media.Established the standard for monthly-generated newsletters.Designed and furnished the Bent Oaks leasing office interior, clubhouse, and model apartments throughout the company.Received Satis-Facts Award for Resident Relationship Management Services.Centre Oaks Apartments – Leasing ConsultantSuccessfully met and maintained weekly leasing goals.Focus in customer service and resident relations.

 

Reflection

As I rifled through over seventy-five assignments spanning two years I am so proud of my progress. I have certainly come a long way in terms of finding my academic voice. Going through my course progressions, I started to recognize an increase in my attention to detail and subject matter. I was quick to critique my earlier works, and feeling at times, a little self-conscious. I realize this is all a part of the learning process. My APA formatting has come light years from its meager beginnings. I remember cracking the code to the running head somewhere in the middle of Solutions Focused Leadership which was not that long ago. I recall also being very scared and confused when first asked to use the online library to find peer reviewed articles. Looking back, it was the most wonderful and accommodating resource I have ever encountered at an educational institution. With every course I have improved in my writing, comprehension, formatting, and research, and although there is always room for improvement, especially for me in the areas of critical thinking and analysis, and I think my written communication is stellar. I am extremely thankful for the guidance and personal attention that my professors have afforded me. I believe my academic growth and success is also due to the psychology curriculum and the learning strategies implemented in the course structures. Never in my collegiate career have I worked so hard and learned so much.

Table of Contents

Cognitive Abilities: Critical Thinking and Information Literacy

Research SkillsCommunication Skills: Oral and WrittenEthics and Diversity AwarenessFoundations of PsychologyApplied PsychologyInterpersonal Effectiveness**These complete works can be found on my Linkedin profile page and are labeled according to this Table Of Contents. The following slide has a sample of the work exhibiting critical thinking.**

Critical Thinking

Identifying the dependent and independent variables is a necessary part of the research process, but these may not the only variables that exist in this study. Extraneous variables must also be considered. These are variables other than the independent variable that could possibly have an effect on the dependent variable. Such extraneous variables in this study might be the individual level of care, motivation, and/or compensation. Similarly, health and/or tenure could also be contributing factors. While there is no absolute method to maintaining control over all possible extraneous variables outside of conducting the experiment in a highly controlled laboratory setting, there are ways to effectively control many of them. Random assignment is one such technique. In a random assignment, study participants are randomly selected and randomly assigned to either the treatment group or control group, the treatment group being the only group that will receive treatment or that will be exposed to the changes in the independent variable (Riggio, 2008). Because of its nature, random assignment should establish a sample population representative of the total population wherein individual differences, possible extraneous variables, would be equally distributed amongst the two groups (Riggio, 2008).

After the research design has been selected, the variables have been identified, and there is a plan in place to control the extraneous variables, the researcher must outline the data collection techniques he or she will employ. When collecting data for this study, the researcher might consider starting with a self-reporting technique in the form of a survey administered to the employees in an effort to get a personal account of their level of satisfaction at work. The researcher can then compare this information with data from the company’s attendance reports (Riggio, 2008) to see if a correlation exists.

Since the research design uses the correlational method, the use of varying observational techniques will be the primary source of data collected by the researcher. Obtrusive observation is one technique wherein the observer’s presence is visible to everyone involved. The downfall in using this technique is that people who are being observed tend to alter their behavior, whether consciously or unconsciously (Riggio, 2008) resulting in inaccuracies. Unobtrusive observation may eliminate this problem, as the participants will be unaware that their behavior is being scrutinized. This, however, also has a downside in terms of ethics and privacy (Riggio, 2008). Ethical missteps can have devastating personal and professional repercussions therefore it might benefit the researcher to revise his or her methods to avoid these consequences, rather than take a risk for the use of a single technique. It may be possible to perform some kind of concealed observation and still maintain ethical practices by obtaining informed consent from the employees prior to conducting unobtrusive observation at an undisclosed time. In any event, because observation is a key element in this study, the researcher must weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the varying forms of observational techniques and determine what measures he or she must take moving forward.After the research has been conducted and data collected, it will be necessary to analyze the data. Statistical analysis in this study should be used to find the correlation coefficient, which will determine whether or not the results are of statistical significance (Aron, et al., 2009). For example, should the researcher get a correlation value of r = -.70 he or she should conclude that the correlation is significant because this value is “less than the customary alpha level of .05” (Argosy, 2011, Psychological Statistics M7:A2 Tutorial, p.8), meaning there is less than five percent probability that the occurrence happened by chance (Riggio, 2008). In this case the null hypothesis that there would be no correlation is rejected in favor of support of the research hypothesis, that there is a correlation between high employee satisfaction and low absenteeism.

My Future in Learning

Learning is a lifelong process, and mine does not stop here. As I mentioned at the beginning, I am a student in academia and in life. In addition to my academic growth, I have also experienced real personal and professional growth. I have taken away so much from my interaction with my peers and professors in the collaborative environment at Argosy. I have learned to examine my own capabilities, behavior, and perspectives, allowing for improvement, change, and reflection. How I use this experience to manage my strengths and weaknesses in the future and regard new endeavors will determine my success in maximizing opportunities and overcoming obstacles. Embracing change, having a thirst for knowledge, and challenging myself will put me on the road to my continued learning and development.

Contact Me

Thank you for viewing my ePortfolio.For further information, please

contact me at the e-mail address below.

laurenahunnicutt@gmail.com