Junior Review Pathways Assignment Reflection

Artifact Purpose

By the time of a student’s Junior Review, they have completed at least two semesters of coursework within the Graduate School of Theology and with it a number of Pathways Assignments that have helped them grow across four primary competencies or “domains of experience”:

1. Ministerial Vocation, Identity, & Formation
2. Theology of Ministry
3. Practices & Skills Competency
4. Theological & Ministerial Integration

At this midway point of their program, it is important for students to step back, examine their work, and reflect on what they see there. Therefore, this artifact is meant to give students that opportunity as it relates to their various Pathways Assignments. In this required artifact, students will engage in a process of reflection and discernment around three of their completed Pathways Assignments for the purpose of gaining clarity about their strengths, the ways their competencies have grown over the first half of their program, and the ways they want to continue to grow over the next half. This artifact will serve as a central conversation point with faculty during the student’s Junior Review. Once this artifact is written it should be posted to the student’s e-portfolio along with the three Pathways Assignments that are the focus of its reflection.

 

Artifact Tasks

1. CHOOSE 3 completed Pathways Assignments to serve as focus of reflection
   • The choice of specific Pathways Assignments is entirely up to you. They can be three assignments that represents your best work, they can come from different disciplines (e.g., one each from a Bible, Theology, and History course), or they can be from different points in your program (e.g., one assignment each from fall, spring, and summer classes).
   • Whatever your reason for choosing the three Pathways Assignments that are your focus, you will need to explain why you have chosen them at the beginning of your paper.
2. REFLECT on these three Pathways Assignments
   • Your reflection can take any number of directions, but you might consider the following questions as a starting point:
     • What common tendencies do you see in your work?
     • What are the things you believe you do well?
     • What are the things with which you struggled in these assignments?
     • What insights did these assignments create for you?
     • What growth occurred through your experiences with these assignments?

3. WRITE an 800-1,200 word paper that explores your reflection on these Pathways Assignments.
   • Your reflection should answer the following questions:
     • As you review your work in these Pathways Assignments, what have you learned about yourself (your primary convictions, your strengths, your understandings about ministry, etc.)?
     • What is your reflection on your work telling you about yourself?

Artifact Guidelines

• • 600-700 words
  • 12 Point Font
  • Times New Roman
  • Double-Spaced
  • Uploaded to e-portfolio with the three Pathways Assignments on which the reflection is based.