Taylor Fraker

Recorder, Devil’s Advocate

Participation in World Cafés

My experience in the world café format was very helpful in narrowing down my decision on what group to join. I identified a group very quickly that I felt confident in joining but still had the opportunity to engage with other groups and become aware of what they were passionate about. This helps me identify what groups I might be able to coordinate with in the future.

Learning Compass

Where have I been?
1. I have learned from friendships, relationships, good jobs, bad jobs, drugs, family, nature, and pop culture different ways to shape my ideals and values over time.
2. The most critical learning experiences have come from working very hard in jobs that I did not particularly enjoy. It made me question the point of my life, and pushed me to follow my passions rather than play the game.
3. I have been back and forth to college several times. Two different community colleges and one university.
4. I have held a logistical management position at Amazon, and I worked as an auto mechanic for a few years. Both of these jobs taught me how to challenge myself to find out what I am capable of, while also making me aware of how that self determination can easily be exploited by others.

Where am I now?
1. I think I have strength as a facilitator and organizer in many ways. I’m not comfortable considering myself as a leader, I take more pride in elevating people’s voices above my own. My weakness is a resistance to self-planning and direction, I have too many interests and often spread myself thin to the point of disillusionment.
2. I think I have opportunities to engage with the community through Evergreen, as well as supportive faculty.
3. Peer instruction is the most useful learning tool for me.
4. I am motivated by love! I think people are brilliantly creative and their potential is limitless. I want to help people fully realize their potential, especially sowing those seeds at a young age.
5. My main challenge is finding a consistent place to live and maintaining enough work hours to sustain myself through college.
6. In my free time I like to play music, read books, watch movies/documentaries, and exercise. Playing music is an emotional release that keeps me sane, and reading books help me shape my understanding of the world.

Where am I going?
1. My long term goal is to go to grad school to become a teacher.
2. My short term goals are to develop meaningful relationships with my peers and with my faculty.
3. I want to gain more understanding of the theory of education and cognitive science.

How do I get where I want to go?
1. Engage with faculty, form relationships in the community, plan my education better, and reduce the number of financial obligations in my life.

How do I know I have reached my goals?
1. Initially, I will have reached my first level of goals when I become an educator. After that, I hope I will work towards a never ending series of goals to positively influence the lives of young people over time.