Abigail Javier

Where I most feared problems and conflict, I learned to manage it and trust myself that with Harmony, Restorative, and Context I could solve problems thrown my way. My name is Abigail Javier and I am going to be a Junior this upcoming fall while continuing to be a peer leader for the incoming freshmen.

This past summer I took the Clifton Strengths assessment through the Nebraska College Preparatory Academy during our peer leading training camp which has helped me tremendously in accomplishing my goals. After taking the assessment we learned about our strengths, but it wasn’t in depth as the Clifton Strengths class in the spring. Although the class was almost three hours long, it was interesting and I looked forward to going every time.

Something I always wanted to do in college is learn to be more open and make many connections, which this class gave me the tools and confidence to do it. Where I most feared problems and conflict, I learned to manage it and trust myself that with Harmony, Restorative, and Context I could solve problems thrown my way.After taking the class, my meetings as a peer leader went so much better, using my Individualization and Connectedness to make better relationships with the students.

Learning in this class was to help us strengthen ourselves, not change, which has helped me not only in mentoring but also in my academics. Times can get really stressful with so many classes in a variety of areas, but my organizing skills improved as I learned how to use my Restorative strength to find ways to not burn out. These strengths also taught me that I am much more people orientated than I thought, leading to me self caring in other ways that don’t always work for others. While people would like to be alone, I love to be surrounded or with at least one person and tell stories or do activities together instead of it only being me.

My extracurriculars also had a positive impact while taking on leadership roles. Being the president of our UNL Chapter of Lambda Theta Nu Sorority, Inc., while also being the secretary of the Multicultural Greek Council, I always knew I could dissolve conflict, but once learning in the class that it was my strength, it gave me much more confidence to speak up and use my strength than staying quiet. We have been able to work much more efficiently and it has boosted my self-esteem seeing all the things I can do. I wanted to thank you for this opportunity which has helped me grow and flourish into a stronger version of myself that I knew I could be, but needed the guidance from this class to get there.