Sample-Autobiography.pdfAutobiography My name is Mich.docx

Sample-Autobiography.pdf
Autobiography
My name is Michael Smith and I was born on the 30th of
August, 1967 in Long Beach,
California. My parents were Eddie Smith and Joan Smith. Both
of my parents are deceased.
My mom died at the age of 57 in 1994 from lung cancer which
was the result of smoking her
whole lifetime. My father died at the age of 69 in 2006 from a
massive heart attack, which was
also the likely result from a lifetime of smoking. Fortunately I
have been smart enough to avoid
that bad habit.
My early childhood was a typical middle class environment
circa the 1960's. My dad
worked for Simpson Buick as a parts salesman and my mom was
a stay at home mother. I had a
happy, normal childhood as an only child, leaving me somewhat
spoiled. My mom and dad
divorced when I was eight years old and both remarried within a
year or so of the divorce. My

dad remained married to my stepmom Bev until his death. My
mom would marry two more
times. My first stepdad Vince became a big part of my life and
I maintained close contact with
him until his death in 2006, two days after my real dad died.
Yes, that was a very bad week,
losing both of my dads.
Growing up with split parents was not especially difficult since
each of my parents kept
me out of their divorce and they got along fine at events where
both of them were present. I
lived with my mom until I was 16 and in high school. By my
sophomore year in high school I
had begun to hang around with friends that got me into a lot of
trouble with a number of things
including smoking pot and drinking. I was rapidly heading
down a negative path, but was
fortunate enough to notice it before I had done any serious
damage. I moved in with my dad and
changed high schools and friends.
With the fresh start I was able to finish high school without
further incident, graduating

from Downey High School in 1985. Even with my questionable
behavior earlier in my life I had
always wanted to become a police officer, which I could not do
until I was 21 years of age. So,
to kill time and stay out of trouble I joined the United States
Army immediately after turning 18.
I joined the army and was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia for
basic training, advanced infantry
training, and finally airborne jump school. After becoming a
paratrooper (11B1P, Airborne
Infantry) I was assigned to Bravo Company, 2/325th Airborne
Infantry Regiment.
What stands out the most about my time in the army are the
extremes that you are
subjected to. Some of my happiest memories and some of my
worst memories come from my
time in the army. One thing that I am sure of is that it shaped
me to become the man that I am
now. The army really straightened me out from my troubled
teenage years. When I came out of
the army I had put on 50 solid pounds and was old enough to
attempt to become a police officer.
Fresh out of the service I waited on tables and did some
bartending while in the long

application process for law enforcement. I applied to the Long
Beach Police Department, the
Los Angles Police Department, and the California Highway
Patrol. My hope and dream was to
be accepted by the Long Beach Police Department and it came
true for me. I was accepted into
the Long Beach Police Academy on July 10th, 1988. My
military experience definitely made the
police academy much easier for me. I was already conditioned
to withstand the extreme stress of
the police academy. The only difficulty I had in the police
academy was a number of injuries
suffered during it, but I was able to continue in spite of them. I
attribute this to my time in the
army as well because I had learned to "Play through the pain."
During the time that I was in the
police academy I was living with my girlfriend. Shortly after
graduating from the police
academy we made the mistake of getting married. As so
happens in law enforcement we ended
up divorced two years later, which was a mutual decision and
really the best thing for both of us.

Fortunately, (and unlike many other police officers, both male
and female) she is my only ex-
wife.
After five months I graduated from the police academy and was
assigned as a police
rookie in training for the Patrol Division. My field training
period went quickly and I was able
to complete field training without any problems. It became
immediately clear to me that I had
made the right career choice. The excitement of being a police
officer lived up to all my
expectations. I literally enjoyed the police work so much that I
looked forward to going to work
and I could not believe that I was getting paid for it. The job
only got better as I became more
experienced, leading to more confidence that I could handle the
job regardless of what came
along.
During my career in law enforcement I worked in patrol as an
officer, later as a field
training officer, and finally as a patrol sergeant. Over the
course of my career I also worked in
detectives, in the Gang Enforcement Section, and as a detective
sergeant. One of the best things

about being a police officer is that once what you are doing
becomes routine or boring, you can
change what you are doing. By the time I had been a patrol
officer and field training officer for
five years and beginning to burn out on it I was able to go to
detectives. This gave me a new
dimension of experience and I learned a lot during my years as
a detective, particularly while I
was assigned to the Gang Enforcement Section. I did this for
several years and eventually
became an acting detective sergeant in gangs.
After my time in detectives and the Gang Enforcement Section
I decided to return to the
patrol division as a patrol sergeant. Of all of the assignments I
had as a police officer being a
patrol sergeant was easily my favorite. In law enforcement
sergeants are the middle men in
between the patrol officers (aka "The Troops") and the
lieutenants and above (aka "The Brass").
Unlike many careers where being the middle man is a bad thing
("Being stuck in the middle"), in
law enforcement I found the opposite to be true. As a patrol

sergeant you don't get stuck with
the routine paper calls that the patrol officers do, but you can
still handle calls that are
interesting, require a supervisor, or are more complicated.
While being a sergeant does bring
around a lot of paperwork, it is still less than the ranks above
you often have to handle.
My retirement from law enforcement came sooner than I would
have liked because of a
number of injuries sustained in the line of duty. The primary of
these injuries required having
my spine fused at the L5-S1. This injury alone was enough to
end my law enforcement career. I
miss my time in law enforcement nearly every day. But, I try to
look at it as getting to do a
whole career of doing something that I loved. My father
worked at the same place for 30 years
and hated every day of it. I got to spend a slightly shortened
career doing something I loved.
Since my retirement I have run a private investigations
company that I built from the
ground up. I'm now going to school for a bachelor's degree in
psychology and will move on to a
master's degree afterwards. I am planning to go into counseling

for police officers and military
veterans. Both police and military are fields that are likely to
cause the need for counseling, but
each of those careers are often closed to outsiders. As a veteran
of both the military and law
enforcement I believe that I have the insight to be helpful to
both groups, and share a common
ground with them that may make it easier for them to open up to
me.
I will close out this autobiography with the most important
thing in my life, my family. I
am married to my best friend, Amanda. We knew each other
and were just close friends for the
first five or six years but we became a couple nine years ago
and have been married for eight
years. Neither of us can have children, but we have a large
family of dogs and cats that are our
"kids." All of our animals are rescues, some of which we have
bottle fed from birth when the
animal's mother died during birth. It makes us a happy, close
knit pack of two people, three
dogs, and two cats.

Sample-Essay-2013.pdf
Experiential Learning Essay Template
Review this check list in prior to submitting your experiential
learning essay. If you have completed all of the
items listed below, you are ready to submit your essay. Keep in
mind, your evaluator may still request
additional material, however, the list below will guide in your
essay submission preparations. Not adhering
to these guidelines will cause a delay in processing.
** Review each of the items below and check if you have
completed each of them:
1. I have selected an approved essay topic from the essay course
descriptions page.
http://www.phoenix.edu/admissions/prior_learning_assessment/
experiential-essays/essay-topics.html
2. Some essays have specific experience requirements. I have
checked the essay description and I
meet all of the experience requirements listed.
3. I have written and included a 1,500 to 2,100 word
autobiography; autobiography is only required
with first Experiential Learning Essay, subsequent essays do not
require additional autobiographies.
4. I have written an experiential essay: 3,000 to 4,500 words for

3 credit essay
5. My essay is written in first person (1st) without references.
6. I have written to all four (4) areas of Kolb’s model of
learning.
7. I have addressed all of the required subtopics in each of the
four areas of Kolb’s model of learning.
8. I have included supporting documentation that validates my
personal/professional experience with
the essay course description/topic.
9. My essay is based on personal, life learning experiences, not
based on research, history, or another
individual’s learning experiences.
experiential-essays/kolbs-experiential-learning-model.html
Page | 2
Kolb’s Model
Below is a description of Kolb’s Model. All experiential essays
must be written following Kolb’s Model. Below
you will find the four sections of Kolb’s Model, a brief
description of the section, and a sample of how that

section should be addressed. The samples are pulled from the
sample essay found on the PLA website, and it is
recommended that you review the sample essay for a more
complete example of how to write an experiential
essay in Kolb’s Model. The words on this page do not count
toward the essay length requirement.
1. Description of Concrete Experience
Description: Concrete experience represents your personal
participation with the people, places, activities,
and events of an experience. You should describe your
involvement relative to the experience, demonstrating
the opportunity for learning.
Sample: My career in public relations started off as a staff
assistant in the Public Information Office of a
community college system. After two years of on-the-job
training, I was promoted to the position of
community relations officer.
2. Reflections
Description: Reflections represent your thinking and processing
relative to the experience. You should
demonstrate your learning by describing the knowledge, skills,
and attitudes developed through the reflective
process.
Sample: I have observed that some organizations are very good
at garnering free publicity. They appear at
local events and frequently appear as experts in television and
newspaper interviews.
3. Generalizations/Principles/Theories

Description: Generalizations, principles, and theories are
constructs that organize and guide academic
learning. A typical college course is built around several such
generalizations, principles, and/or theories.
In this stage, you identify and describe the generalizations,
principles, and/or theories to demonstrate your
learning outcomes. These learning outcomes result from
analyzing and reflecting on your experience. The
generalizations, principles, and/or theories should be
comparable to those addressed in typical college courses
and should match the course description selected.
Sample: Whether working with large or small one-owner
organizations, it makes no difference in establishing
rules, guidelines, or policies regarding image and public
relations. Developing a detailed plan of action makes it
much easier to schedule and implement appropriate applicable
strategies.
4. Testing and Application
Description: Testing and/or application represent situations in
which the new learning can be used. You
should describe how you did, or could in the future, test and/or
apply what you learned.
Sample: A fun promotional idea that emerged as a by-product
profit center for the bookstore was t-shirts.
We printed t-shirts with the bookstore logo on the back with
advertisements for the bookstore on the front.

Page | 3
Name: Ima Student
Date: 06/02/11
Individual Record Number: 0123456789
Approved Essay Title: Bereavement and Loss
Enter your name, the date, your IRN, and the approved essay
title of the essay topic you have chosen from the
PLA website. When you are ready to begin writing the essay,
type out the essay subtopics as they appear in the
essay course description, and follow the four steps of Kolb’s
model.
Describe the experiences that taught you about the subtopic,
reflect on that experience, explain the principles
learned, and then explain how those principles were tested and
applied. You are then ready to move on to the
next subtopic. Follow this process until you meet the length
requirement, and have addressed all required
subtopics. *Word count begins at the first subtopic.
Subtopic (1): Identity Crisis That Occurs When One Loses a
Significant Person
Description of Concrete Experience: 1984 began with so much
promise. The summer
Olympics were to be held in my hometown of Los Angeles,
California, Cabbage Patch Kids

were all the rage and I was going to finally be a Bat Mitzvah.
While technically I lived under
my parent’s roof, it was my paternal grandmother who assumed
the role of “mother” to me at
an early age. Sarah, my paternal grandmother, was a very
special person. She was a devout,
traditional Jew in a modern world and she was responsible for
setting the backbone that has
become my life today. While 1984 held much promise, it was
also the year I made a mistake
that I will regret for the rest of my life.
I was twelve (almost thirteen), and according to Jewish law, on
the verge of becoming a woman.
My grandmother wanted to watch the Olympic torch run by her
home and bribed me with a
“Cabbage Patch” doll, if, I could just afford her these few
moments. I was as eager as a puppy
begging for a treat and I had no concept of time. All I knew
was I desired virtually needed that
doll and nothing could come between that. When my
grandmother asked, almost begged for my
patience, I responded in anger and screamed, “I hate you.” It
has been twenty- six years and I

Page | 4
still remember her response: “someday Samantha, I will be dead
and you will regret those
words.” Well, someday happened just months later and I learned
the most valuable lesson of my
life.
It was a sweltering September day, Rosh Hashanah, the most
religious of the Jewish holidays. It
was a time of repentance, a time when G-D opened the book of
life and evaluated who shall live
and who shall die. We had just completed services and went to
lunch at my favorite restaurant.
During lunch, my Grandmother excused herself to the restroom
and as time went on and she
didn’t return, I went to the restroom to find her. I was thirteen
at the time and completely
unprepared for what I found. My grandmother was lying on the
floor of the bathroom,
mummified with thin, gauze-like strands of toilet paper. I asked
her what she was doing and she

told me she was cold, yet beads of sweat ran down her face and
she was obviously in
tremendous pain. My Grandmother left the restaurant, never to
see the light of day again. She
was transported to a hospital, where she deteriorated and
subsequently passed away on
December 26, 1984 at the young age of seventy-three.
The call came early December 26, 1984, a day I had already
come to fear, for my paternal
grandfather and maternal grandfather had both passed away on
that day, in different years prior.
The phone rang with an eerie ring, and I automatically knew
that I would have a third
grandparent to mourn on December 26. When my mother
confirmed the news I feared, I felt as
if the light of my life had been turned off. Life went black for
me and I felt lost, alone and
desperate. My Grandmother was not just my “grandmother” she
was everything: my “mother”,
my protector, my mentor and my best friend. Without her, I felt
an uncertainty about my life,
my future and how I would ever exist without her by my side.
Everything that I knew in my life
was about to change. I felt as if the rug had been pulled out

beneath me, or a movie stopped at
Page | 5
the height of its plot. It seemed cruel to me that G-D didn’t
take me instead of her, as I could not
see myself living without her. Her death was so unexpected, the
thought of not having her dance
at my wedding or hold my child was not even a factor in my
life, especially not at the age of
thirteen. To complicate matters, I was on Christmas break from
school and had no friends I
could turn to. No one my age could relate, so I felt further
alienated in my grief.
Reflections: I watched my parents grieve. My mother derived
strength from the loss, vowing to
step in where my Grandmother left off, an idea I was not
comfortable with at the time. My
father, on the other hand, became paralyzed with grief. His
anger, pain and despondency
became the norm in our household and we became a family in
crisis. We watched him curse

G-D, denounced my coveted Jewish religion, blame everybody
and everything, and then
eventually come to us, broken, and in need of fortification, love
and understanding. It was
more than any thirteen year old should ever go through,
watching my father, my “super hero”
crumble at the time when I needed him the most. Everything
that was my world had changed,
and I felt that I know longer knew who I was.
Generalizations, Principles and Theories: Witnessing my
father’s grief, albeit frightening,
taught me to navigate the uncharted, rocky terrain of grieving. I
understood from his actions,
that there was a certain method of grieving and no matter how
old or young you were, when
you lost someone you love, you would experience the full
spectrum of emotions. I knew that
when people lost a loved one, they often felt hopeless and
helpless, lonely and scared and often
times angry and mad. They lost touch with who they were prior
to the loss and became
consumed with the loss. Many people confuse the loss of a
loved one with loss of their

identity. They remain living, yet a piece of them dies along
with their loved one.
Page | 6
Testing and Application: I loved my Grandmother but I wasn’t
ready to allow myself to die with
her. I was only thirteen years old and had my whole life ahead
of me. I knew that part of me did
leave with her but I also knew that the part of me that did die
with her was replaced with a rebirth
of her and I was determined to find a way to live. I tried my
Father’s grief on for size and I
allowed myself to really grieve, to embrace and really feel each
emotion that I was faced with,
and I found that by doing this, I could prepare for the next stage
of loss, healing.
Subtopic (2): Conditions & Symptoms That Accompany Acute
Grief
Description of Concrete Experience: While I had an
understanding of grief and had hopes of
healing, I knew I had a long way to go. Reverberations of my

exchange with my grandmother
before the Olympic torch passed played in the back of my mind
day in and day out. I was laden
with regret, riddled with shame and guilt and fraught with pain,
loneliness and desperation. I
no longer found solace in the faith that sustained me, spending
time with my friends was more
than I could bear, and I had little desire to do any of the things
that I derived pleasure in prior.
The only comfort I found was when I curled up in a little ball
and rocked myself to music, curled
up from dusk to dawn and sometimes, when allowed, from dawn
until dusk. Days melded into
each other and soon, the months passed without me ever taking
notice.
Reflections: I remember being mesmerized at the audacity of
the sun to rise each day, when I
felt I was dying inside. To me, no matter how beautiful the day
was, darkness cloaked me and
I succumbed to my grief. I felt so alone, estranged from life,
but in retrospect, I wasn’t. My
father was just down the hall, imbued by his own grief,
loneliness and fear and while merely
gypsum and wallpaper separated us, it seemed as if we were a

stratosphere apart, yet we each
were experiencing the exact same symptoms of grief.
Page | 7
Generalizations, Principles and Theories: With only thirteen
years of life experience under my
belt, I lacked the comprehension that what I was experiencing
was normal symptoms of grief,
and just began to embrace it as my new life. I was too young to
know that people who experience
grief often experienced depression, a loss of will to live and
often times retreat into their own
lives, shutting others out.
Testing and Application: There were times where I tried to
break out of my darkness, cautiously
inviting my father out for a burger, but once we actual got out,
it was apparent each of us could
not wait to return home to our grief. I sometimes would wake
up with the desire to take on the
day, but would soon remember the state of my life, and would

retreat to my little ball, rocking
myself to music, allowing the days to float on by. I had
embodied one of those “grieving”
individuals and was not only depressed, but I, too, loss my will
to live and shut others out.
Subtopic (3): Discuss the Patterns & Stages of the Grieving
Process
Description of Concrete Experience: Ironically, I was no
stranger to grief and loss. My
Grandmother’s husband, my Grandfather, passed away two
years, exactly to the day, prior.
While I loved my Grandfather deeply, I was too young to
comprehend the magnitude of losing
him. The loss of my Grandmother as I embraced the beginning
of my teenager years was an
entirely different blow. I experienced all the stages of grief,
from anger, to fear to regret and
complete and total devastation. I was mad at G-D for taking her
away from me and yet I was
desperate for him to save me from the pain. I felt betrayed by
my Grandmother for giving up on
me and yet I missed her so terribly I would have given anything
to just hold her hand one last
time. I took all of her photos down so I wouldn’t have to look

at my pain, and yet secretly I
revered them. I wanted to sleep all the time, yet my dreams
always took me back to her, so I
Page | 8
tried to stay up to not go there again and again. I replayed
every conversation I could remember
and questioned whether or not I said I loved her enough. Did
she know what she meant to me?
Did she know that I would live with regret for the rest of my
life for telling her I hated her? My
life became a dichotomy and I was torn by my grief.
Reflections: I remembered that my Grandmother had actually
experienced many of the same
emotions that I was feeling when she lost my Grandfather, her
love of over 50 years. She was
mad, betrayed, lonely and confused, as she lost her other half
and I remember witnessing her
grief and asking her if she would “die of a broken heart?” Now I
was asking myself if I, too,

would die of a broken heart or if there was a way that I could
still reclaim my life. The problem
with reclaiming my life was the guilt that I experienced if I
allowed myself to be happy again. I
felt that if I were ever to embrace happiness again I would
somehow betray my Grandmother. I
had decided that my grief kept her memory alive and if I were
to let that go, I would ultimately
be letting her go. The truth was on the contrary; holding on to
my grief would not allow me to
remember all the wonderful things we shared together.
Generalizations, Principles and Theories: I was experiencing the
same grief other people went
through. I felt the shock, the anger, the loneliness and despair
that I somehow thought was
reserved for other people. Where I struggled was with reflecting
not only on my Grandmother’s
life, but on her death, and ultimately choosing acceptance.
Testing and Application: My Grandmother slowly emerged from
her grief. She began to test the
waters by doing what she loved best, cooking. Then she moved
on to venturing out of the house
with her grandchildren and finally, while I never thought she
returned to her old self, she

assumed a new life without my Grandfather. My Grandmother’s
final lesson to me came not
within her lifetime, but with her death. I began to emulate the
stages and steps she took in
Page | 9
dealing with her grief, and I gave myself permission to take the
necessary steps to reclaim my
life. I was ready to accept life without her.
Subtopic (4): Examine Coping with Grief, Alternatives and
Choosing Change
Description of Concrete Experience: Armed with the permission
I gave myself to reclaim my
life, I began to pick up the pieces and cope with my grief. I
struggled with the guilt that I felt in
moving on, but began to take my life minute-by-minute, hour-
by-hour. Coping with grief I
found, was different than any other feeling or experience I had
encountered. Coping with grief
was not something that happened to you, but something you

participate in, a lesson I learned
slowly.
Reflections: While I never felt there was an alternative to
experiencing the grief in the way that
I did, I was very happy to begin to see the sun shine again and I
began to choose change. I
relieved myself of the responsibility of carrying on the grief
eternally and embraced the idea
that I could continue to honor my Grandmother’s memory while
living. I began to think about
how my Grandmother would want me to live, how I could
actively best serve her life and how I
could continue to make her proud. Everything she instilled in
me still lived within me and I
was not about to let all her hard work go to waste. While it
appeared that I wasted a year of my
life grieving, I learned a tremendous amount and felt I was
much wiser than my now fourteen
years of life. It was an immeasurably painful time for me, yet
one that implored me to grow
more than I have ever done since.
Generalizations, Principles and Theories: One of the lessons I
learned from my grief is that

people cope with grief in a variety of ways. My Mother was
devastated by the loss of my
Grandmother, yet she found strength in the loss and transformed
herself into the mother and
Page | 10
woman she always set out to be. My Father on the other hand
was incapacitated and it took years
for him to cope with his grief.
Testing and Application: I, however, found myself in between
the two of them. I was first
devastated by the loss, but then empowered at the idea of
carrying on my Grandmother’s
memory. I began to set small goals for myself; going to the
grocery store with my Mother or
watching a movie with my younger brother. Coping with grief
to me was simply stepping out of
my room for any amount of time, and once I began to be
comfortable doing this, I would move
the bar a bit higher and challenge myself to leave the house.
There were many days I failed, but

I persevered. One triumph begot another and I was soon on my
way to reclaiming my life. While
coping with my grief seemed slow at times, it was the perfect
speed for me. When I emerged
from my grief, I found I was a better person in so many ways.
Subtopic (5): Contrast “Normal Grieving” with “Chronic Grief”
Description of Concrete Experience: Even at the young age of
fourteen, I knew that what my
father was experiencing went beyond normal grief. He could
not find closure and could not
reclaim his life. I exhausted myself trying to pry him from his
grief; I engaged him endlessly and
tried to reach him on a variety of levels, always to no avail. My
efforts to pluck him from his
grief failed, but my understanding of grief deepened.
Reflections: As I look back upon the years immediately
following the death of my
Grandmother, I realize that I experienced normal, healthy grief.
While there were periods of
complete devastation, I was able to move through them and
eventually move on with my life.
My father, on the other hand, experienced chronic grief. He
continued to covet the grief he was

experiencing and never allowed himself to move on. I would
see him out in public, perhaps at a
Page | 11
dinner party, just going through the motions, no one noticing
the grief, yet I knew all too well
what he was thinking. He couldn’t wait to get home to his
grief.
Generalizations, Principles and Theories: Grief is as individual
as the individual who is
experiencing it. There are no “rules” to grieving, just emotions
that need to be dealt with.
Normal grieving, which I discovered later, does have a pattern.
The pattern starts with anger,
and then moves to self-reflection, loneliness, pain, tears and
desperation. However, while it is
normal for all of these emotions to be experienced during the
grieving process, part of normal
grieving is also finding the strength to move on. Chronic
grieving is not allowing one’s self to

move past the grieving process and embrace the change that
ultimately allows individuals to
reclaim their life.
Testing and Application: I learned there was a time and a place
for people to come out of their
grief and no matter how an individual is coaxed they must come
out when they are ready to. I let
go of my Father’s grief around the same time I let go of mine.
It was cathartic on one hand
because I felt that in letting his grief go, I was truly starting
over, yet on the other hand, I
struggled with the idea of leaving him behind. Ultimately I
knew that I could only save myself
and the time had come to move on.
Subtopic (6): Discuss Growth Towards Normalcy and
Improvement
Description of Concrete Experience: As I was emerging from
my grief, I asked my Mother how
life would ever be normal again. I absolutely could not envision
life ever having any semblance
again. My Mother, with her newfound strength and wisdom,
turned to me and told me that life
would now take on a “new normal” and it was up to me to
embrace it. I thought about what a

new normal meant to me, and while I loved my old normal, I
knew it was time to move on and
Page | 12
welcome the change. The first thing I did was re-frame my
Grandmother’s photo and place it
prominently on my desk. She was the first person I saw when I
rose and the last I saw before I
lied down. Her smiling face gave me strength and it was for her
that I began to thrive in my new
life. My mother also empowered me with some very special,
classified information. She told me
that my Grandmother lived in my pocket and she was with me
where ever I went. She told me
that if I needed her, all I had to do was reach in my pocket and
my Grandmother would be there.
Reflections: I still think about my Grandmother everyday and
carry her in my pocket. Her
memory never has faded and I always go back to her when I am
in need. All these years later, I

still remember a poem that was read at Rosh Hashanah services
the very last day my
Grandmother attended Temple. The poem began: birth is a
beginning and death a destination
and life is a journey.
Generalizations, Principles and Theories: Before my
Grandmother passed away, my life was
about the destination. I looked from point “A” to point “B” and
so on. I viewed each stage of
my life as just that, a stage and never paid attention to the
“journey” that got me there. I think
many people also live their life moving from stage to stage,
with the destination on the
forefront of their mind, but not the journey that takes them
there. Its unfortunate that it takes a
life altering event like losing a loved one to implore us to
embrace new normal’s, but if there is
ever a silver lining in losing someone you love, it is the journey
it takes to overcome grief and
carry out the memory of the loved one who is no longer with us.
Testing and Application: Overcoming my grief gave me the
power to become everything my
Grandmother wanted me to be. At fifteen years old I was
confirmed, a not so traditional Jewish

ceremony which solidifies an individuals belief in the religion.
I approached that ceremony with
a conviction I never knew I possessed. Pursuing my
confirmation was more than just
Page | 13
solidifying my belief in the religion, for me it was
reacquainting myself with G-D. I knew my
Grandmother was smiling down upon me as I read my Torah
portion and it was at that moment
that I was not only proud of how far I had come but knew there
was no hurdle that I could not
overcome.
It is twenty-six years later and I still awake each day to the
photo of my Grandmother. I still
carry her in my pocket and go to her almost daily. I have
experienced subsequent losses after my
Grandmother and have taken the experience I had in losing her
to help me get through the pain
of other losses. I have learned to allow myself to feel pain, to

experience each and every
emotion and then give myself permission to move forward. The
short thirteen years that I was
blessed to have my Grandmother pale in comparison to the
lifelong lessons that my
Grandmother taught me in her death. While birth is the
beginning and death is the destination, it
is how we live the journey that makes the difference. My
Grandmother’s death taught me to live
my life and embrace the journey. It is this lesson that allowed
me to forgive myself for telling
her that I hated her and has freed me to become the woman that
I know she would have been
proud of.
Three-Credit-Essay-Template[1].doc

learning essay. If you have completed all of the items listed
below, you are ready to submit your essay. Keep in mind, your
evaluator may still request additional material, however, the list
below will guide in your essay submission preparations. Not
adhering to these guidelines will cause a delay in processing.
descriptions page.
checked the essay description and I meet all of the experience
requirements listed.
autobiography; autobiography is only required with first
Experiential Learning Essay, subsequent essays do not require
additional autobiographies.
3 credit essay
learning.
personal/professional experience with the essay course
description/topic.
based on research, history, or another individual’s learning
experiences.
Kolb’s Model

sample essay found on the PLA website, and it is recommended
that you review the sample essay for a more complete example
of how to write an experiential essay in Kolb’s Model. The
words on this page do not count toward the essay length
requirement.
participation with the people, places, activities, and events of an
experience. You should describe your involvement relative to
the experience, demonstrating the opportunity for learning.
assistant in the Public Information Office of a community
college system. After two years of on-the-job training, I was
promoted to the position of community relations officer.
2. Reflections
relative to the experience. You should demonstrate your
learning by describing the knowledge, skills, and attitudes
developed through the reflective process.
at garnering free publicity. They appear at local events and
frequently appear as experts in television and newspaper
interviews.
constructs that organize and guide academic learning. A typical
college course is built around several such generalizations,
principles, and/or theories.
principles, and/or theories to demonstrate your learning
outcomes. These learning outcomes result from analyzing and

reflecting on your experience. The generalizations, principles,
and/or theories should be comparable to those addressed in
typical college courses and should match the course description
selected.
organizations, it makes no difference in establishing rules,
guidelines, or policies regarding image and public relations.
Developing a detailed plan of action makes it much easier to
schedule and implement appropriate applicable strategies.
which the new learning can be used. You should describe how
you did, or could in the future, test and/or apply what you
learned.
Name:
Date:
Individual Record Number:
Approved Essay Title:
type out the essay subtopics as they appear in the essay course
description, and follow the four steps of Kolb’s model.
reflect on that experience, explain the principles learned, and
then explain how those principles were tested and applied. You
are then ready to move on to the next subtopic. Follow this
process until you meet the length requirement, and have

addressed all required subtopics. *Word count begins at the first
subtopic.
Subtopic (1):
Description of Concrete Experience:
Reflections:
Generalizations, Principles and Theories:
Testing and Application:
Subtopic (2):
Reflections:
Subtopic (3):
Reflections:
Subtopic (4):
Reflections:
Subtopic (5):
Reflections:
Subtopic (6):
Reflections:
Page | 2

learning essay. If you have completed all of the items listed
below, you are ready to submit your essay. Keep in mind, your
evaluator may still request additional material, however, the list
below will guide in your essay submission preparations. Not
adhering to these guidelines will cause a delay in processing.
descriptions page.
checked the essay description and I meet all of the experience
requirements listed.
autobiography; autobiography is only required with first
Experiential Learning Essay, subsequent essays do not require
additional autobiographies.
3 credit essay
learning.
personal/professional experience with the essay course

description/topic.
based on research, history, or another individual’s learning
experiences.
Kolb’s Model
sample essay found on the PLA website, and it is recommended
that you review the sample essay for a more complete example
of how to write an experiential essay in Kolb’s Model. The
words on this page do not count toward the essay length
requirement.
participation with the people, places, activities, and events of an
experience. You should describe your involvement relative to
the experience, demonstrating the opportunity for learning.
assistant in the Public Information Office of a community
college system. After two years of on-the-job training, I was
promoted to the position of community relations officer.
2. Reflections
relative to the experience. You should demonstrate your
learning by describing the knowledge, skills, and attitudes
developed through the reflective process.
at garnering free publicity. They appear at local events and
frequently appear as experts in television and newspaper
interviews.

constructs that organize and guide academic learning. A typical
college course is built around several such generalizations,
principles, and/or theories.
principles, and/or theories to demonstrate your learning
outcomes. These learning outcomes result from analyzing and
reflecting on your experience. The generalizations, principles,
and/or theories should be comparable to those addressed in
typical college courses and should match the course description
selected.
organizations, it makes no difference in establishing rules,
guidelines, or policies regarding image and public relations.
Developing a detailed plan of action makes it much easier to
schedule and implement appropriate applicable strategies.
which the new learning can be used. You should describe how
you did, or could in the future, test and/or apply what you
learned.
Name:
Date:
Individual Record Number:
Approved Essay Title:

type out the essay subtopics as they appear in the essay course
description, and follow the four steps of Kolb’s model.
reflect on that experience, explain the principles learned, and
then explain how those principles were tested and applied. You
are then ready to move on to the next subtopic. Follow this
process until you meet the length requirement, and have
addressed all required subtopics. *Word count begins at the first
subtopic.
Subtopic (1):
Reflections:
Subtopic (2):
Reflections:
Subtopic (3):
Reflections:
Subtopic (4):
Reflections:

Subtopic (5):
Reflections:
Subtopic (6):
Reflections:
Page | 4

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