Bailee Schuster

Learning Assessment Paper

SPCH 459
Due: April 14, 16
Over the course of my last semester at the University of
Nebraska at Kearney, Ive had the opportunity to work with an
organization in the Kearney community on an academic servicelearning project. The organization Ive been working with is Awarii
Dunes Golf Club, located roughly seven miles outside of Kearney.
Throughout my experience Ive worked with two different individuals at
the golf club, Jeff Perdew a PGA golf professional and Stephanie Rogers
the clubs food and beverage manager. They have both given me great
insight into their industry and Ive learned a great amount from them.
My project was focused on creating a document that they could use in
a variety of ways that detailed what they had to offer in regards to
hosting different events at the country club. When Jeff and I first
decided on this project for me, he was very open to my ideas and
willing to let me run with the project and truly make it my own. We
decided on a six to twelve page document that would outline the four
main types of events that they host at the golf course, including photos
and the option to be presented digitally or in print.
I began the process of creating this document by first looking at
what I looked to gain from my experience, as well as outlining exactly
what I could offer to Jeff and the staff at Awarii. I created five personal
learning objectives that guided me through my experience. The first

Bailee Schuster
Learning Assessment Paper
SPCH 459
Due: April 14, 16
learning objective that I feel as though I tackled was the importance of
networking and creating relationships with business people throughout
the community. Jeff and I hit it off right away and created a great
working relationship with one another. His honesty and guidance
helped me to be confident in what I was doing and creating for Awarii.
He also shared his background story with me and offered to reach out
to some of his own contacts in order to further my career in the event
planning industry. Throughout this process I also began to take notice
of my natural network that was right in front of me. I started to find
that I had many resources and great people, who know great people,
right in front of me. I started to pay more attention to who I already
knew and reached out to them for ideas and inspiration while creating
my document. One of the people I contacted was my cousin Kinsey in
Lincoln. She is the director of events at HiMark Golf Course in Lincoln
and helped me by asking me questions that narrowed the focus of my
document. She is someone I had never thought to look to for anything
out of family related events, and now she is also part of my
professional network.
The next learning objective that I looked to focus on was learning
how an organization that I knew little about worked. Ive worked all
through college, so Ive had the opportunity to look at different
organizations before, but never from such an analytical point of view.

Bailee Schuster
Learning Assessment Paper
SPCH 459
Due: April 14, 16
Also, volunteering my time has given me the chance to sit back and
observe the way that the golf course runs throughout the week and
who is responsible for what events. Awarii functions as a system with
permeable boundaries meaning that they allow information to flow in
and out of their organization. While some organization systems
function with more closed boundaries, Awarii functions with a very
open concept of permeability. Not only are they permeable as a whole
organization, but each individual is quite permeable with one another,
causing the communication to be very open and flow clearly from one
person to another. One concept that became clear to me early on is
that Jeff was very much focused on deviation-amplifying feedback
meaning that he was focused on growth and development for the
organization. One of the first things Jeff and I discussed was the new
staff that he had hired within the last year and the idea that there were
many changes that had taken place and would continue to take place
over the course of the years to come. Change and growth are a big
factor in the organizational structure of Awarii Dunes.
One learning objective that Ive been focused on throughout the
whole process, as well as in my everyday life is implementing my
communication skills that Ive learned over the course of my college
career. From my initial conversation with Jeff, I knew that his
communication style was a mix between emotive and supportive.

Bailee Schuster
Learning Assessment Paper
SPCH 459
Due: April 14, 16
While his dominance at the course is high due to his managerial
position, he also is very laid back and level headed with dealing with all
of the employees at the course, however his sociability is also high.
With this combination he sits informally, is a good listener, and is
expressive of his emotions through his body language and facial
expressions. I think one of the reasons we initially got along so well
was because our communication styles were similar so we dont have
to deal with communication style bias. Communication style bias
happens when people have different communication styles and come
in contact with one another, lucky for me, this didnt apply to Jeff and I.
The final two learning objectives that I addressed during my ASL
project were growing my professional skills by completing hands on
tasks, as well as exploring a possible career path for myself. By
creating the event document that I created I really had to flex my
professional skills and take the task head on. I started by creating a
rough draft that allowed me to edit and add to my document easily. I
then would talk with Jeff and communicate about whether I was
meeting certain criteria for him and the course. Not only did I get to
work on my professional skills in person, but I also had multiple emails
that I exchanged with Jeff and with Stephanie that had a level of
professionalism included in them. After Jeff and I had met a few
different times, he then started to really explore what I wanted out of a

Bailee Schuster
Learning Assessment Paper
SPCH 459
Due: April 14, 16
career and we had some really detailed, open conversations about
what the event-planning field entailed. Since Jeff has worked in the golf
industry, which has included many different event planning related
tasks, he had a lot of valuable information to share with me in regards
to what I exactly wanted out of a career.
Completing this project, I experienced many different feelings
and emotions. Jeff gave me a great deal of freedom while working on
my project and that allowed me to make a lot of the decisions on my
own. While we collaborated on the ideas, the final product was
ultimately up to me. In completing my project, I felt very proud for
creating such a document that can be put to good use in an
organization. I spent countless hours making sure I created a detailed
document that would be beneficial to the client and to the staff at
Awarii. Decision making is a big part of planning an event, such as the
events outlined in the event packet that I created, and this document
encompasses all questions that clients may have. With an organization
such as Awarii, there is a level of collaboration that goes into their
event planning. Since they dont have a full kitchen, they find
themselves collaborating with other organizations in order to provide
the meals that the clients request. While the book discuses
collaborations on a multinational level, the collaboration idea is still
relevant to Awarii, just on a smaller scale. One of the features that I

Bailee Schuster
Learning Assessment Paper
SPCH 459
Due: April 14, 16
included in the event document was some brief information on tent
rental from a few companies that Awarii had worked with already. The
collaboration between these two companies benefits both
organizations. Awarii is able to host larger events, and the tent
companies have a new area of business by utilizing their relationship
with Awarii.
In looking back over my ASL experience, I would say that Ive
implemented my strengths to better them as an organization, as well
as grown individually as a young professional. After completing my
project I can see that I still have areas to improve on as well. To begin, I
will address my strengths that I shared with Jeff and his team at Awarii.
I would say my communication style and outgoing personality allowed
for me to create a solid relationship with Jeff from the start. I would
also say that I was persistent about staying in contact and on the same
page as Jeff throughout the process. I know that by the end of the
process he was very excited to receive my final copy and impressed by
the detailed work I had put into the event contract. I would say that
something I could work on would be my organizational skills, though I
thought of myself as being pretty organized, I soon realized that when
dealing with a business there is a whole new level of organization that
accompanies that. Another area for me to grow in would be my
knowledge of the golf world and terms related to golf. That was one

Bailee Schuster
Learning Assessment Paper
SPCH 459
Due: April 14, 16
thing I was very upfront and honest with Jeff about from the beginning.
I know that if I were to work at a golf club such as Awarii, I would have
to have more cultural knowledge on the sport of golf.
Emotion is a large part of the workplace for many organizations,
including Awarii Dunes. Our book defines emotion at work by looking
closer at the relationships that are created at work rather than the
actual tasks being completed. Relationships in the workplace are where
the majority of emotions come from within an organization. Co-workers
or bosses can evoke a wide range of emotions for people in the work
force. Such emotions may include, joy or irritation, we may like them or
dislike them, or we may view someone as exciting or maddening. From
my experience at Awarii, the emotion is positive between the coworkers and there is a great sense of community present in the
organization.
The flow of communication through Awarii has definitely
improved over the last few years with the implementation of a new
staff and management. Burnout can be caused through communication
in areas of work load, role conflict, and role ambiguity. Emotional
communication within the workplace can also cause burnout due to the
level of stress that is placed on individuals. One area that is crucial is
the way in which subordinate-supervisors communicate especially
when an individual is learning about the job and organization that they

Bailee Schuster
Learning Assessment Paper
SPCH 459
Due: April 14, 16
are involved in. This is outlined in Graens model of role development
that explains how communication is crucial in the stage of learning
about an organization for an individual. If there is confusion during this
stage of socialization then role conflict and role ambiguity can occur
causing a quicker effect of burnout in the workplace. In my experience
at Awarii, I feel as though this stage was taken very seriously and Jeff
and I had great communication in order to keep our expectations of
one another on the same page. Overall, my experience with Awarii
Dunes golf club was a positive one in which I grew personally and
professionally. I also feel as though I created a document that the
organization can use for years to come, and that I met all of Jeffs
criteria for such a document.

Bailee Schuster
Learning Assessment Paper
SPCH 459
Due: April 14, 16

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