Honors Reflection #1 What?
For my project, I am creating a seminar titled “Seminar – Thriving in Life: Mastering Communication, Wellness, and Balance.” The purpose of this seminar is to empower college students with communication, health, and work-life balance skills and ideas to be successful in college and life beyond college so they can enjoy life to the fullest. The seminar will include three separate sessions with unique themes, including communication skills, healthy lifestyle, and work-life balance. Throughout my academic career and my experience at my home church, I have created many presentations and articles on a variety of topics. This project will allow me to coordinate and assist leaders of the community to speak for a population that can gain a lot from hearing their advice. I am excited to strengthen my skills in tailoring information for a specific audience.
Some of my personal core values for this project are leadership and service. I see this as an opportunity to create an environment where experienced professionals can pour back into the community and empower these college students to be strong leaders for our future. I believe creating strong leadership starts with creating a firm foundation, especially in the areas of communication, health, and life balance. My future career is in medicine, so I will be helping people to live healthy and full lives; this project is allowing me to help college students gain skills early in life to pursue that healthy lifestyle. In this capstone, I expect to strengthen the skills I have being developing and practicing throughout college and the skills I will be using in medical school. I also expect to be able to help provide useful information to college students through this seminar. One challenge I may face with this project is finding speakers for the seminar. However, I am working to overcome this challenge by reaching out early so that I can work the seminar dates around their schedules. I am very excited for this capstone project and the impact I believe it can have on improving the lifestyle of college students.
Honors Reflection #3 Now What?
This project has allowed me to apply my previous experience in creating presentations and articles, particularly in tailoring content for specific audiences. It has continued to modify my perspective on life by emphasizing the importance of holistic well-being, integrating communication, wellness, and work-life balance, even throughout college. The seminar aligns with current conversations around mental health and student success. The goal of this seminar is to provide some practical solutions to these challenges. It’s preparing me for my medical career by enhancing my skills in public speaking, event organization, and collaboration. Coordinating my project is going slower than anticipated just due to the volume of classwork I have; however, my capstone advisor has been amazing! I have learned a lot from him through this process. He is always available to brainstorm ideas with me on ways I can modify the seminar. He reminds me often that on projects like this, the most important thing is stay adaptable because we are working around various professionals’ schedules so changes and plan alterations are bound to happen. I’m excited to continue working on this project!
Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/kellijett-murphrey-13b65735b
Honors Syllabus Check-In: Fall 2025
Write a brief summary of how you would describe Texas A&M University to a stranger without using the words: Respect, Excellence, Leadership, Loyalty, Integrity or Service.
Texas A&M is a large university, home to tens of thousands of students. Yet, the moment someone steps on campus, there’s an unmistakable sense of community. Strangers hold doors open for strangers heading to the same class. Friends call out joyful “Howdy”s across the quad. On the first class of the day, it’s common for person next to you to introduce themselves and invite you and others to join a study group so that the whole group can succeed in the class together. The Texas A&M campus is full of kind, driven individuals who support each other in becoming their best.
LinkedIn Module – Critical Thinking (Fall 2025)
What did you learn from this module? What lessons are applicable to your future goals? What are some of the things you agreed with? What are some of the things you disagreed with?
I really enjoyed going through this LinkedIn Critical Thinking Module. It emphasized that critical thinking requires looking beyond the immediate symptoms of a problem and identifying the deeper root causes driving it. One of the most valuable lessons from this module is the importance of solving the underlying issue, rather than a repeatedly responding to surface-level outcomes. Solve a problem, not a symptom. I appreciated the module’s emphasis on structured questioning, perspective-taking, and slowing down our thinking to avoid jumping to conclusions. I agreed with the thought that good decisions come from understanding context and challenging assumptions before acting. However, I don’t fully agree with the idea that all problems can be neatly categorized or solved through linear steps. In reality, human-centered challenges, especially in healthcare and community work, often require flexibility and nuance. Overall, the module reinforced the mindset of approaching issues thoughtfully, intentionally, and with long-term solutions in mind.
