Learning outcome 12.1:
The student examines her own sport identity and develops self-management skills, resilience, drive, eagerness to learn, the ability to work intercultural and a standard about who she wants to be as a sports professional.

It is August 2020 when I was able to meet my new classmates for the first time. Since we are still living in the times of COVID-19, was it ,unfortunately, in an online environment. That made it all a lot more exciting. Fortunately, everyone felt the same way and that made the first meeting a lot easier. What immediately became clear after the first day is that there are many different cultures in the class, but that many of us share the same great passion, and that is of course sports. It was also new for me to work with people from a different cultures and working online. After a week of online lectures, we soon received the first group assignments. I really noticed the difference in being diligent between the different cultures. As a Dutch person, I am not diligent to take on things or to share my opinion with a class very quickly, but I do know what I want and I do not easily deviate from it.

One of the first assignments where I had to work with different classmates was for coaching buddies. The groups that were made consisted of a total of 3 students. The purpose of these groups was to help each other through the first periods, inside and outside of school. The differences between the Dutch culture and the culture of the other student from the Philippines became clearly visible. He left the lead to me and to the other Dutch student, but he took a lot of things into his mind and was always able to come up with good commentary what was useful. He taught me that you shouldn't approach someone as you approach yourself, but give them time to express themselves. This is also one of the things that comes back in the PowerPoint about my cultural background, and what Dutch people do often at the workplace.

Another project in which I have worked a lot together with a student from a different culture is Sport & Technical Framework. We had to give an online live lesson twice and we had to make a video about the research we had done. It soon became apparent that I could use a lot of my knowledge about giving practices for this assignment, something my group member had less. Because of this, I took the lead in designing the first lesson and we divided the rest of the tasks fairly. Because we had known each other for a while, we knew how to work well together and where our strengths and weaknesses lay.

When I look back at these new experiences for me, I can say that I quickly felt good in the class and that this contributed to the collaboration between me and different classmates. In order to look back on how I behaved and how I can work better with the cultural differences, I asked a number of questions to some classmates. All outcomes of this can be found under burden of proof. One of the answers given is "As an international colleague Kaelin performed to a high standard, constantly keeping in close communication regarding work to be completed and giving advice when needed." Something that really made me smile. To gain international experience and to hear such positive words made me realize that I was already further along in my personal process than I had anticipated.

Something I would like to convey as a future sports professional is that I can act ethically. This is because I want to be an example for children and I want to pass on my way of life to the younger generation. Currently this is still for young children, but in the future I would like to work with adults as well. Examples that I can easily convey are no smoking, healthy eating, exercise a lot, no drinking and especially a healthy life. In sport, one of the points I advocate for is fair play, because without fair play the whole idea of ​​sport is lost in my opinion.

To prove that I act ethically as a player but also as a trainer / coach I asked my assistant coach at HC Eelde and the head coach of HC de Hondsrug to write a little story about me as a trainer / player. You will find the results of this under burden of proof, but I can conclude from those stories that I do not only want to appear ethical and responsible. But that I really do, and that others also see me that way. One of the statements they wrote was, “Ethically, Kaelin has been teaching her pupils to communicate honestly and fair, to work as a team, to trust one another and to be determined in what they do. To achieve goals. ” As a person I am very proud of what I have already achieved at this point, and try to continue on this basis in my path in becoming a sports professional.

Go to burden of proof – PLO 12.1 to find the different documents.

Burden of proof – PLO 12.1