1. 1 Undergraduate Studies ePortfolio Rebecca Dell’Era BA in Psychology minor in Criminal Justice, 2011

2. Personal Statement My name is Rebecca Dell’Era and I’m a 33 year old single parent of two children ages 18 and 8 (my oldest is in college too). I was raised on Long Island, NY but I currently reside in Orlando, FL. I would like to eventually move back there because there is so much culture, activities and rich history there. I love to travel and explore new places (I especially love historical places or “haunted” places:)) when I am not busy working or taking care of my son who has Autism or more specifically PDD. My short term career goal would be to obtain a position within a children’s home, a juvenile detention center as a social worker or work as a victim’s advocate for a local police department to become somewhat exposed to the field of Forensic Psychology. My long term career goal is to obtain a position with the FBI as a Forensic Psychologist and work with victims of violent crimes.

3. Resume Rebecca Dell'Era 9993 Shadow Creek Dr., Orlando, FL 32832 (T) 407-694-2550 fachiebella@aol.com Objective To obtain an opportunity to join a rapid growth organization that has a need for a person with interpersonal and organizational skills. To provide exceptional leadership and professionalism to your company as an individual, multi-tasker, and team player.

4. Resume Employment History 2010 - Present Orlando Kia, Orlando, FL Executive Assistant to the Finance Director Review financial contracts and other legally binding documents for inaccuracies Process and package contracts for various financial institutions Resolve any errors with the financial institutions to fund the contracts in a timely manner Assist the Finance Director with various tasks as requested 2007 - 2009 Universal Nissan, Orlando, FL Executive Assistant to the Finance Director

5. Resume Review financial contracts and other legally binding documents for inaccuracies Process and package contracts for various financial institutions Resolve any errors with the financial institutions to fund the contracts in a timely manner Acquire vehicle payoff information from various financial institutions Assist the Finance Director with various tasks as requested 2006 - 2007 Amscot Financial, Orlando, FL Branch Manager Responsible for the safe trust of large sums of money Accountable for complying with all state and federal laws Balance vaults, cash drawers and ATM Resolve any variances in vaults or drawers

6. Resume Conduct weekly and monthly branch audits Collect on checks that come back as insufficient funds or stop payment Bank verification of proper funds in companies' accounts and personal accounts Process cash advances Handle customer concerns and/or complaints Manage labor costs Schedule associates Train all associates Provide reviews and coaching to associates Responsible for the branch openings and closings 2005 - 2006 Carmax Auto Super Stores, Orlando, FL Business Office Associate

7. Resume Payoff Administrator Accounts payable Execute Power of Attorneys and titles Cash disbursement to customers and associates Balance out cash drawers and vault Register vehicles and issue tags via CVR Train new associates Office openings and closings Reviewing and explaining financial contracts to customers Notarize legal documents 2003 - 2005 Allied Tires and Services, Orlando, FL

8. Resume Service Manager Manage store and associates Train new associates Accounts payable and receivable Responsible for nightly bank deposits Make every store assigned to profitable Customer relations Responsible for the stores opening and closing Responsible for creating store specials on products and services Coach associates when needed 1997 - 2003 South Island Check Cashing Corp., Wyandanch, NY Manager

9. Resume Balance out cash drawers, vault, bill payments, money orders and Western Unions services Collection on checks that came back as insufficient funds Bank verification of proper funds in companies' accounts Conduct store audit Hire and/or fire new associates Schedule associates and train new associates Light bookkeeping Responsible for the safe trust of large sums of money Registered with New York State Banking Department Responsible for the stores opening and closing Education 2010 Argosy University, Sarasota, FL

10. Resume Major-Psychology Psychology GPA: 3.81 I will receive a BA in Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice in April of 2011 Specialized Training Exceptional Phone Skills and Sales Certificate Consumer Fundamentals course Bank Management course Introduction to Accounting certificate

11. Reflection Reflecting back on my academic tenure at Argosy I can honestly say that I have learned a great deal. To start with, I have learned that I had not really mastered time management until I was in my senior year. I was allowing myself to be overwhelmed with the work load instead of allotting myself the proper time and taking little mental breaks in between because I felt the need to get it all done in one day to obtain that 4.0. I also learned to not over think things such as assignments and life in general because that will bog you down. I learned not to discount some courses on topics that I thought I knew enough about because I took away so much more educationally speaking than I really thought I would. I have met some great people that are extraordinarily bright and articulate and maintained friendships through Argosy even though I had doubts that friendships could be formed and maintained because of the time constraint that we have with the online courses. I am grateful to some of professors and advisor because without them I believe I would have not had the mental energy to get through some of my courses without their encouragement and advice because the end of my junior year was very difficult on a personal level. I learned that one of my strengths is that I have learned to recognize my weaknesses and that I attempt to correct them when possible. One weakness was to be over analytical and critical of my family. Now I try to look at the situation and the person for who they are and I do not attempt to guide them in a direction that I would like them to be in. I listen more carefully to them and their desires and fears and I validate them rather than denying them. A major weakness I had was that I allowed certain people in my life to intimidate me and control my actions to a degree because I was afraid of letting them down, now I do not allow those destructive relationships to continue because no one should have that power over you. I have to worry about making myself happy first and foremost.

12. Table of Contents Cognitive Abilities: Critical Thinking and Information Literacy Research Skills Communication Skills: Oral and Written Ethics and Diversity Awareness Foundations of Psychology Applied Psychology Interpersonal Effectiveness **work samples are located in MyBox**

13. Critical Thinking The use of concept maps can help organize a project because concept maps are “a common learning strategy to enhance the acquisition of concepts; which visually represent how the components of a concept are connected and hierarchically organized” (Argosy University, 2009). So it sounds like Maria is employing this method and she is using prototype matching with visual imagery to help her students represent knowledge and use critical thinking as a strategy in learning. Maria is also using the classic view of categorization or one can say she was using the exemplar approach where “people compare a target stimulus with known examples or exemplars of a concept category” (Argosy University, 2009) . As I stated before, concept maps can help organize a project. This is a great tool because the student can organize the information in such a way that makes remembering the information easier. The students can also get creative and put pictures and drawings with the map. This would be killing two birds with one stone so to speak because the student is utilizing another facet of learning and storing information which is the visuo-spatial sketch pad. “The visuo-spatial sketch pad is a system specialized for visual and spatial information, holding or maintaining that kind of information in a short-duration buffer” (Ashcraft & Radvansky, 2006, p. 167). If someone has to retain the visual image for further processing then the visuo-spatial sketch pad is working (Ashcraft & Radvansky, 2006, p. 167). “Prototype matching is a process by which individuals compare an item against typical items within a category to decide whether or not the item belongs to the category” (Argosy University, 2009). An example in this scenario of Maria giving her students an assignment dealing with information of endangered species; the student in theory would categorize the species by class, genius, origin, etc. Is the animal warm blooded or cold blooded, do they have feather? Do they breathe or do they have lungs? Do they live on land or in water? They can use the concept map to chart this information. “Visual imagery involves the mental picturing of a stimulus that affects later recall or recognition” (Ashcraft & Radvansky, 2006, p. 204). Visualizing an image to represent the meaning of a fact is using imagery as a strategy to enhance memory” (Argosy University, 2009). Maria teaching the students though the use of the graphic organizer which is the concept map. This will help the students with recalling the information from their long term memory by putting a picture with a name.

14. Critical Thinking “The classic view of categorization takes the position that people create and use categories based on a system of rules. That is, if something satisfies a set of rules, then it is a member of a category, whereas if it does not than it isn’t (Ashcraft & Radvansky, 2006, p. 266). An example is if a creature has feathers than it is a bird or if the animal has gills it can be categorized as a fish. Maria is ensuring that the students are grasping the learning concepts and gaining and retaining knowledge by reviewing the concepts of the maps by reviewing it in the text book, having them use it for the previous project and reviewing the concept in over the course of several lessons. Maria had them go to the library and showed them how to access pertinent information for their project and she has showed them the important organizational skills that they need to pull their assignment together in a fashion that is easy to remember because of the organization. Essentially she rehearsed the methods with the students so they would have an easier time recalling the information from their long term memory. References Argosy University. (2009, October). Thinking. Retrieved October 10, 2009, from Module 5: http://myeclassonline.com Ashcraft, M. H., & Radvansky, G. A. (2006). Cognition- Fifth Edition.UpperSaddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

15. My Future in Learning Learning is a life long process, as a doctor especially one must constantly stay abreast of the new research and literature that is constantly coming out. I will keep educating myself by attending APA conferences, reading the APA journals and the likes. I perhaps will be involved in research myself.

16. Contact Me Thank you for viewing my ePortfolio. For further information, please contact me at the e-mail address below. dellerar@aol.com