Welcome!

​Hello! My name is Ashton Dowell and welcome to my electronic portfolio! This portfolio demonstrates my academic progression through Arizona State University's Organizational Leadership Undergraduate program, as well as share a few of my hobbies.

Hobbies

I have a lot of hobbies, but over the last few years I have had a lot of fun trying new things like traveling to as many different beautiful places as I can, attending concerts, music festivals and stand-up comedy shows! Something new that I have been experimenting with is photography and you will see some of the pictures that I have taken throughout this portfolio!

Academic Journey
My academic journey has been anything but consistent. In the fall of 2017, when I was a junior in high school, I stopped taking classes at the high school and joined my schools running start program at our local community college. This program is like a lot of dual-enrollment programs and its purpose was to help me graduate high school with a diploma and an Associates of Arts degree, which I eventually did in the spring of 2019. That was my first real change in educational environment, and it was far from the last. Throughout the first few years of college, I could never really find consistency in my environment, and I jumped from school to school three different times. I am a person who flourishes in a system where I can establish a routine that works for me; frequently changing schools certainly made it challenging to find any real routine or consistency in my classes, professors, environment, and friends. In 2021, I decided I was done jumping around. I wanted to find a school that I loved and could stay at until graduation. Luckily, through Starbucks' College Achievement Program, I was finally able to find some of the consistency that I desired right here at Arizona State University!

Personal Vision Statement:

Description:

When I initially began constructing this statement, I struggled to condense my core purpose and values into one sentence. I thought to myself, "there are so many different things that I want for me and my family over the course of my life", but I stopped myself at that thought. Sure, there are many things that I want for myself and my family over the next 50 years of so, but all of those things have one thing in common. I want to provide a good life for my family and I. If reflected on the fact that if I wish to construct a statement that truthfully embodies what I envision for my future, I must be able to identify my core purpose and thoroughly deliver that message in a brief explanation. What that means to me is that I need to provide my readers with a brief understanding of what things I want in life and what areas I am going to focus on to make that happen. If I wished to follow the Tee-shirt rule, it was imperative that I make this statement brief, but long enough to get my message across. I have always found my roots in family and I aimed to construct a vision statement that plays that message to my readers.
"To cultivate a life of stability, freedom, and happiness for my family, friends, and loved ones through hard work, attention to relationships, and gratitude."

Reflection:

When constructing this vision statement, I spent thorough time evaluating each of my ten themes. I felt like there was one trend that each theme came back to in its own way, and I wanted to ensure that I was able to clearly express my core purpose in this statement. That core purpose is to do everything in my power to provide a good life for myself and the people that I care about. The role models in my life taught me many things about how much impact the good that you do can have on the people around you. I believe that goods things come back around, and I want to strive to be the person always provides that helping hand when he can.

Personal Mission Statement:

Description:

​When building my mission statement, the thing that was most important to me was sticking to the same theme as my vision statement. However, my vision statement is a much more broad and generalized statement about my purpose. I wanted my mission statement to expand upon my core purpose in a much more specific and intentional way. I wanted my mission statement to include the purpose from my vision statement, while incorporating my values and the basic steps that I will take to get there. 
"My primary purpose in life and my largest source of motivation, is to financially, informationally, and emotionally support my family and the ones that I hold closest to my heart. I will do this by leading by example, staying true to my core values, and helping people when they are in need. I will protect, teach, guide, and love my family endlessly."

Reflection:

When writing this statement, there was one thing that stood out to me far more than anything else. I have and always will be a family man. The purpose of this kind of mission statement is to outline the kind of direction that I want my life to have, which is why I saw it to be fitting to focus it on my family. It is obviously important to me that my themes are included in this mission statement, but I felt like each of my themes come back to my family. Throughout my life my parents have always been huge supporters of me, and my siblings and I want to be ableto provide the same kind of resource for my future family as well as the family that I have now. I think that if I focus on finding an organization that matches all my values and allows me to achieve balance and I stay true to this statement, I will be able to provide the same quality of life to my family that my parents provided for my family. 
**Personal Narrative Not Included**