Teryn McDermott
Fairbanks School of Public Health
Personal
Personal Mission Statement
I am dedicated to community empowerment and resilience through practices such as equity, community-based mindfulness, as well as community and partner collaboration.
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StrengthsFinder
I took the StrengthsFinder Assessment at the beginning of 2024 as part of the Bonner Scholar Program. Students in this program were able to access the full thirty-four results and also see their top five and top ten strengths. My top five strengths are listed below, in addition my full report is linked to the right.
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After taking CliftonStrengths, my top five strengths were listed as...
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Consistency, you are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same. You crave stable routines and clear rules and procedures that everyone can follow.
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Achiever, you work hard and possess a great deal of stamina. You take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive.
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Learner, you have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. The process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites you.
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​Harmony, you look for consensus. You don’t enjoy conflict; rather, you seek areas of agreement.
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​Empathy, you can sense other people’s feelings by imagining yourself in others’ lives or situations
Reflection
After completing this assesment I had many thoughts, opinions, and feelings.
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It was a requirement of my scholarship to meet with our director to discuss our full report. I did not think that this meeting would be so insightful to me. Initially, I did not think too much about my results. I though it was interesting, but I wasn't sold on the truth behind it. In many of my courses in public health and psychology, I learned about the many opinions on the validity of personality tests. This made me very spectical of the CliftonsStrengths Finder Assessment. However, after my meeting I felt differently. It is really hard to think immediately of what we're good at and where our strengths truly lie. As humans, we are more intune with our negative attributes than our positive attributes. My director told me during our meeting that my strengths made so much sense to her after knowing me pretty closely for the last three years. In particula, we took a lot of time discussing my top two strength, Achiever. My other strengths made sense to me in terms of what I valued most and enjoyed; however, I would have never described myself as an achiever. My director spoke with me at length in reframing my thoughts, as she saw this strength in me embodied in so many ways. She was able to bring up specific examples of me using this strength to change my perspective. This reframing did throw me for a bit of a loop. It made me realize how achievement drives me in my day to day life.
Emotional Intelligence
I took the Emotional Intelligence Assesment in the fall of 2025. This was a requirement for my Capstone course, and taught me a lot about myself. My scores are listed below and my full report is listed to the right.
My scores from highest to lowest are as follows:
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Social Awareness (87/100), your ability to accurately pick up on emotions in other people and get what is really going on. This often means understanding what other people are thinking and feeling, even if you don't feel the same way.
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Relationship Management (85/100), your ability to use awareness of your emotions and the emotions of others to manage interactions successfully. Letting emotional awareness guide clear communication and effective handling of conflict.
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Self-Awareness (85/100), your ability to accurately perceive your emotions and stay aware of them as they happen. This includes keeping on top of how you tend to respond to specific situations and certain people.
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Self-Management (73/100), your ability to use awareness of your emotions to stay flexible and positively direct your behavior. This means managing your emotional reactions to all situations and people.
Reflection
This assesment, especially when compared with my StrengthsFinder results, made me pause and think.
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My scores from 1-3 indicate that I need to continue to build upon these skills. This did not bother me in the slightest. I truly believe that there is always work to be done and improvements to be made. However, my 4th score, Self-Management, indicates I need to strengthen this skill. This is easily seen by the 12 points between scores. It makes a lot of sense to me that my highest strengths would be in terms of relationships. This seems obvious when looking at my top five strengths from StrengthsFinder. Those strengths are very much relationship building and executive strengths. This assesment made it apparent to me, that I tend to put myself on the backburner at times in order to focus on others and other things that need to be done. This is something I am actively working on by increasing self-care and taking time for myself to regulate , reflect, and manage my thoughts and emotions.