Trail Tool

Practice Guide: Your Choice

Choose your skill, then draft your story.

About 20 minutes 8 of 8 in this guide

The fourth story is yours. Pick the skill you can tell the most honest story about.

Three of your four stories are assigned. This one is yours to choose. Pick the skill that connects most honestly to a real experience, from this course or from your life before college. The best choice is the one where you have the most specific, honest thing to say, not the one that sounds most impressive.

This is practice, and it isn't graded. Draft your story here, see how long it runs out loud, then record it or copy it into the matching STAR(T) Stories portal in Blackboard.

Look back at

The STAR(T) Framework

Find Your Stories

Choose your skill

Read through the options and pick the one you can tell the most specific, honest story about.

Mine your own work

Your Mile Markers may already hold a story worth telling.

Your Merit reflections

Mile Marker #5: Understanding My Money

1CommunicationListening carefully, responding clearly, and writing or speaking in ways that actually land.
2Critical & Creative ThinkingEvaluating information carefully, questioning assumptions, or finding a new approach to a real problem.
3Quantitative ReasoningUsing numbers, data, or calculations to understand a situation and make a better decision.
4Interpersonal RelationsHandling relationships thoughtfully: understanding other perspectives, building trust, or working through conflict respectfully.
7Civic EngagementTaking action in your community and contributing to something beyond yourself.
8Collaboration & TeamworkWorking well with others: contributing to a team, sharing the work, and building toward a shared goal.
10Information LiteracyFinding, evaluating, and using information responsibly, and knowing what to trust before you act on it.

Draft it, one step at a time

Your draft saves in this browser as you go. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Using AI?

Ask it to help you find your story, not to write it: "Don't write my response for me. Help me find it." Your story has to sound like you.

STAR(T) Practice: Student Choice

Your name (required)

Date

Step 0Choose your skill My chosen skill Why I chose it, in one or two sentences. Your submission starts with this. The experience I'm going to use

SituationSet the scene. What was going on?

Give just enough context for someone who wasn't there. Two or three sentences is usually plenty.

Watch out: The Situation is the setup, not the story. Get to the Task quickly.

TaskDefine your role. What was yours to do?

What were you trying to do or solve, and what part of it was yours?

Watch out: Your Task is what you were responsible for, not the group's general goal.

ActionShow what you did, step by step.

This is the most important step. Use "I": I decided, I reached out, I chose. Describe the specific things you did and the choices you made. This is where your skill lives. Show it, don't just claim it.

Watch out: "We figured it out" hides your part. Describe what you did, even inside a group effort.

ResultName the outcome. What happened because of what you did?

What changed or got resolved because of what you did? Be specific.

Watch out: "It went well" isn't a result. Name what specifically happened.

TransferConnect it forward. What does this mean for what comes next?

Where will this skill show up next? Name a program, a kind of work, a relationship, or a responsibility where it will matter.

Watch out: "This will help me in the future" isn't a Transfer. Name a specific place, role, or situation.

About 0 out loud (0 words; aim for 2 to 4 minutes)

After you draft itQuick reflection Which step was hardest to write, and why do you think that is? Does anything sound generic, like anyone could have written it? Where could you be more specific?

"Copy my story" copies your five steps, labeled, ready to paste into the STAR(T) Stories portal if you're submitting in writing.