Mentorship

 

In the Leader Advancement Scholarship program, we are given a mentor before we get to Central. Before the end of our freshman year, we have the option to become a mentor for the incoming class.  My mentee’s name is Natalie, and I’m so happy to have her as my mentee.

During class our director and assistant director, gave us the necessary tools to be a great mentor. Me and My mentor, Kim, have a great relationship, we try to get together once a week, to hang out, and do something that we both like to do. Me and Kim both like to go the fashion events on campus and the greek events. Kim also gave me great advice on how to be a great mentor.

We learned that our role for our mentee is to be there for them whenever they need us, connect them to people who are interested in the same things that they are,Learn things about them, and show them that you genuinely care about them.

I think that I can do all these things and more! I am excited to start to build a great relationship between me and Natalie.

Threads Fashion show 2014

 

 

This year I was lucky enough to attend the 14^th annual Threads fashion show. The Threads fashion show is a fashion show is a student run event that showcases the talents of many Central Michigan students. The theme for this year’s fashion show was “Out of the Gallery.” With this theme students were to pick an artist or a painting that inspired their collection. The Threads fashion website can be found here.

My mentor Kim was one of the designers in the fashion show. Kim’s collection was inspired by Degas. Degas is known for his ballet themes. Kim and Hannah interpreted this pretty well and it showed in their collection. In their collection there were plenty of tulle skirts, with light pink, black and white. When I saw Kim and Hannah’s collection on the stage I completely lit up. I was so proud of both of them and how amazing their collection looked on the runway. I got to witness a little bit of the work that went into making the collection, and I know that it took many all nights and many hours in the sewing lab, and all their work paid off. Kim and Hannah were interviewed by CM life and their article can be found here.

Going to the fashion show was such an inspiring event. I loved seeing all the outfits and the inspiration behind them. My major is apparel merchandising, so I was thinking about the outfits that I would want to sell in my boutique. The student designers were really talented. The outfits were very unique and the designs were well executed. I really enjoyed this fashion show and I hope to go to many more.

 

Kim and Hannah’s collection display

Jalen Rose Leadership Academy

 

The weekend of March 28 and 29, LAS packed up 7 vans filled with leaders and headed to the city of Detroit. During the trip we provided a service for Detroit and we even had time for some fun. The first thing we did when we got to Detroit was go to the Jalen Ross Leadership Academy. The leadership academy is a charter high school that serves over 300 students in a leadership focus curriculum. The Academy’s website is here. Jalen Rose and co founded by Michael Carter founded the school. Our roles as students were to facilitate group interactions that produced a leadership definition and a goal for the workshop.

We started off the workshop with a name game to learn the students’ names. After the game we discussed what their definition of leadership is and what goals they wanted to set, and what did they need from us as facilitators to reach these goals. After we were finished with that we played gutter ball that tested the student’s leadership skills and abilities. In the groups there were about 5 LAS students and 5 Jalen Rose students. The students in our group were really quiet but with the correct questioning we got them to answer the questions and let us see into their worlds. At the end of the workshop the Jalen rose students were trained to mimic what we did with them, with their peers. After we were done working with the students we had the wonderful opportunity to talk with the assistant principal of the school. He informed us of the major change that the school made over the last year. He told us that the school adopted a stricter discipline system that forced the students to adhere to the rules. It was really nice to here that a school that is mostly African American can be put up to a high standard and reach that standard. It was refreshing to see that they had so many teachers and volunteers that really cared about the students and what they were capable of doing. After volunteering at the school I wanted to give back to my community more. I want to hold my community to a high standard and empower them to reach it, just like the Jalen Rose students.

The school’s motto is enter a learner, exit a leader!

Pre Service Reflection

In class we learned about our service trip that we will be going on. We learned everything that we would be doing. As a cohort we will be facilitating a workshop with the students of the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy. Another thing that we will be doing is volunteering at the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative. We will be helping move junk out of houses that are being remodeled.

Also in class we learned and discussed the importance of going to Detroit. Detroit was chosen as our location for our service trip because it is 2 hours away from us, and it is such a different place from Mount Pleasant. Going to Detroit was a way for us to use our leadership skills to better the world.

We watched a video on the history of Detroit called “Hiding in plan site” This video can be watched here.

The video talks about how Detroit went from such a booming city to a city that is struggling as hard as it is now. There were some things in the video that I was surprised to hear, and some things that didn’t know.

Detroit is the poorest and most segregated place in America. “We are not living with each other; we are making the American dream harder for some people.” The segregation of Detroit was continued with the creation of the Birwood Wall. The Birwood Wall was an actual wall that separated black people from white people. Black people were not allowed to get loans to buy house across the birwood wall. Over the years, the Birwood wall was destroyed but the boundaries were still in place. The biggest boundary between “good neighborhoods” and the “bad neighborhoods” in Detroit is the 8 mile road that separates these two. “No on even gave it a second thought.” This quote describes how no one stood up for this indifference.

Detroit is meant for 2 million people. But because it is mostly black and poor and businesses follow the residents, Detroit has reached an all-time low. There are people who are trying to repopulate the city , and they know that the solution won’t happen overnight. Most people lost hope in Detroit because of the lack of ethical leadership in Detroit. A quote that stood out to me in this video was; “we can see the sins of the past, but it’s harder to see now, we’re hiding in plain sight”

 

 

 

Seth Godin

I did my reflection on Seth Godin’s post on the most important question. In the post he talks about things that aren’t important to a business. Things that aren’t important: are the prices of your services/ products, if you are offering enough, are you reliable enough. He says that the most important questions is ” do they believe me enough to believe my promises?” I connected it back to Bo’s lecture on figuring out your why. Because if people believe your why they will believe your promises. Your why is the most important thing to a person and a company. Your why is what sets you apart from everyone else. In Seth’s post he address this.  Nothing is more important than making people believe your why. I’m going to discover my why a little deeper, and make sure that it is something that I am really passionate about in life. In my life I’ve witnessed how efficient it can be when you have a why that you are really passionate about. It really makes people see you in a different light when they believe and agree on your why.

LPI Reflection

As a leader,  I constantly wonder how do I come across to people. More specifically do my  followers see what I try to portray.

Kouzes and Posner created the Leadership Practices Inventory, for anyone who wants feedback on their leadership style. They give you feed back on the five following practices;

1.) Model the way

2.) Inspire a shared vision

3.) Challenge the process

4.) Enable others to act

5.) Encourage the heart

When I first learned about these 5 practices, I thought that they were pretty standard when your talking about discussing. There were a couple    practices, that I would score low in. I was excited to find out how others.

When I first got my score back, my initial reaction was surprise. I was surprised to see the numbers. In some of the categories I rated myself lower, and in others I rated myself higher.  I was  really humbled to see my results.

After seeing my results I  thought of ways that I can bring personal meaning. I am going to look at the practices that I score myself higher than  what my observers did. I am going to make sure that i am making it more obvious that I am doing the actions that are under those categories.

One of the main challenges is going to be trying to make  some of these actions more obvious. There are some actions that I thought I made pretty obvious, but according to this 360 report, it isn’t obvious enough. For an example, I rated myself a 5 for setting a personal example of what  I expect from others. My observers rated me a 3.7. the challenge is going to be, how do I make this more obvious when I believe that I always do this.

An initial idea I have to use a practice more frequently  is educating myself on these practices a little bit more. i also want to find out ways to use them more frequently in my everyday life.

I plan on sharing this feedback with my hall council president.

 

Leadership = Yes

“Yes, I can do it”   ” yes we’ll help you out”  ” yes, yes, yes.”

You don’t want to be surrounded by a bunch of yes men and woman, but you have to be a great enough leader to make people say yes. In  a situation you have to convince people to follow you. You have to sell your “why,” and have your followers say yes to buying it. You also have to inspire them to believe in themselves.

One of Obama’s slogans for his 2008 campaign was ” Yes we can.” Obama got a nation to say “yes we can” along with him. He persuaded americans to believe that that they can be a part of change. He got the american people to vote for him and elect him as president of the United States .

A valediction, my speech was centered around the “yes” message.  The goal of my speech was to inspire my fellow graduates. I wanted them to believe that they could conquer the world. This is why I believe leadership is a yes.  To be a leader you have to get people to believe in you, themselves, and the all the possibilities in the world.

Rainn Wilson

Rainn Wilson is a co-creator of the national sensation known as Soulpancake. Soulpancake strives to ask life’s big questions and inspire people. Soulpancake does this through many different ways; some of these ways are through Kid president, the science of happiness, soul pancake the book.

Rainn Wilson is a leader because he got people to participate with Soulpancake. He got people in the U.S to chew on life’s big questions. When he speaks about Soulpancake, he speaks with conviction; he makes you want to be a part of it. Something else that makes him a leader is that he had the courage to create this. People could have hated his idea, and criticized him.

People are motivated to follow him, because he has a good cause. His cause is inspiring people to be curious about life, love, happiness, spirituality. Etc. These are all thing that people are passionate about. People saw that the intentions of hos mission were pure, and could only bring about good things. I think this is the main reason why people follow him

I admire that Rainn is passionate about his mission. Whenever he talks about Soulpancake he lights up and is a joy to watch. This is something that makes people want to follow him. I admire that his mission is so successful.

I think people often forget that other people are human too, that everyone wonders the same thing at one point in time. Soulpancake gives people the opportunity/ tools to discuss these questions. This is how he has affected other people. Soulpancake has affected me to go out of my way to make people happier. Rain also inspires me to find something that I am passionate about.

 

 

 

 

Share a dream, encourage a dream ( resolution reflection)

51 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech in Washington, entitled “I have a dream.” His title was short but it had a very strong message that is still remembered and fought for today. Martin did what many people cannot do. He shared his dream, made people believe in his dream, and them took action and made his dream a reality. Imagine if everyone could do what he did; imagine if everyone had the courage, skills and attitude to do this.

Everyone has a dream no matter how small or how big, there is something in your heart that you would love to see happen in your life, and this simple fact got me thinking. Every day I talk to people, rather if its hi or an in depth conversation. So I thought, why not help encourage people’s dreams? So I came up with the phrase ” share a dream, encourage a dream.” This simply means that I will encourage people to tell me what their dreams are. During this conversation, I want to encourage them to never give up on their dream. I also want to help them in any way that I can. For example, I could give them information/ resources that could help them get closer to the dream that is in their heart. Also in this discussion I want to share my dream. When you share your dream with someone, you create an accountability partner, someone who can hold you to whatever you want him or her to. I want to paint a visual picture of my dream, and hope that they can add a tool in my tool chest to make it happen.

In 2014, as a leader I want to succeed in this small venture of encouraging people’s dreams. Success would mean that people would know that they could come to me with any thing they need encouraging on. I also want to tell as many people as I can about the dreams that I have and collect as many tools as I can from people.

Through this venture I want to make new friends. Meeting new people is something that I do on a daily basis, but it’s harder to make connections with people, so that you stick out in their memory, and can then start a friendship. I think a good way to make a connection with someone is to share something that is personal to you, and what is more personal than his or her dreams?

So in order for me to succeed in this:

Something I need is courage to do this. At times I get nervous to talk to people, for whatever reasons. I started to realize that I am truly an introvert, and that I prefer to be in a quiet environment doing work. But my dream does not include a work environment like that, so I need to used to working/ living in environments that are high energy and fast paced.

I will share advice/ information/ whatever it is that you need. I do not know everything, but I may know people who do, or how to find the information that you are looking for. I want to help other people succeed in their goals/ dreams/ aspirations.

Presidental Leadership

President Ross, The Central Michigan University president, came to speak to our leadership class, about his experiences with leadership. He told us his background story. He was a kid that lived on a farm, with a lot of siblings. He worked really hard and made it to the position he is at now. His story was very inspiring. He wanted everyone to know that no matter, where you came form, you can go anywhere in live, no matter what, as long as you work hard. I’m gonna apply this to my life, by not letting my childhood hold me back from anything. I could use any number of excuses, on why I don’t do something, but I would rather be successful in life.  It was really reassuring to hear President Ross say these things, because I see that it can really happen.