Central Michigan University offers numerous recourses on campus to help students succeed. One of these resources is Tutoring Services. Essentially, each student at Central is granted 3 hours of free tutoring each week. The tutors are college students, like themselves, who have earned an A- or above in a course, and have been approved by that professor to tutor the course. The tutors are then paid by the university to tutor students in their selected subjects, with no actual cost to the student.
Shameless Plug: The tutoring center can only offer services in courses that they have tutors for. If you have great skill or knowledge in a course, please sign up to be a tutor so more students have the opportunity to learn to their fullest potential.
This year I truly dove into being a tutor at Central Michigan University. Last year I got my feet wet in the program by tutoring two students. This year I have taken on six students in three different classes (Physiology, Pathophysiology, ECG Assessment). This program has provided me with the opportunity to learn and study, while also helping student succeed in the classroom, and more importantly, toward their goals.
Through this program I have learned that everyone has something to bring to the table. I continuously learn new way to teach materials because of my students, and different ways to explain things for a multitude of learning styles. I have seen student struggle and wrestle with material until they finally understand it and have that “ahhhh-aaaah” moment. I have seen students ace exams and learn from their downfalls as well. It never ceases to surprise me how much each of my six students bring to the table. I am so proud of them, and proud to be their tutor. (And I would be lying if I didn’t say I have thought about ditching my major and picking up an education major after being a part of this program.)
At the beginning of this year I decided that I wanted to bond with the underclass men of the Leadership Advancement Scholarship program because I understand the importance of mentorship. I was fortunate enough to have people and opportunities to shape and mentor me during my first year of college, and I thought serving on the trip that jumpstarted it all would be a great place to start! {Click here to read about my experience on this trip in 2015}
First things first: FACILITATION
This trip was mainly focused around the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy(JRLA). We met with students enrolled in their leadership courses of their high school and taught them how to facilitate different leadership activities. We discussed community standards, what it takes to be a leader, and the different types of leadership styles that were used. Through this my role was to use the facilitation skills I’ve learned over my college years to teach the LAS freshman how to facilitate. The LASers then took their new skills to the JRLA high schoolers and taught them. Our goal was to create a living and learning community, which was exactly what happened.
Second step: ServiceThe next day the 45+ LAS students the LEAD team and I were in charge of woke up ready
to serve! We worked with CASS community in different facets of service. Some people worked on recycling, some worked with the soup kitchen, and some worked on making products out of recycled material to sell to the community. We spent a couple of long and laborious hours with this organization and really got to know the community members. We learned that each of the employees were once part of the homeless population of Detroit and all of their stories merged together when they joined CASS community. This organization gave them job, education, and opportunities to give back to the community they came from. Overall, the students in my facilitation group fell in love with the service, mission, and people of CASS.
Third…. was a little bit of fun!
As the LEAD team coordinators we made sure the LAS students had a little fun along with their hard work. We planned a trip to Quicken Loans, where we toured around the facility and were informed of their forward thinking business outlooks. Whether those outlooks included dog-friendly workplaces, basketball hoops, slushy machines, or even colorful paint we learned that the workplace can be a place of fun that cultivates creativity. By the end of the visit we had multiple people scheduling interviews for summer internships with the company. Lastly we were off to the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA). This trip was purely for fun and the LAS students loved spending time with their cohort learning about the importance of art and the culture that surrounds it.
So what?
During this trip all I wanted to do was to be a mentor to the underclassman LASers. Did I accomplish this goal? YES, and so much more. I connected with the students in ways that I could have never imagined, but I also learned so much from them. Their different passions showed through as we served along side of each other and I truly felt like these people were the leaders of today, the ones who were going to change the world in ways no one could have ever imagined. So, yes I was a mentor, a leader, a member of the LEAD team…. but ultimately I was a friend, fellow server, and a step toward a brighter future for Detroit.
This whole year I have been the clueless mentee who had to always depend on the advice of my mentor. Now, it seems like in a blink of an eye, that I’m almost a sophomore at CMU! As a sophomore I’ll have more responsibility than ever, but more importantly I’ll have my very own mentee!!
The Draft and reveal-
Kylie Zellner: My perfect mentee
After a short deliberation with my cohort, I finally have a new addition to my mentor family tree, Kylie Zellner! I couldn’t be happier to accept such a fun-loving individual as someone that I can help along the very confusing first year of college. I’m so excited to see her grow into an even more beautiful, out-going and responsible young lady. In order to show her the Leadership Institute love, I revealed to her that she was part of the family via care package. I sent her some great starter items like some CMU apparel, homemade crafts, a family tree outline, and even some accessories to rock out her Chippewa spirit. I hope that over the next year we can create an unbreakable bond and I can help propel her to her dreams and goals!
Mentor Workshop:
Of course, before I had the chance of choosing for Kylie in the 2015 Mentor/Mentee draft I had to become a little more prepared. Luckily Dan Gaken and the rest of the leadership institute set up a time to make us think critically about the advice we would be soon giving our mentees. we had the chance to respond to a series of questions such as: Whats a great way to acquaint your mentee to campus? If your mentee is home sick, how could you handle the situation? What are some ways to bond with your mentee? What can you do if your mentee doesn’t feel comfortable coming to you with a problem?
As I thought all semester about having a mentee and how amazing this experience was going to be, I never actually sat down and practically thought about the technicalities of the relationship my mentee and I would share. I have super high hopes that Kylie and I bond really well when she arrives to CMU in the fall, yet I needed this Mentor Workshop to take a moment and reflect on all of the struggles that could be possible in this new relationship. The most predominate answer that I had to the questions above, and the many more asked was communication and support. Its important to know the difference when to talk your mentee through difficulties and when to let them challenge themselves to grow as I provide support. As the situations arise, I know I’ll be ready to handle them properly because of the great discussion my Leader Advancment Cohort had on these topics.
The first stop on our trip was the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy! Before this trip I had never heard of the school but after spending time in the classrooms and interacting with the students, I’ll never forget it. Traveling to the Northwest side of Detroit to seek out this public charter school may not have been the typical way a college student would spend their weekend, but its surely the ideal kind of adventure that I was looking for. This school is dedicated to leadership, academic success, and the growth of their student body, which made it an obvious choice to infiltrate and promote even more future prosperity. So what did a group of college student have to offer to the JRLA students? LEADERSHIP OF COURSE!
“Jalen Rose Leadership Academy will empower all scholars to develop the strength of character, skills, and knowledge needed to matriculate, be great in, and graduate from college so that they have opportunities to be successful in the competitive world and to take care of themselves and the people that they love.”
When our Leader Advancement cohort entered the school we were separated into teams (I was the teal team) and then met up with student from JRLA’s own leadership organizations called ‘The Butta Team’ and ‘The P.I.L.O.T Program.’ These two groups are composed of the elite students in the JRLA system because they show extraordinary leadership inside and outside of the classroom. In order to further their leadership roles in the school our group’s mission was to teach these select students how to facilitate leadership activities in order to grow their leadership skills. Once we had a few Butta and PILOT students assigned to our teal team to observe we entered a classroom and instantly got the group on their feet to get the ball rolling(literally). This first activity we did was a “getting to know each other” game where we threw a beach ball around that had written questions all over it. When one of the students caught it they had to answer one of the questions that their thumb landed on. In addition to that we set some Community Standards for the day of events so that it a safe, unified, and open-sharing environment was created. The next activity I instructed was Gutter Ball. This activity entails students working together to transfer a marble through wooden troughs across the class room. With some strategic front-loading and maneuvering the students got very involved and determined to complete the task. Once completed we brought the group together for a deep debrief of the lessons the students learned from the activity.
For the second half of the day the Central Michigan students regrouped in JRLA’s auditorium to facilitate some more activities as a large group to all of the Butta and PILOT students. These activities included tennis ball relays, pair-and-share tasks to find things that the students had in common, and more activities to familiarize the students with each other’s names. We concluded our stay at Jalen Rose Leadership Academy by “making it rain.” This facilitation is by far my favorite because it incorporates all the student in the whole auditorium to work together with a series of hand movements (rubbing their hands together, snapping their fingers, clapping their hands ext.) in order to make it sound as if its actually raining inside! At the end of the day we bid our farewells and loaded onto the bus to go to our next stop in Detroit.
We soon arrived at Lowe Campbell Ewald which is advertising and marketing company that has multiple headquarters all over the world, including Detroit. Here I toured the building and had the opportunity to see where all of the ‘magic’ happens in the marketing communication’s business. This company is full of curious problem solvers who live for the idea, strive for the unexpected, and never settle for less. During this time I actually saw just how much brainstorming and creativity went into this building to convert it from a old factor to a thriving marketing company. But, who said service and leadership had to be all serious work?
The next few things that Detroit had to offer us were by far the most team building parts of the trip. As a surprise, the trip coordinators set up a special tour of Ford Field.We visited the locker room, interview room, press boxes, and even got to walk the tunnel leading out to Ford Field. After taking what seemed like hundreds of pictures, we wrapped up that visit with some great food at Pizzapopalis. Next on the schedule was stop at the Detroit Institute of Art where we had time to explore and experience at our own pace. By the end of the night we were all exhausted and went to our “home” for the night, which happened to be a office owned by CMU! We all rolled out our sleeping bags and crashed on the floor for the night and attempted to sleep, although not much sleep was to be had in a room full of college kids bonding over anything and everything!
As the morning sun rose so did all of us Leader Advancement Scholars for another day to challenge or limits and make a difference in the city. We headed over to an organizations called Blight Busters who have taken the personal responsibility to clean up the city for everyone. They believe in huge change starting by one person and portray that in a motto they mentioned before our work began, “think globally, act locally.” In order to act locally we picked up our shovels, rakes, and buckets and headed down a few blocks to start spreading mulch on a large open field. Working for a few hours we began to see a slight change which would lay the foundation for many more Blight Buster projects to come after us.
What was the most eye-opening part of the trip? Quite honestly, I didn’t realize how many things opened my eyes about the Great Motor City:
The number one thing that changed my outlook was spending a few hours with the students that go to school in underprivileged neighborhoods. After some really great facilitation activities at JRLA my partner and I took a group of students in the hall way to debrief the activity. As we were starting to make progress and dig deep into ways that they could change their school the lights cut out. Completely cut out! For a few seconds we sat in the dark in silence and then the students informed me that power outages usually happen about once a week and they learn in the dark until the power comes back on. This absolutely blew me away, in my high school electricity was a given and something we never had to worry about, yet at JRLA it was a commodity. It was a bit of a culture shock, yet an amazing reality check for me to be more grateful for the things that I take for granted.
The second thing that also changed my outlook was the time spent at the Detroit Institute of Art where a small group of my friends and I decided to check out the Detroit photography exhibit. Visually my eyes were open to some of the poverty, beauty, and character that the city and its citizens experience daily. In the center of the room I found a booklet of cards that posed the question, “what do you see in Detroit?” I began reading some of the things that people had to say about the Motor City and my heart emotionally changed. The cards varied but the ones written by children really got to me, although some letters were backwards and words misspelled those phrases spoke truth about the city through the eyes of youth. They read, “People are celebrating, I see fireworks” and “The streetlights are coming back on” and “People are sad, they need jobs.” From joy to sadness and everything in-between was wrote in a short phrase by children no older than eight years old. At eight years old I wasn’t worrying about jobs or having streetlights to play under, those things were normal to me. To see testimonies from kids that are aware of social issues at such a young age made my heart break for the city. On the other hand seeing cards about hope, happiness, and change made me excited for the great city to return to its rightful glory!
Last but not least one other thing completely took me by surprise that changed my outlook on the city as a whole. As our group was standing on the corner of an intersection waiting for our bus to arrive we happened to look up to the second story of a casino. Four or five elderly people started waving at us while we yelled some CMU chants. they began fanning their money and valuables at us. This was all fun and games until we heard some beautiful music coming from behind us. A homeless man about 15 ft way was playing his flute and saxophone to get some spare change to live on. In that exact moment we saw the two extremes that Detroit had to offer in its economy. This event is not something that was planned or lasted very long, but the small unexpected things like this that I saw which altered my whole view of Detroit.
Who was a great example of leadership?
Everyone involved in this whole trip exhibited great amounts of leadership at different parts of the journey, whether that be unloading backpacks, people stepping up to facilitate activities, or even someone who gave encouragement. Yet, out of all the people I saw as examples of leadership a little girl that wasn’t even part of our trip definitely showed the most. As we arrived on the scene of Blight Busters so did a girl that nobody knew. She jumped right into work with all of us and didn’t seem to skip a beat. Little did we know that she volunteers every time Blight Busters does work around the city. She doesn’t get paid, none of her friends come with her, and the people who run Blight Busters don’t even know where she lives. Against all odds she shows up ready to clean up the city and make her home a better place. Being eighteen years old I’m not sure that I could stay dedicated to a program that is so demanding in all weather conditions, but a girl many years younger than I can. She is the true definition of leadership and completely blew me away!
Another great example of leadership was the LEAD team who actually planned all of the events on the trip. This LEAD team did an immaculate job preparing from the beginning of the year and even making last minute changes up until the bus departure from Central Michigan University. While in Detroit this team got us to and from each activity, threw in surprises and interacted with each of us volunteers. They went above and beyond all expectations and overall I could not have asked for a better trip or better leaders. (Plus, we even got matching t-shirts!) Thanks LEAD Team!!
How has my opinion of Detroit change?
If I wasn’t hopeful before, I SURE AM NOW!! Seeing the students of Jalen Rose Leadership Academy who had applied and got accepted to large universities like Michigan State and New York City got me excited for the future of Detroit. Hearing of the many students attaining 4.0 GPA’s and athletic success made me ecstatic to see their handwork paying off. Working with Blight Busters and seeing a community honking and waving as they drove by made me hopeful for the future of the Motor City. All of these difference makers and leadership advocated are promoting change in ways that they don’t even realize. This trip took my perspectives of Detroit and completely turned them around. It is not a city of fear and failure, but a city of hope and opportunity.
Now What?Of course the service trip to Detroit was great and life changing, but what am I suppose to do now that I’m in Mount Pleasant?
The poverty rates around Mount Pleasant are substantially higher than I would have ever expected. In 2009, 63.1% of residents were below the poverty line. In all, 96.1% of residents in Mount Pleasant that rent are below the poverty level.
Realistically, I’m not sure what I should do from here on out. I have some ideas popping in my head of places I could go and things that I could do, yet I’m not quite sure how to act on them. The main idea I have is to incorporate my new position of Volunteer Chair on the Executive Board in the Pre-Physical Therapy club and the community of Mount Pleasant. The Pre- Physical Therapy club has quite the abundance of active member, if I could get connected with the Volunteer Center here on campus and with local churches who serve the poor in the community, we could start making a huge change. Using OrgSync and other forms of social media to reach out to all of the Pre-PT members and all of there friends, I could start a weekly or even monthly event to help the community. Although these plans are in the early stages of thought I it would be a great way to unify different clubs, students and the community together.
The second thing that I’d love to get involved with is bringing supplies to the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy students. I know that our Leadership 200 class discussed having a school supplies-drive all year before the annual “LAS in the D” trip and I believe that it’s be a great thing to implement. Much of the school supplies that JRLA students are using comes directly from their teachers who have to take money out of their wages to pay for it. If we could make a small impact to get the JRLA students more/better supplies, we may be able to start making a small academic impact.
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” ~John C. Maxwell
Pat and Libby!
If you think about, being a leader is no different than a wolf and its pack. You protect the group from danger, work through trials together, stick together, and become family. Its true, every pack needs an alpha and every group needs a leader. During Alpha Lead I was assigned to a group of ten people, most of who I didn’t know and led through this experience by Pat and Libby. Every Thursday night we came together to work through tasks and learning criteria.
The first thing we did was learn what type of leader each of us were. We did this by taking a test were we had to divide points over a spectrum of statements like, ‘Generate excitement’ or ‘Act decisively’. After adding all the results and correlating it to styles, I found out that I’m a Compassionate Leader. I scored way above the bench mark of average compassionate leader, so I knew that I truly was the commiserative piece of the group. What exactly does that mean? I am low spectrum of assertiveness and high on the spectrum of expressiveness. I tend to bring harmony to a team by reassurance through difficulties, listening to others feelings, and in general provide support for others. Through this process I also learned common downfalls to a Compassionate Leader, which are, avoiding constructive conflict and providing too much comfort and unwillingness to change. With those two things in consideration I found that I thrived at the challenges that needed patients, tact, and cohesion among the group. Now that I knew what kind of leader I was, the way that I solved problems, led, and created a family atmosphere all made sense. Luckily, I could now use this to my teams advantage.
Throughout the next couple of weeks our team came together and worked on physical and mental tasks to not only strengthen our leadership style, but also to stretch us to use other styles. One task revolved around inventing, another around balance, one around strategy, and another around communication. The task involving communication was by far my favorite. My team was combined with 4 other teams and we had to develop a language meanwhile, the other 5 teams in a different room had their own language. Slowly we had to begin playing a game, and people from each room were swapped into the other room. When they tried to communicate it was almost impossible and and usually left both sides confused, frustrated, and somewhat offended. This lesson showed us how important communication is and how to act in a situation of miscommunication.
Through the trials and tests provided by this experience I learned how to embrace my Compassionate Leadership style and to step out of my comfort zone to begin to acquire skills in other styles of leadership. I became a more well rounded individual, made so many new friends, and had a great deal of fun to go with it. I am compassionate. I am harmonic. I am a leader. I am an alpha.
On another one of my leadership outings, provided by the Leadership Institute, we went to Traverse City. This conference was not limited to just Leadership Advancement Scholars, so I was able to make amazing friendships with people all across CMU’s campus. Going into this conference I didn’t really know what to expect. All that I did know was the amazing reviews from staff and also that Jesi Parker planned the outing. These two things gave me great expectations and hopes for the conferences success. Little did I know just how great this whole experience was going to be and how many surprises were about to come my way.
The fabulous late bus crew at the Connections Conference!
A slight bum in plans started off the expedition on a stressful note since the bus arrived approximately three hours late. During those three hours the twenty of student got pretty close, which was the first surprise. I did realize that I knew all of the people, but only then did I realize that I knew very little about them. Waiting in the Leadership Institutes lobby I really had time to bond with some of the people that I hadn’t had the chance to get to know very well. I found that Paige loved super-heroes like me, Sam was a co-fan of Taylor Swift, and that Sarah and I seemed to share a brain! When the bus finally arrived we boarded it, but the fun didn’t stop there. Watching “The Princess Diaries” and eating candy set the tone for the rest of the trip.
When we did finally arrive and got thrown into our committees, the real experience began. The first session that I chose was Beyond the Degrees where we discussed Stanley Milgram’s “Six Degrees of Separation” theory. We learned by this theory that everyone in the entire world was connected by six people. Every…all over the world… connected. Talk about mind blowing! Derived from that lesson we learned how to make more meaningful and connecting relationships with people that we meet everyday. This is where surprise number two comes into play. As a section of session we began meeting everyone around the room, and I actually found that a person there was related to my high school principle. This happened to be a reacquiring theme through out the conference, and met so many people who were related to people I knew, or were acquaintances of my friends.
Friendships start with fuzzy ears!
The rest of the day I met more people, went to more session including The Dating Game: Job Edition, and Killing Creativity, and then got some free time after dinner. Cue surprise number three. During this time we found out that the front desk gave everyone free wolf ears, so OF COURSE we couldn’t resist. In all honesty, something small like that began many conversations and ended up giving us the opportunity to meet people and create connections. As the fun dimmed with the light, we all decided to get a good night sleep and get back at it in the morning.
The last educational session I went to was called 22.1, which turned out to be my absolute favorite session of all. The main idea of this lesson was to show us that every moment counts since the average human only gets 22.1 billion heart beats in their life. During this time the group did a lot of self reelecting and we each developed a one sentence mission statement as to our goal of leadership. The mission statement that I developed was, “Be the Silver Lining.” For those that are unfamiliar with what that means, its a statement to show others that out of every hardship something good can come and to find the positive in every situation. When I created this statement I realized just how important it is to feed off of positive energy and as a personal mission I want to lead be the person to show others the positive side in every situation. I now have this scrap of paper with the most powerful words I have ever written hanging above my bed so I can wake up to that inspiration everyday.
Leadership Advancement Scholars at Connections
Throughout this conference I had a lot of surprises come my way, luckily for me, I LOVE surprises! I learned so much about others, making relationships and connections, and a lot about my leadership style while reflecting. The staff did a wonderful job of sparking my interests and taking my leadership skills to the next level. Bo Parker (my favorite speaker) gave me a lot of thought provoking ideas and things that I could do in my every day life to reach my full potential.
“Leaders should influence others in such a way that it builds people up, encourages and edifies them so they can duplicate this attitude in others.” ― Bob Goshen
As a Leadership Advancement Scholar(LAS) many things come with the position, my favorite is having a mentor. A mentor is not just someone to answer all of your questions, they are much more than that. They become family. My mentor Becky DalSanto has been the older sister I’ve never had, the inspiration to lead, the determination to preserver, and best of all someone to experience adventure with! It didn’t take long to realize that Becky had a personality like I have never experienced before; she is outgoing, kind, generous, friendly, and down right AMAZING.
Receiving word of who my mentor is (via a video of Becky freestyle rapping to me) over the sumer honestly excited me to hurry up and get to Central Michigan University. Later after a few weeks of school, the Leadership Institute sent Becky and I, plus the rest of the 2017 and 2018 LAS cohorts to Eagle Village for some quality mentor and mentee bonding. The ride up there was a hoot in and of itself, but I had no idea what fun was in store for me.
Both cohorts stayed together in the same cabin, ate together and took on team working activities together. Through these activities my relationship with Becky strengthened as well as all of the other duos. My favorite thing that I learned about Becky is that she, just like myself, is an adventure seeker. We did every activity in stride and seemed to develop trust instantly. We took every exercise and pushed ourselves to make it more challenging and adventurous. On the rock climbing wall decided to tether ourselves together to enhance our strategic abilities and rely on each others strength. On the high ropes course Becky and I thrived at each obstacle over 40ft in the air. Again to push each other out of our comfort zones we decided to wear blindfolds so we were dependent on one another’s communication. In another activity we had to work with other mentor/mentee pairs to lift each member over a 15 ft wall without ropes or safety harnesses. This lesson taught us how to collaborate ideas and form plans. Outside of the activities with just our mentors, I also began building very strong relationships with the other 43 people in my LAS cohort. We completed tasks that involved a mass of people such as the “Crossing Fire” scenario, where we had to swing every member and a bucket of water across a rope swing and land into three very small designated rings of safety.
Apart from the planned games, exercises, and activities, some of the best bonding occurred. At the bon fire, many meals, gigantic sleepover, and spontaneous games. It was in these moment that I had a chance to connect with Becky on a more personal level and truly get to learn all about her passions, dreams, and background. Together Becky and I formed a team, friendship, and unbreakable bond.
So now what? For me, its simple. I will continue to build a relationship with Becky, be inspired by her, and look to her as a role model. Better yet, I have learned that a true bond needs communication, trust, strategy, companionship and even a little adventure. I hope that through my time at Central I will be able to continually grow and strengthen relationships because without relationships there would be no leadership. The most important part of leadership is followership, which are built on the relationships that I will continually make. Good bye to Eagle Village, and hello to new relationships!
Through this program I have learned that everyone has something to bring to the table. I continuously learn new way to teach materials because of my students, and different ways to explain things for a multitude of learning styles. I have seen student struggle and wrestle with material until they finally understand it and have that “ahhhh-aaaah” moment. I have seen students ace exams and learn from their downfalls as well. It never ceases to surprise me how much each of my six students bring to the table. I am so proud of them, and proud to be their tutor. (And I would be lying if I didn’t say I have thought about ditching my major and picking up an education major after being a part of this program.)
The next day the 45+ LAS students the LEAD team and I were in charge of woke up ready
t an amazing reality check for me to be more grateful for the things that I take for granted.
McKenna Mathis 