A Year in Review

Thats a Wrap!

As I have emphasized may times throughout the creation and execution of this blog, I had absolutely no clue what I was doing most of my freshman year at Central Michigan University. College was a whole new experience for me and my family, and quite honestly I’m still figuring new things out every single day. But, I find this continual circle the most beautiful part of college. This is my dream, and I decide where is goes from here. As the new year of 2015 rang in I wrote a post called “Being the Me Today That I Want to be Tomorrow.” Now that I’m finishing up my first year of college, I think it is imperative to start reflecting on what has happened, how I have grown, and where I’m setting out to go from here. I started out this semester with these four questions and this is the progress that I have been making so far:

• What do I really want in 2015? My answer was so broad, which left me a lot of wiggle room. All I wanted through the next 16 week semester, and the rest of the year was to take everyday and treat it as an opportunity. So far, I’m learning how to do this better every single day. I have met people I never would have the courage to talk to before. I have accepted more leadership positions and became more involved in different organizations. Every day I have can reflect on one thing or another that I did that could have been a missed opportunity otherwise. One major example of this (which happens to be very similar to that of last time) was dressing up in a funky costume to support breast cancer in the Relay for Life. Luckily I had my partner in crime, Meredith, with me once again and was able to raise money and spread awareness about this disease. I guess fun publicly embarrassing ourselves in funny costumes are just our thing!

• What will you share in 2015? 

1.      So far I have been effectively fulfilling this! As a Campus Ambassador I’m continually sharing everything that I know about CMU to high school students. Its very gratifying to hear all of the student and parents say that I have helped them make a very informed choice about the future.
2.      Another sharing aspect that I have recently implanted in my life is taking a role as a Leadership Safari Guide. Through this program I will be devoting a few weeks of my time to help incoming Chippewa’s get acquainted with campus, find friends, and most importantly grow into their true selves. I can’t wait to make bonds with my Safari participants!!
3. While leading Safari, I will be lucky enough to be an official mentor to Kylie Zellner. During this time I can challenge, teach, and help Kylie with anything she needs. I can’t wait to share all of the things that I have experienced over the last year with her( For more information, visit Mentor Workshop).
4. Service! This has been a big part of the spring 2015 semester for me. I frequently serve my time at His House church and other volunteering events around the campus and in the community. I continue to spend time at the Humane Animal Treatment Society (click here for more information) and have been on a service trip to Detroit (for more info, click here).    
5.      As I have posted about previously, I have recently accepted the position of Volunteer Chair on the Executive Board for the Pre- Physical Therapy club here at Central. This Register Student Organization helps students of all ages get a head start in the very competitive field of physical therapy(visit Executive Board Expectations for more information) . Hopefully (since I will begin my position in a few short days) that I’ll be able to start reaching many more students.
6.      Further than reaching students, I also reached refugee children all the way across the country. Over spring break I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip where I spent a whole week serving the Lord and the community. (For more information a new blog post about it will be coming soon.
7.      Over the summer, I will be spending a month completely secluded from friends and family to work at TimberWolf Lake, a christian summer camp for middle and higschool students to learn about Jesus. Although I won’t be paid for my time at this camp, I will be earning so much more. I’ll be able to grow in my faith while also sharing my experience and what I know with kids that are just finding their way in life. This is by far one of the biggest challenges I expect to put myself in this summer, but I think that it will be more than worth it!

• What do I really need in 2015? At the beginning of this semester I decided that I needed to make more connection outside of my immediate friend group at CMU. I have fulfilled this part of my new semester resolution more than another. After my week spent on mission with 15 other strangers from my church, I have gained so many important people in my life. Strictly knowing just these 15 people lead to gaining connections to so many more people. I’ve met people every where from engineers, to politicians, to athletic trainers and so many more in between. I know people in the acapella groups, on the football team, and even people that are on the Program Board at CMU. I couldn’t imagine this semester without all of the individuals that I have met, and continue to meet every day.

• What will I succeed in 2015? Earlier, I set the goal to learn and lead simultaneously. I think that I have definitely refined this skill after a full year at CMU. Balancing my grades and service has been difficult, but I think I have built a firm foundation on how to do this. My goal for the upcoming year is to keep building on this skill so that I can optimize my future and what I have to offer the future students at Central Michigan University.

THATS A WRAP! This year has grown me exponentially as a leader, student, and person. With this progress and the much more that I intend to make, I can only hope that I can make a difference everyday. For now, this is goodbye CMU, and hello to summer where I have more opportunities that are before me. No longer a clueless freshman, but a excited sophomore! ~McKenna Mathis

#LeadChat

Leadership in Social Media

I’ve always been told that social media is a double edge sword. It can be great to promote and connect, but it also hinders social skills and advocates fraud. With this in mind I entered CMU’s Leadership Institute (LI) LeadChat that they hold every Thursday night over Twitter. What happens is that the LI poses a few questions to the “Twittersphere” and anyone is welcome to answer the question and spark further conversation about it. On this particular day the LI posed five questions:

1.) What qualities do you look for in a mentor?

Every mentor/mentee pair is going to be a bit different and each one needs to find what qualities will make their own bond work. For me, I look for someone that will challenge me to step out of my comfort zone. The whole purpose of a mentor is someone to make you grow as a person, challenge you outlooks, and grow more confident in your views. If my mentor did not make me think twice about what I believe then our bond would be useless. To go hand in hand with challenge, a mentor should also provide a great degree of advice. Since my mentor Becky is older than me and has gone through a whole year of college I know that I can always turn to her with questions and the daily confusion that adjusting to college has provided. She always seems to have some wise words, or could at least point me to someone that would know how to help me. In this process my mentor also challenges me to come to my own conclusion before giving me the advice that I have sought. This again makes me lear, which is what college is all about!!!

2.)What are your expectations of your mentee?

.@CMU_Leadership A2: mentoring, like #leadership, is a relational process – if you need something from your mentor, be sure they know that!

— Dan Gaken (@DGaken) April 15, 2015

The closer and closer that the Mentee draft gets the more and more excited I become. I know that whoever I choose and/ or end up with (depending on how the draft plays out!) will be a great fit because each one of the incoming freshmen loves leadership. This is the only expectation that I want to set for my mentee because I want to be able to see who he or she grows into without my thoughts clouding my view of them. As long as they love leadership, I will love them!  Ultimately, I would love a mentee that I can really bond with over various things like athletics, religion, and something as simple as movie choice. My mindset goinging into next year and a mentee/mentor relationship is: expect nothing and appreciate everything.

3.)What is the difference between a mentor and a role model?

So far, this has proven to be true with my mentor. Never has she tried to force herself be a role model, but instead she always has inspired me to be my own person and be a role model for others. As I reflect on all of the mentors and role models throughout my life I realize that there is a vast difference. I hope that when I soon get a mentee (less than 3 days!) that she/he becomes a role model for the future CMU students and young adults all over the world. It would be my pleasure to be able to stand next to him/her as they need help to become a their own person and someone that others can look up for many years to come. Its a forever repeating process to led a helping hand to anyone that needs it so that they can reach their full potential and offer something greater than just themselves to the world.

4.)What communication tools/tactics work best with a mentor/mentee relationship?

COMMUNICATION. COMMUNICATION. COMMUNICATION. That is the key to almost any type of relationship out there, and the Leader Advancement Scholar Mentee/Mentor relationship is no different. The only thing that is different about the communication standard is how often and what type of communication works with each pair. For me, I love face to face conversations and time spent enjoying each others company. I hope that when I get my mentee we’ll be able to have ample amount of time during the week between our busy schedules to see each other. Ultimately, I would love my mentee to be my best friend, someone that I want to spend time with everyday, and someone that I can share everything with. Of course, if my mentor/mentee bond isn’t as close as I want in person I would be more than happy to try different communication tactics such as hanging out in large groups, texting, or even just sitting at the library and doing homework together. Whatever it takes I’ll be there for my mentee!

5.) Who do you look to as a mentor? How have they had an impact on you?

Of course I look up to my true mentor Becky….. but even more so I consider my roommate Meredith Earley as my mentor. We may be the same age and cluelessly wandering through life together, but I know that she has my back. She’d do anything and everything to make my day easier and challenges me to grow every single day, especially in my faith. I love this girl like no other and I know that if I have a crazy passion she will support me until I hit the finish line, no matter how insane the idea sounds. Each day Meredith impacts me with her dreams, goals, and thoughts. She has made me acquire a new outlook on the world and I know that together we can truly make a difference. It may be cheesy to say, but we honestly make a dynamic duo that won’t stop until someone pays attention to what we have to say to the world.

“You can’t change what you refuse to confront.”

~Future Mentor, McKenna Mathis

Detroit Service Trip

Post-Trip Experience 

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.

Being the Me Today That I Want to be Tomorrow

Ringing in the New Semester

What do I really want in 2015?   Right now I have a little less than 365 days to work with in 2015. In this new semester and for the rest of the year I want to take everyday and treat it as an opportunity. Every opportunity that I take can only propel me into something greater and give me momentum to try new things. This year I have already decided to step out of my comfort zone with multiple opportunities, one of which had been my most favorite memory of college thus far.

The generations before Meredith and I…

I was offered the opportunity to carry on the Leadership Advancement Scholar On-Ice tradition by wearing one of two home made fire and ice suits modeled from the “Blades of Glory” movie to a public ice skating rink. I was so apprehensive at first, but it decided to take the opportunity and I’m so thankful that I did. I built a stronger bond with my ‘ice’ partner, met so many new people, and learned just how fun it is to step out of my comfort zone. That experience alone boosted my confidence to try new things and I hope that I can continue to grasp every opportunity as it presents itself. As a leader I understand just how important it is to be open to new opportunities and experiences, so I believe this goal will not only make me live life to the fullest but also become a more successful leader.

What will you share in 2015? This year will be a year of giving back. All of 2014 I had required so much assistance from my mentors, administrators, advisors, staff, family, friends, and my community since going away to college was full of too many new experiences to count. Since I was so new to the process I had to lean on others to help me find my path in a new world called college.Everything from moving to buying books to finding classes to scheduling and everything in between I required some form of help or guidance from. Now that I have my bearings around campus I plan to start sharing what I know about Central Michigan University and college in general.I have already spoke to my local high school about the application process to CMU and many students other students from my area.  I got accepted into the Campus Ambassador program and will be giving tours to high school seniors in order to spark their inner Chippewa! Near the end of this semester I will be choosing my very own mentee to guide through their first semester of college and be able to tell them all the valuable information that they need to know. I hope that I can continue to find other ways to simply give back to Central and my community. I cannot wait to start sharing this year!

What do I really need in 2015? In 2015 I need to make more connections, wether that is meeting someone new in class or building a bond with a professor. The more people that I know and have a relationship with the more opportunities that will present themselves. As the saying goes: its not what you know, it is who you know. Therefore, with this goal in mind I will also be able to accomplish my goal of taking opportunities that I set in the prior paragraph. In addition to meeting new people I also need to strengthen the relationships with the people I already know. I strongly believe that one of the most important things is experiencing life with others. When I get involved with people on campus and others from the community I really begin adding  value to our relationship and with value comes power. As a leader the more quality relationships that I have with people will help me create a support system and a follower-ship bases.

What will I succeed in 2015? This year I will succeed to learn and lead simultaneously. This concept may be a little hard to measure, but I am determined to follow through with it. I plan to do this by managing my time better and taking a learning role in other organizations. One of the best parts of leadership is learning new things and new skills. I feel that if I take an active learning stance I will not only open my eyes to so many new opportunities, but also be able to expand my leadership horizons. Central Michigan University has so many opportunities to learn outside the classroom and chances to apply what a student learned inside the classroom. Each day I will drive myself to learn something new while also reflecting on the possibility of using the new skill or material to lead. In 2015 I will succeed in becoming a learning leader.

~The girl in spandex, McKenna Mathis

LEAD Team

Honoring our Alumni

As part of my Leadership Advancement protocol I am required to join a LEAD team on campus. The team that I decided to sign up for happened to be a new committee for an existing event, the alumni breakfast. As a member of the team we planed the breakfast and then volunteered to help run the event. The breakfast was the morning of homecoming and took place inside the Leadership Institute where our committee set up a table. Our main job was to talk to the past graduates of Central Michigan University and welcome them back to their home. Throughout the weeks of planning I had an expectation that the room would be filled with elderly people who would not feel like sharing their stories with a common freshman. I sure was wrong! I meet so many people, some of which were Leadership Advancement Scholars from the past and even a few people that lived in the same residence hall that I currently do. Over a cup of coffee and some donuts I got a good idea of just how much CMU has changed and developed over the years. Class rooms were built, resident halls were remodeled, curriculum was updated, and technology was advanced. Yet there was one thing that was a common thread through each person’s story, there had always been a friend, professor, or staff member to help them along the way.

One story, that came from my high school track coach had really stuck with me. She was an amazingly talented and hardworking student-athelte when she attend Central Michigan University. She went to all of her classes during the day and the worked through hard and long track practices in the evenings. When all the other athletes left at the end of practice Julie Ravary would stay  to put extra work into her field events. By the time she left the track she would have to sprint to the dinning hall in hopes that she made it there before it closed. One of the cafeteria workers noticed this reoccurring event and told Julie to come around to the back of the cafeteria and knock next time she missed dinner. When she did the cafeteria worker would make her a special plate of food, set out a stool at the counter, and let Julie eat while she cleaned the kitchen. That is the Central Michigan difference.

Now What? Over this experience and all the different stories, I realized that Central is and always has been a caring campus. The staff and professors will do anything they can to help a student succeed. Knowing this I want to be more of a part of the Central difference by continuing the traditions of a warming community. I learned that a little extra effort can go a long way when I put others first, and I could apply that attitude to any future leadership endeavors.  I’m thankful to be a Chippewa and one day a proud alumni.

-A future CMU alumni, McKenna Mathis

Fred Factor

Becoming Fred

Over the course of this activity I became a Fred. Exactly what that means is a simple concept, but actually transforming into a Fred figure is a little more extravagant. The concept of being a Fred is taking our own lives and converting them from ordinary to extraordinary. There are four main umbrella ideas on how to do this: Everyone Makes a Difference, Success is Built on Relationships, Continually Create Value for Others, and Reinvent Yourself Regularly. 

For this task I read the book, Fred Factor. It is a leadership type book wrote by a motivational speaker named Mark Sanborn. Sanborn recounts his personal experience of meeting his mailman, Fred, who always went the extra mile in order to serve the people in his route. Fred took the simple task of placing mail in mailboxes to a creative and loving level. This book remind us that, “there are no insignificant or ordinary jobs when they’re preformed by significant and extraordinary people.” The next part of this project was meeting with my group in order to brainstorm ideas of how to make the transformation into a Fred. Our group went through so many ideas of what to do and how to put our plans in action, and we finally settled on a single idea. It was a stress relieving regimen that we could spread throughout Central Michigan’s campus. We began making these “Stop n’ Pop” cards that had a sheet of bubble wrap attached to it. This way students could take a small break from the studying and stress that they were enduring through midterm week, and have a few moments to enjoy a quick pick-me-up. 

It was a simple idea, it only required some teamwork and and less than 15$, yet its spread all sorts of good energy. The more than 400 people that received “Stop n’ Pops” all smiled, thanked us, and even spread the Fred Factor message. The bubble wrap message was infectious and we heard a lot of pops throughout campus and the library for the next few days. Our excursion not only nailed all the elements of a Fred, but it also transformed each of us into a Fred. I learned that, “being of service isn’t an obligation, but an opportunity.”  The undertaking of this challenge also taught me that the choice to be exceptional is mine and that nobody can prevent me from choosing to be extraordinary. It might not always be easy, but it will always be worth it. 

Now what? Taking the skills that I learned during this project will serve me well as I continue on the path of becoming a leader. I really realized that being a Fred is a form of focusing on the things that are truly important, like others. Being aware to of others and how I could add value to them, build relationships with them and make a differences gives me great hope for the future. “Ignorance isn’t bliss, it’s blind. A lack of awareness prevents us from consciously focusing on what’s important.” Being a Fred and continually recreating myself into a better version of me is my goal so that I can lead others. More importantly I’m a Fred.

~A brand new Fred, McKenna Mathis    “What makes any act extraordinary is doing it with heart.”

Meeting President Ross

A Presidential Parley

The Central Michigan University difference is hard to explain to a person that doesn’t attend this wonderful institution, but there are plenty of examples of it every day around campus. One perfect example of this is when I had the opportunity to meet with the actual president of CMU. President Ross took time out of his day to meet the new Leadership Advancement Scholar cohort, and I am so thankful to be one of those 44 students to meet him. At most colleges a student would be lucky to be in the same room as the president of the university, let alone actually meeting him.

I started developing a real connection with Ross when he began telling us about his childhood, his upbringing, and his journey along the way to his success. Little did I know that the wisdom filled man in a snappy suit in front of me grew up on a farm in Missouri. He had many siblings and his family was so poor. President Ross was the underdog in life, yet he made it to the top, at one of the greatest institution in the country. Exactly how President Ross made it was one of the most inspiring stories of all. He worked small end jobs, went to college whenever possible, and kept an optimistic outlook on life. President Ross ended up at Michigan State University to study accounting and was success. He was hired at Central, and began slowly working is way up the ladder until he obtained presidential status. The story in and of itself was amazing to hear, but the lessons that Ross drew from it and passed on to us made the biggest impact of all. He stressed the fact that we CAN really do anything that we dream of if we are willing to work out tails off for it. President Ross also emphasized the fact that we need seize every opportunity presented to us because some of the most wonderful things in life come from surprises.

President Ross takes time to virtually meet with a student that could not attend the meeting.

In the second portion of meeting President Ross we were allowed to ask him questions. He made a personal connection with each one of us that asked a question since he required us to tell him our major, where we were from, and of course, our names. Most of the questions revolved around what we could do to better help lead or better CMU entirely. President Ross gave some great advice to never give up, keep trying to better yourself, make connections along the way, and have fun.

All in all it was amazing to have a person of such high status that wanted to come and meet a group of freshmen. From the experience I learned that dreaming big is the best thing that you can do for yourself, always take ahold of opportunities that present themselves, take time to truly meet people along the way, and never give up, even in the worst of times.

~McKenna Mathis