Tutoring

A Job and Learning Experience

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.)

 

Setbacks and Strides Forward

Last year around this time I reflected on my journey of joining the CMU Running Club. I was nervous, and quite reluctant at first, but I ended falling in love with the sport all over again. Coming into the fall 2016 cross country season I was ready to meet up with my team and take on the sport in stride….but that did not go as intended. Last year training for the half marathon I became injured and didn’t stop to give my body a rest. Determined to finish the half marathon I kept running, pushing myself, and ultimately making my injury worse (typical of any strong willed runner). Starting off this season I had to go through a knee surgery that end with adverse complications. In total, I was readmitted to the hospital, developed blood clots in my leg and both lungs, underwent another surgery, had a device implanted by my heart, and racked up many hours of physical therapy. So what was a girl supposed to do? Keep going.

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Following all of the unforeseen events I was left exhausted, upset, and with broken spirits. Returning for the fall season was out of the question with fresh stitches and soon to be scars. Yet, that didn’t stop my teammates from being my team of supporters. I still went to social events, attended elections, and ultimately became the team’s #1 fan (as did they for me). Once I got clearance from the surgeons and physical therapists to lace up my running shoes I was determined to get back to practice…. yet fear kept me away from something I loved so much. Fear of re-injury, fear of lost progress, fear of disappointing myself. So I began secretly training on my own in attempt to hide my recovery process from my team, yet once a team ALWAYS a team. Before I knew it I was convinced to come back to the track. With a lot of vulnerability at practice I was back running painfully slow times… yet having a blast. My team supported me, encouraged me, and pushed me to get back in the groove. Who knew that a Register Student Organization (RSO) could mean so much to me? Moral of the story: You can’t do everything on you own, no matter how headstrong you are. Sometimes you’ll need someone to help you along the way, maybe even a small army at times, but there is no shame in leaning onto another to accomplish something so much greater than yourself.

So where am I now? After a lot of laughs, sweat, ice packs, and memories I was pushed by my teammates to sign up for the NIRCA National meet. I once again slipped into the maroon jersey with apprehension. I proudly wore Central Michigan University’s flying “C” across my chest. I laced up my spikes with reoccurring fear from the beginning of the season and competed like I ever thought I would again. I ended the meet by running a semi-decent time in the 1500m and earned an All-American title in the high jump. My team couldn’t be more proud to bring a few All-American titles home and I couldn’t be more satisfied with the abundance of  joy this team has brought into my life. FIRE UP CHIPS!

#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

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

Making Connections

Connections Conference

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.

~McKenna Mathis “Be the Silver Lining”