As a Leader Advancement Scholar at Central Michigan University, I’ve had the opportunity to be accepted into a unique and complex group of individuals that soon became my family. I was welcomed by my very own mentor, Becky DalSanto, and she was welcomed by her’s, Dakota Hard…. and so on and so forth. This year, as a sophomore, it was finally time for me to accept someone new into the family. This someone new just so happened to be my bundle of joy, Kylie Zellner.
Eagle Village: Round Two!
As an incoming freshman I spent the weekend at Eagle Village with my Mentor and now I had the chance to go again with Kylie! {Click here to see her take of the experience} I’d have to say, the trip was a giant event foreshadowing the rest of the year. We experienced a lot of laughs, challenges and overall bonding. We entered the camp as complete strangers and left as family, and as the year progresses I couldn’t have asked for a better mentee.
Thats just how we role…
Going into this experience I hoped to have a relationship with Kylie that I’ve seen past mentor/mentee pairs have. That is, best friends that do everything together and seem to be a match meant to be by the universe. However, Kylie and I don’t quite have that type of relationship, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Instead, I’d describe our bond as unfaltering and independent, which matches both of our personalities. Kylie and I are able to go extended periods of time apart from each other, yet we know that we have each other’s backs. If she where to ever have a problem or a question, I’d be the first one to through myself in the way to help her sort it out. Through the tough and scary things, the happy and exciting moments, and the everyday ups and downs our relationship will be firm, enduring and unfaltering without having to spend every waking moment together. Thats just how we role…
So what…
Throughout this experience I’ve loved my role as a mentor and each time that I see Kylie the excitement is still boundless. Whether she realizes it or not, I feel extremely proud to not only have I gained an amazing friend , but also a sister that I get the privilege of watching grow into who she really is meant to be. Each time I hear from her and see her around I have this unending joy as I see her personality and confidence evolve. As she continues to push herself academically, try new things, and take on more predominant leadership roles around campus and beyond I will never stop being a proud mentor.
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?
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.
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!!
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).
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).
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.
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.
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
“History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.” Lord Action
As this year is coming quickly to a close I feel that it is important to reflect on my History class that I took this semester with Professor Tobin. This class challenged my previous view of American History up to this point and made me begin to think critically about how leadership played a major role in developing the nation into what it is today. The assignments that made me reflect the most on leadership styles and actions were our response papers. During class our professor would play a documentary about a famous leader of the United States that we had to write a quick 1-2 page paper about. We were allowed to pose our own questions, create our own theories, and thought about the leader that we saw on the screen. Each assignment a new challenge factor was added by Professor Tobin, such as find primary sources and academic articles to support our claims.
Each one of these mini assignments about great leaders like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Hitler led up to the biggest assignment of the semester….our final paper. We were given a short list of influential leaders to discuss and form our own topic about one of them. I personally picked Martin Luther King Jr. to write the 8-10 page paper about. Our only requirement was the length and to find two primary and four secondary sources from credible academic journals to support our argument. Other than that I was free to mold this paper into anything that I pleased….which was very scary to begin. After quite awhile of brainstorming I was able to come up with a question. What qualities did Martin Luther King Jr. possess that made him a great leader of the Civil Rights Movement? From here I created my thesis of: King’s vivid visions for change, ability to mobilize his followers, and boldness to tackle risks all served as his main attributes for success as a leader.
Through the many hours spent developing this paper (and the many more that will go into refining it) I have learned quite a bit about what I value as important qualities for a leader, most of which all involve the mindset and communication that a specific leader has. I found that leadership has nothing to do with a person’s stature, social status, or education but instead who that person truly is. I already knew this to some degree, but having to write multiple papers about real life instances with historical figures has expanded those thought exponentially. I hope that as I continue to break down barriers in the leadership world that I can someday have the strength to break through the ‘Glass Ceiling.’ that many have come to find as a great obstacle. All in all, I feel that I have something that I can actually take away from this class and apply to my life since all of the great leaders that we have covered exemplify different leadership qualities.
“When you develop yourself to the point where you believe in yourself so strongly that you know you can accomplish anything you put you mind to, your future will be unlimited.”
The One Who Will Break Through the Glass Ceiling ~McKenna Mathis
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.
‘Yes’ and ‘no’ could be considered two of the most powerful words in the English language. They could also be considered the most direct antonyms that a person could use, yet with all of the control that these two words provide people say them carelessly hundreds of times in a week. As a leader uttering one of these two syllables could change nothing at all or alter everything within seconds. So the question is proposed, is leadership a yes or no decision?
The whole point of a leader is to guide the group, nothing more and nothing less. It is said, “Be stubborn about your goals and flexible about your methods” ~unknown. Giving the answer of ‘yes’ provides the flexibility that all good leaders require, but it also gives the power back to the followers. It’s a simple idea that has seemed to be lost along the way since many people are more focused on the role as a leader instead of the goal of the followers. As long as the goal is met, the path traveled to get there welcomes variability. For this reason leadership is a ‘yes’ decision.
Many leaders believe that if they always say yes to their followers then they will loose control of the whole group, but many forget that ‘yes’ can also provide the sternness of a ‘no’. Providing a ‘yes’ to something that a leader doesn’t think will work will do one of two things: fail horrendously and turn into a learning experience for the group or surprise everyone in its success. I know that many times over the years I have been on both sides of the spectrum, yet I still do not regret ever saying ‘yes.’ Sometimes it is best to allow a group to figure things out in their own way, experience is the best instructor. A group that learns together can usually stick together better because that is how a community is built. ‘Yes’ will always build the community, yet a ‘no’ can do one or the other, which is too much of a risk for a leader to take at the expense of their followers.
Stay true to the goal
Say ‘yes’ to your followers
Become the leader that makes the group noticed instead of yourself
Most people know by now that the best way to lead is not to boss others around. We’ve all had a leader, boss, or authority figure at one point or another that is what too controlling of what the group or organization is doing. Did a certain someone pop into your head? We have probably also have had a director, leader, or manager by now who we’ve absolute have loved! Have someone in mind? Think about those two people and exactly what makes them different. I always thought it was the passion that someone had for the task at hand, or that their incentive was worth wild. Simon Sinek finally pinned down exactly what made the difference between the two leader, and surprisingly I found that it wasn’t ‘what’ but actually ‘why.’
Now, I have watched some interesting Ted Talks in my day, but this short clip was by far one of the most altering on my outlook of leadership. Simon Sinek, the speaker in the video above, simply breaks down the reason that leading companies and leaders themselves succeed above the rest of the competition. Sinek describes this process as ‘The Golden Circle.’Almost anyone can accomplish a task that they are given with the right recourses and followers, so why is it that one person may succeed over another? When most leaders enter a task they think of what they have to accomplish instead of why. As portrayed in the picture to the left the why is the inner most circle, the most intense, and most important. That is exactly where leaders should focus their energy in order to put their spirit behind the things that they need to accomplish. Sinek emphasized the fact that, “people do not buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” In translation to leadership~People do not follow a leader because of what they do or accomplished by why they want to do those things in the first place.
So what? If you are anything like me, the Ted Talk sparked up some serious thought on the way I lead groups, organizations, and my own life. What can I do to separate myself from all of the other amazing and even more qualified leaders on campus and in the community? The answer is simple, nothing. Its not what I change, that will my me stronger, braver, capable, more passionate, more hard working or even more effective. Its simply why. Its definitely a tough concept to grasp, and one of those ‘gut check’ moments that I get to experience before I jump into something new. I have to be completely honest with myself as I begin something new, is my heart more focused on the why or the what.
“Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”Vince Lombardi
Why me and not them? The answer is the first word of the question….
“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.
As a Leader Advancement Scholar at Central Michigan University, I’ve had the opportunity to be accepted into a unique and complex group of individuals that soon became my family. I was welcomed by my very own mentor, Becky DalSanto, and she was welcomed by her’s, Dakota Hard…. and so on and so forth. This year, as a sophomore, it was finally time for me to accept someone new into the family. This someone new just so happened to be my bundle of joy, Kylie Zellner.
Going into this experience I hoped to have a relationship with Kylie that I’ve seen past mentor/mentee pairs have. That is, best friends that do everything together and seem to be a match meant to be by the universe. However, Kylie and I don’t quite have that type of relationship, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Instead, I’d describe our bond as unfaltering and independent, which matches both of our personalities. Kylie and I are able to go extended periods of time apart from each other, yet we know that we have each other’s backs. If she where to ever have a problem or a question, I’d be the first one to through myself in the way to help her sort it out. Through the tough and scary things, the happy and exciting moments, and the everyday ups and downs our relationship will be firm, enduring and unfaltering without having to spend every waking moment together. Thats just how we role…
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.
t an amazing reality check for me to be more grateful for the things that I take for granted.
Sinek describes this process as ‘The Golden Circle.’Almost anyone can accomplish a task that they are given with the right recourses and followers, so why is it that one person may succeed over another? When most leaders enter a task they think of what they have to accomplish instead of why. As portrayed in the picture to the left the why is the inner most circle, the most intense, and most important. That is exactly where leaders should focus their energy in order to put their spirit behind the things that they need to accomplish. Sinek emphasized the fact that, “people do not buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” In translation to leadership~People do not follow a leader because of what they do or accomplished by why they want to do those things in the first place.
McKenna Mathis 