At the beginning of this year I decided that I wanted to bond with the underclass men of the Leadership Advancement Scholarship program because I understand the importance of mentorship. I was fortunate enough to have people and opportunities to shape and mentor me during my first year of college, and I thought serving on the trip that jumpstarted it all would be a great place to start! {Click here to read about my experience on this trip in 2015}
First things first: FACILITATION
This trip was mainly focused around the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy(JRLA). We met with students enrolled in their leadership courses of their high school and taught them how to facilitate different leadership activities. We discussed community standards, what it takes to be a leader, and the different types of leadership styles that were used. Through this my role was to use the facilitation skills I’ve learned over my college years to teach the LAS freshman how to facilitate. The LASers then took their new skills to the JRLA high schoolers and taught them. Our goal was to create a living and learning community, which was exactly what happened.
Second step: ServiceThe next day the 45+ LAS students the LEAD team and I were in charge of woke up ready
to serve! We worked with CASS community in different facets of service. Some people worked on recycling, some worked with the soup kitchen, and some worked on making products out of recycled material to sell to the community. We spent a couple of long and laborious hours with this organization and really got to know the community members. We learned that each of the employees were once part of the homeless population of Detroit and all of their stories merged together when they joined CASS community. This organization gave them job, education, and opportunities to give back to the community they came from. Overall, the students in my facilitation group fell in love with the service, mission, and people of CASS.
Third…. was a little bit of fun!
As the LEAD team coordinators we made sure the LAS students had a little fun along with their hard work. We planned a trip to Quicken Loans, where we toured around the facility and were informed of their forward thinking business outlooks. Whether those outlooks included dog-friendly workplaces, basketball hoops, slushy machines, or even colorful paint we learned that the workplace can be a place of fun that cultivates creativity. By the end of the visit we had multiple people scheduling interviews for summer internships with the company. Lastly we were off to the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA). This trip was purely for fun and the LAS students loved spending time with their cohort learning about the importance of art and the culture that surrounds it.
So what?
During this trip all I wanted to do was to be a mentor to the underclassman LASers. Did I accomplish this goal? YES, and so much more. I connected with the students in ways that I could have never imagined, but I also learned so much from them. Their different passions showed through as we served along side of each other and I truly felt like these people were the leaders of today, the ones who were going to change the world in ways no one could have ever imagined. So, yes I was a mentor, a leader, a member of the LEAD team…. but ultimately I was a friend, fellow server, and a step toward a brighter future for Detroit.
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
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.
The next day the 45+ LAS students the LEAD team and I were in charge of woke up ready
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.
McKenna Mathis 