Nobody Knows what a Serval is

At the beginning of my freshman year, I attended Leadership Safari as a participant, and I loved it.  The week long conference helped my feel comfortable on campus, have fun, and really accept CMU as my home.  So, I decided to apply to become a Leadership Safari Guide so I could help impact incoming CMU student’s lives in the positive way my Safari experience had impacted mine.  The process of applying interviewing, and going to multiple trainings before finding out whether I had been accepted or not really showed me how badly I wanted to be a part of this program.  When I found out I was going to be guide I was excited, but even then I had no clue how much this program would end up meaning to me by the end.  As it is a long week with lots of info, I am just going to make a list as short as I can without making this post a novel about what exactly made my experience so amazing.

1. Yellow Submarine:  Every guide at leadership safari is a part of a core team, which is led by a core guide.  Your core team is your rock throughout the stressful week of safari.  I am still close with my core team now even after safari is done, and I cannot put into words how grateful I am for the group of amazing individuals I was lucky enough to meet and learn from.  They were a group of fun people who knew what to say to make everyone feel better.  I know my future involvements with safari are going to be amazing, but I will never forget my original core team.
2. Cia Elder: I could have included this in my description of yellow submarine, but I thought Cia deserved a section to her own.  Cia was my core guide for my first safari, and now she is one of my biggest role models at CMU.  She is a great example of servant leadership and authenticity.  She cares, is the definition of positivity, and never fails to be inclusive.
3. Team Serval: As a Guide, I was given an animal that will represent my team for the week, and I got Serval.  Yes, a serval.  I also had no idea what the heck that was when I was given my team name.  However, my team and I learned to really embrace the strange animal throughout the week.  My team is a large part of what made my week so great.  They were so good at going with the flow.  Even when they were tired or not in the best mood due to the long and exhausting days, they still put their best efforts in and tried not to complain.
4. The Energy:  Second only to the people you meet, the energy is my favorite part of Leadership Safari.  The people you are with are all so hyped up about CMU the whole time.  It is exhilarating to be in a room of people who are all as happy as you are.  Along with the energy goes the fact that everyone around you is passionate about something.  Whether it is people or leadership or CMU, they all care deeply about something.
5. The Growth:  I believe being a Leadership Safari Guide has given me the ability to develop my facilitation skills to grow exponentially.  I had facilitated before, but Leadership Safari really takes your facilitation skills and puts a magnifying glass to them.  I believe I am a much stronger leader now than I was before.

 

I could go on for days about how much I love Leadership Safari, but I know that this was not my last Leadership Safari and I will have even more to share about what this program does for me and others in the future.

 

From Mentee to Mentor

As we get so close to ending our freshman year, we are prepared to move from the mentee role to the mentor role.   Picking a mentee is super exciting, but after you get past the process of getting a mentee, you have to remember that part of being a mentor is putting them first.  They are the ones who are going to be thrown into the a whole new world of college and need someone to help them make the transition.

Going into this process I knew what I was looking for out of my mentor/mentee relationship because of how well things went for my my mentor, Stephanie.  However, my mentee not want the same things that me and Steph wanted.  We had a workshop in class the other day that helped us talk about what being a mentor is all about.  During the workshop we were put into small groups.  The first thing we did in these groups is talk about the things we wish we would have known before coming to college.  This was the part that I think really showed me that what the mentee needs is most important because though there were common themes in our answers, most of us had different things that we wish we would have known coming into college.  This showed me a lot because the cohort below us is all going to have different struggles the beginning of their college experience that we are going to have to help them with.  No two people’s experiences are exactly identical.

As I await my much anticipated mentee, I think a lot about what type of mentor I want to be to my mentee, and the answer whenever I ask myself what kind of mentor I want to be is the same: I want to be someone they feel comfortable talking to about whatever is going on in their life, good or bad.  I think the best way to do this is going to be by being an active listener at all possible times because I will be there for them whenever they need me. I am positive that I will be able to be a good mentor to my mentee, and I cannot wait to meet them 🙂

 

 

Why am I here?

In LDR 200 the other day, we watched and discussed the Ted Talk: How Great Leaders Inspire Action.  This Ted Talk discusses the idea of the Golden Circle.  Everyone knows what they are doing.  Most people know how they are doing it. Very few actually know why they are doing it? “Start with why”  When going forward with anything in life you should know your why.  We talked about how knowing your why and making it known is a better way to get people to want you to lead.  For example, in the Ted Talk they used Martin Luther King and how he became one of the greatest leaders in US history.  Many people at that time had similar views, however Martin Luther King made it known WHY he was doing this. I also believe that if you have your why, you are more likely to be successful in whatever you endeavor because you will be more driven and passionate about whatever you choose to do.

After doing this, each of us got with a partner and discussed what we were passionate about, why we wake up in the morning, what disappoints us, our value
s, etc. While discussing this our partner took notes and kind of interpreted what we saying and tried to bring it back to one central purpose that drives us.  My partner was Makenna Hogerheide, and boy was I lucky.  Makenna opened my eyes on so much.  I have always felt like I was just extremely opinionated on so many things that it was hard for me to say I was super passionate about them all.  I always felt that I loved learning because I loved every class, so how was I supposed to know which one was what I should study?  I loved everything.  I always thought of this as an annoying thing.  Makenna helped me realize that the reason that I think learning is so important and why I love it so much is because I think being educated on other lives and parts of the world will be the first step to getting rid of hatred in the world for other cultures.  She wrote down on my paper “World Peace but not in a cheesy way”  I LOVED THAT.  Yes, I know war is going to happen, that is not necessarily what I mean.  I just don’t want the world to be driven by hate and separation of different cultures,genders, race, etc., and most of this hate and separation is driven from ignorance and not knowing about the world.  I also talked a lot about how a large part of what dissappoints me in the world is not only people’s hate for each other, but with themselves. It was from all of this that I found my why statement.  Having a healthy relationship with the world
goes along with taking care of the earth we live on as well.

“Inspire others to develop healthy relationship with themselves, others, and the world.”

I then helped Makenna find her why statement and we discovered together that Makenna lives to make others happy.  Through both finding my own why statement, but also helping Makenna find hers, I became so enlightened and hopeful for my future as a leader.  This was by far one of my favorite things that LAS has helped me realize about myself.  Not only does this why statement help me know what drives me for the future, it also allows me some insight on things I have done in the past.

Now knowing my why statement, I feel like I will be able to be a better leader.  The first step to inspiring others is to make sure I am living by my why statement.  This starts with developing a healthy relationship with myself.  I need to focus on my own mental and physical health at times, just as much as I work on my healthy relationships with others.  To improve my healthy relationships with others I will let the people I love know how much I care for them and spend quality time with them.  For those whom I don’t know,  I will be open minded and start conversations with strangers.  To help develop healthy relationships with the world I will keep on learning.  I will learn about the world in order to become more educated on different views and cultures.

Focusing on living by my why statement is going to make me a better leader.  By living by my why statement, I will be able to inspire others to do the same.  One of the most important parts of being a good leader is being a good role model.  I also will spread knowledge about the differences in the world, and inspire open mindedness and love for the world.

How a (gleeky) TV show changed my life

When I was little my family used to always make fun of me because I had what they called an “obsessive personality.”  I do not disagree with them because I get very hooked on specific TV shows, movies, bands, songs, foods, anything at a time.  However, one of my favorite TV shows and biggest obsession periods was the TV show Glee.

Glee is probably one of the dorkiest TV shows and that is exactly why I love it.  I first fell in love because it was a light-hearted funny show based on music…what wasn’t to love?  However, the show came out right when I was in middle school and my view on the world was expanding.  People quickly went from saying “that’s dumb” or “that’s stupid” in elementary school to “that’s gay” or “that’s retarded” in middle school and I HATED IT. I still do.  I could never really convince people that it wasn’t the nicest things to say, so I kind of kept to myself on the issue for a little while until this one episode inspired me to stand up to whoever said these harmful things.  One Tuesday night I was watching my favorite TV show and one of the characters said to one of the gay characters that something was “faggy.”  The dad quickly overheard and gave one of the greatest television speeches I have ever heard about this derogatory and exclusive language.  The video can be seen here.

This really opened my eyes to even though people are saying they don’t mean anything bad by saying “that’s gay” or “that’s retarded” they still are putting a negative connotation with words that should not have any negative connotation with them at all.  It creates a sense of superiority that is unnecessarily cruel and offensive.  This happened very early on in the show and it really opened the character’s eyes as it opened mine.  The show continued to tackle social issues, and, though it is heavily dramatized at times, it really sparked a fire in me to say “hey, judging others is not right!”

Because let’s be honest, what if the roles were reversed? Say in some parallel universe being a straight white male was the minority and it was treated as though it was a “disability” or a “handicap” rather than just a regular part of that person’s life?  What if people said “That’s so straight”?? Sounds pretty dumb doesn’t it? So why do people go around wasting breath with hateful and exclusive language?

I hope this is a fad that dies out, fast.

So, to all of you out there who get (lovingly)picked on by your family for loving a TV show, know that there is a chance it can change your view and outlook on the world and shape your life forever! Thanks Glee!!!

You are made of the same stuff as Mountains

Right now, I am sitting in my favorite coffee shop with my best friend( s/o to Kristina Slifco)  sipping on my favorite tea.  A few moments ago I went to go get some water and noticed a sign hanging that read “You are made of the same stuff as Mountains.”  I stared at this quote for a minute because it really spoke volumes to me.  I love motivational quotes, but this one might be my new favorite because it is so true.  I am a little nerd, and so the chemistry part of me starting jumping up and down because of this quote.  It is so humbling to think that literally everything in this world can be traced down to the same elements.  As cliche as it may seem, we are the stars, we are the mountains, and we are the sky (s/o to my hippie self and these trippy vibes).  Nature is seen as something so beautiful in our world, but we are made of the same things as nature.  We as a human race are beautiful and have the ability to do so much with the world.  So lets treat out bodies and our environment and our lives as they should be treated and cherish the beauty that is literally everything in our world. Also, Save Kaya.