Power, Privilege, Oppression, and Intersectionality

In December, I was able to site lead an Alternative Break through CMU.  I site lead the Youth Development AB that went to Omaha, Nebraska to work with Youth Emergency Services, a non-profit organization that provides resources to homeless and nearly-homeless youth in the area. This AB challenged me in ways that other ones had not yet. Being a site leader, I had extra responsibilities, such as making sure everyone arrived safe, communicating with community partners, and facilitating community building and reflections with my group. I did this with a co-site leader, from who I learned from and problem-solved with. This AB also helped understand the depth of intersectionality more than my previous ABs had.

Through service we helped sort through donations, deliver donations, set up for a Christmas Service with the members of YES!, and help run the Christmas Service. Through working with the donations I learned a lot about how much privilege I have by having easy access to everyday products that I use and need. Specifically, I looked at this through the lens of being a woman. During service, I spent lots of time going through feminine hygiene products and was surprised at how many donations of tampons and pads there were. I then realized that if I had no income or way to pay for these necessities, I would have no way of getting them. Females NEED access to these every month, and it is something that is not often donated because it is overlooked. So, if you are looking to donate to a shelter, consider donating feminine hygiene products. I also learned from my community partner the terrifying statistic that once a female is homeless, within 90 minutes 43% will be a victim of sex trafficking. This AB made me think deeper about my privilege to have access to things that keep me safe and healthy but also how much of a privilege it is for me to even go on an Alternative Break. The ability to take off time from work and serve for a week is privilege. To have access to education is a privilege.

The Christmas Service was set up with donations from members and organizations in the community for those who utilize YES! to come and take what they need. This included, diapers, baby clothing, cooking utensils, toiletries, blankets, hats, gloves, coats, and clothing. Everything in the Christmas Service was brand new, it was a gift. This made me even more aware of my privilege because when I saw individuals coming through to take what they need, when given the choice of perfume/face masks or toothpaste/blankets, they chose the toothpaste or blankets or soap, because it was what they needed. They had the opportunity to take things that aren’t a necessity, and they would get excited about soap or diapers, because it was something they needed. I had one girl who was about 13 come up and ask me what all she should take in order to take care of her hair. In that moment, I realized that not everyone has access to learn about different elements of what we consider everyday actions, let alone have the materials to be able to do them.

I also learned how those in power are implementing policies that are harming these individuals. In Nebraska, one is not able to sign a lease for their own home or apply for a loan until 19. This means that the task of going to college or moving out is extremely difficult. This puts a large number of individuals without a home unless their parents can afford to help them once they are done with high school. It is disproportionately harming families from lower socioeconomic status areas and putting them in danger. This harm increases for communities of color, woman, and individuals with disabilities. This is one example of the way those in power have the ability to shape the lives of individuals.

Alternative Breaks never fail to make me realize my privilege and give me a resurgence in my belief that it is my responsibility as a person who has privilege to do my best to help those who have not had the privilege of being given access to the same things I have. I look forward to site leading another Alternative Break this summer.

Detroit Service Trip LEAD team, try number 2

My freshman year, my cohort of LAS went on a service trip to Detroit where we received education about Detroit and served the community. This year I was on the LEAD team for the Detroit Service Trip for the freshman cohort of LAS. This meant I was able to participate in the experience and facilitate reflections with a small group of students. This experience had some differences from my freshman year, and I have grown a lot and am different too. It is because of these differences that I was able to learn so much and be impacted so heavily by the experience.

One of the biggest things that I took away this time was how aware I was of the gentrification that is occurring in Detroit. On the first day of the trip, we spent some time with Quicken Loans and took a historic tour of Detroit. During the tour, we learned about the housing barriers that have been placed on people of color and the systemic racism that has driven many decisions that have been made in the city. Decisions that were made not that long ago, have had immense effects on communities of color. After the day, I was eager to get into reflection because of the impact the tour. It was fulfilling to hear and see students response to the tour and the amount they learned. They were able to connect the dots in how power and privilege can lead to groups being oppressed. The next day we served with CASS. The group I was with worked on recycling paper. I helped sort paper before it went to be shredded.

This experience was an amazing one that gave me the opportunity to help members of the freshman cohort reflect and grow from their experience, and it gave me the opportunity to learn and grow myself.

How We Made a Difference in Detroit

The “LAS in the D” trip was an action packed 30 hours that was filled with tons of excitement.  My entire LAS cohort packed onto a bus and headed towards Detroit with lots of enthusiasm and not really knowing what to expect.  Little did we know that this short trip was going to be one to remember.

Our first stop was to the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy.   While at the academy we were
split into different groups that had two LAS in the D Lead team members, five LAS students, and students from the academy.  We got a chance to spend a few hours at the JLRA and facilitate leadership activities with students. Being around these kids was such a fun experience because they each had such different personalities, but they were still there to learn about leadership.  Each of the students we worked with were so positive in whatever we were doing.  One of the activities we were doing involved using long string attached to a piece of plastic that is holding a kickball to move the kickball across the room.  Having done this activity before and knowing how frustrating it can be, I expected to see the students get kind of frustrated.  However, they were extremely positive and were constantly trying to think of better ways to accomplish the task.  This was one of my favorite parts of the day because it made me do a lot of self-reflection because I know often I get annoyed with doing small tasks like that and focus on the frustrations, but they all made it seem so much easier if they just kept a positive attitude.

There was a girl who joined our group a little later after we had already done our introductions, and you could tell she kind of felt out of place.  Throughout the activities she participated and gave full effort in the activities but she remained  pretty quiet throughout the entirety of the day until the end of our time at Jalen Rose.  Before we left, all of the groups met together in their gym and were discussing some of the things throughout the day.  The girl was one of the first students to stand up and share her opinions and reflect on how the day went.  Though I had only  met her a few hours before, I felt so proud that she had stood up and talked.  Since she had been quiet the majority of the day, I didn’t expect her to get up and share how the day had impacted her, and it showed to me how large of an impact we were having at the academy even after only being there a few short hours.

After leaving Jalen Rose, we ventured into the city.  As we drove into downtown Detroit, I watched out the bus window and slowly had this feeling of extreme excitement race through me.  Though I had a ton of fun at Jalen Rose, I was so excited to the see the city I had heard so much about but never experienced.  I love cities, and as soon as I started seeing the tall buildings and busy streets I couldn’t contain my excitement. We arrived at Quicken Loans and we ate some of the BEST pizza.  I never really knew much about Quicken Loans and expected them to be some boring business company.  However, when you walk into their offices, you learn they are anything but boring.  Their offices are fun and bright.  We listened to their Vice President, John Fikany, talk about Quicken Loans  and I was instantly inspired.  Hearing what he had to say about wanting to help rebuild Detroit.  They knew why they were doing what they were doing, and they had so much passion.  We got to tour Quicken Loans, and I was fascinated with what they were doing.  Each space was so different and so innovative.  Seeing Quicken Loans really made me think about what I was doing with my time and my life.  I know what I want to do, but seeing Quicken Loans help Detroit made me realize I can do so much with what I care about as long as I have a passion.  If you care about something, it is easy to put in the effort to make a difference.  John Fikany wasn’t doing this for money or for status, he was working at Quicken Loans to make the city a better place.  I can honestly say that touring Quicken Loans has motivated me more than any other experience has.

After leaving Quicken Loans, my fellow LASers and I got a chance to visit the Detroit Institute of Art.  I love art museums because they are such an insightful way to view culture.  I walked through the DIA trying to see as much as possible because I had never visited before.  My favorite piece of art was found in the Modern Art section.  It was named “Autobiography: Air/CS560”  It was super cool because it was made of different phrases that combined to represent the inhumanity of man, and it focused a lot on societal issues in the world today.  I thought that was pretty interesting.

We then got the chance to have a big slumber party in the DNR’s Outdoor Adventure Center.  My whole cohort took this opportunity to act like little kids and play sardines!  It was super fun exploring the Outdoor Adventure Center and learn how they were making a difference.  My favorite part of the Outdoor Adventure Center was that they had a poster board that had their “why” on it.  They had the golden circle picture from the Ted Talk on leadership, and then multiple people involved in the Outdoor Adventure Center had their own why statement on the board.  It kind of made me realize that leadership truly does go full circle.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early prepared for a full day of service.  We headed over to a Detroit-based agency called CASS, where we were split into four groups to do different service.  One group helped prepare food, another made doormats out of illegally dumped tires, and another helped sort donated clothing.  My group got to head over to a separate warehouse where we got to work with recycled paper and cardboard from other companies.  We shredded the paper and put it into what was like a hay bale made of paper.  I also helped clean their bathrooms.  It was so cool because in the middle of this super busy warehouse was this big sign that said “Fighting Poverty. Creating Opportunity.”  We got to learn about the history of CASS and all that they do, and I didn’t want to leave.  I felt like I could have helped so much more if we could have just stayed longer.  The people at CASS devote their life to making the world and specifically Detroit a better place, and I felt like we could have easily dedicated more time there.

While my group was walking to the warehouse though, I viewed a lot more of what I would mentally picture when I hear Detroit.  It was like as soon as we left the city to head to CASS we were surrounded by run down houses with no yards and abandoned stores.  My eyes were opened that this isn’t what Detroit is, but there are still parts that need a lot of help and rebuilding.  It was so crazy to me how different two sides of the street could look.  On one side was the super nice brick building with a tall fence, and on the other were tightly-packed houses that looked like they needed a little  TLC. Working with CASS was easily 100% my favorite part of the trip to Detroit.

The trip to Detroit  made me want to do MORE—more service, more bonding with my LAS cohort, more learning about Detroit, more growth…more.

The Muggle World of Emma Watson

Emma Watson is seen as a beautiful and graceful actress who starred in one of the best film series of all time.  However, she is one of my biggest role models for many more reasons than that.  Here are a few:

1. She pours her life into her passions.                                                                               Emma took the opportunity after finishing Harry Potter to go to college to get an Education because it was something she was passionate about.  She started a campaign about feminism because it is something she was passionate about.  She devotes her life to charities because it is something she is passionate about.  Emma Watson lives her life through what she feels is important to her in the world.
2. She stands up for what she believes in.                                                                                         Emma Watson saw a change she wanted to make, so she launched a campaign to raise awareness for women’s rights around the world.  At such a young age she has made a large impact by making her voice heard and helping others all over the world.  She also has worked with the United Nations to help make her voice heard.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
3. She inspires others.                                                                                                              
   Through her He for She campaign she has   inspired others to learn and educate themselves about the inequalities around the world today.  Through her speaking her mind and standing up for what she believes in, she has inspired (such as me) to do the same.  She inspires by proving that standing up for what you believe in and being passionate is something we should all strive to do.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
4. She preaches and practices self-love.  Emma Watson prides herself on being her own person an loving that is different.  In fact, she wants everyone else to love themselves too.  She focuses her opinion on herself based solely on her own view of herself and not on what others may think.  She lives by the motto that she isn’t giving others or society the control to determine what she thinks of herself. This is a goal that I want to one day achieve and I think it is one of the most admirable traits of Emma Watson.

So, how does this make her an exemplary leader?  Well if it doesn’t go without saying,  Emma Watson has had a positive impact on tons of people, and continues to everyday.  Through her action she is creating more leaders to help make their own voices heard. Since she is an advocate for individuality she is inspiring others who do not necessarily have the same views as her, but is still wanting everyone to let their voice be heard.

How does she impact my life?  One day I hope to have inspired someone as much as Emma Watson as inspired me.  One of her passions, feminism, is something that I feel very passionate about as well, and through her actions and words I have learned a lot about what feminism is and how it can be interpreted to others.  She is a refreshing in terms of feminist role models in the country who are not necessarily political leaders.  The United States has many political leaders who are feminists, and lots of celebrities who claim to be.  However, Emma Watson is celebrity feminist who is practicing what she preaches and making a difference.  She isn’t saying she is a feminist for fame, she is doing it because she is passionate.

Another passion of Emma Watson’s is self-love.  This is something I have become extremely passionate about within the past year and moving to CMU.  I think a large part of being happy, having a healthy lifestyle, and helping others is having a healthy relationship with yourself.  Emma Watson gives great inspiration to others to allow them to love themselves.

I hope to continue my life and develop the leadership qualities that Emma Watson has.  She is a great role model for men, women, and young children.  I hope one day I can become a great role model too.  I can do this by improving on the qualities listed above.

Just because Emma Watson is amazing, here are some more of my fav quotes by her:

Get Connected, FOR FREE

As a part of LAS we got the opportunity to go to the Connections Conference at Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City, MI.  Though LAS goes to the conference, it is open to anyone on Central’s campus that would like to go.  When we got there the first night, we were introduced to the groups we would be working with over the course of the next two days and then were given free time to go to the waterpark!  The next day, we woke up early and got right to business on learning new information about leadership.  We were allowed to pick four different speakers we wanted to go to throughout Saturday.  I chose “Branching Out: Netflix and No Chill”, “Leadership Through the Eyes of Disney”, “Growing your roots”, and “Friendship in Leadership.”

“Branching Out: Netflix and No Chill” was one of my favorites out of the sessions.  It focused on disconnecting from social media and our technology in order to connect with others.  We ended by doing an activity where we colored leaves based on  how much we time we think we spend doing a certain activity.  There were six different branches and the leaves pertained to whatever theme branch they were on.  The six different branches were physical, spiritual, psychological, emotional, intellectual, and social.  I loved this activity because it help me realize that sometimes I need to focus on my own health both mentally and physically a little more.  This session focused a lot on not only connecting with others but connecting with yourself as well in order to keep yourself healthy.

“Leadership Through the Eyes of Disney” was really fun because I am a big Disney fan.  We first began with naming our five favorite Disney characters and then choosing which one we thought we identified with the most.  I chose Anna from Frozen because she is goofy and has a very optimistic look on the world.  I feel like her personality matches mine pretty well.  After that we picked our top 10 values that were eventually narrowed down to our number 1 value.  Mine was Family because I am extremely close with my family, and I believe that the value of family includes friendship, love, and trust.  After picking our value they had us think of the values of Disney character and see if the Disney character we chose would have the same value.  I was so shocked that I had never made the connection before that the thing me and Anna have most in common would be our most important value.  I liked the session a lot because something I hold very important in my life is my values, so I love whenever I get the opportunity to talk or think about them and what they mean to me.

“Growing your roots” is a session that dealt a lot with what you look for in a mentor, and what you need to be a successful mentor yourself.  I chose this one because I know in a year I will be a mentor to my LAS mentee, and I want to be able to be the best mentor I can be for them!  We spent a lot of time discussing who our role models are. I have a lot of very prevalent mentors in my life, so we discussed why they are our role models and what traits and things they do that help us in order for us to be able to understand what may work when we are mentors to others.

“Friendship in Leadership” was my other favorite out of the sessions.  The session used Harry Potter to help teach us about healthy relationships and leadership.  I love Harry Potter, so I knew I would enjoy this session when I picked it.  We learned what is known as “Comfort in, Dump Out”.  This basically shows us how to deal with tough situations and how they may be affecting us and others around us who are also dealing with the same situation.  The picture below shows how you should deal with the situations.  You should spend time comforting the people who are more inward on the circle, but you should only vent or explain your feelings of being hurt to people who are more outward of you on the circle.  We then did role playing with the Harry Potter characters where we were each assigned a character from the Goblet of Fire and were told to interact with each right after *SPOILER ALERT* Cedric is killed by Lord Voldemort! I was Cho Chang, so I could vent about how upset I was to everyone except for Amos(Cedric’s dad) and Harry.  However, the only two people who could vent to me were Amos and Harry.  This is more difficult in real life because it is harder to identify who is truly closer to a situation.  The “Comfort in, Dump out” ideology is a very useful method with having healthy relationships and learning how to be a source of comfort for others.

I learned a lot about not only how to connect better with my cohort, but also to be able to connect to other organizations on campus.  The things that I learned are things I can use in everyday life, especially the “comfort in, dump out” theory.  I feel as if I am more able to be conscious of others feelings in a situation with that theory in mind.  Overall, the Connections Conference was a blast, and I hope next year I can go back as a facilitator to help others enjoy the experience and learn as much as I did.

Choosing Civility

In our leadership class for LAS, our cohort was split into 6 groups that all read a different book and then presented how their book applied to leadership to the class.  My group was assigned the book Choosing Civility.  This book focused on the 25 rules of how to be civil.  The three rules that I had the responsibility of presenting about were “Refrain from Idle Complaining”, “Accept and Give Constructive Criticism”, and “Don’t Shift Responsibility and Blame.”

The first rule, “Refrain from Idle Complaining”, is the rule that I decided was the one that I needed to improve on the most in my life.  As leaders, we have a large influence on the people’s lives around us.  Everyone’s attitudes are contagious, so why not do our best to make everyone around us happier?  The main point of this is that we spend so much of our daily lives focusing on the little things go wrong…”the line was so long today at the store”,”ugh I don’t want to go to class”, “It is so cold outside today.”  These little negative things may not seem like a big deal at the time, but these complaints add up and create a negative atmosphere around us.  Instead, try to focus on the positives in life and you will make not only yourself, but also everyone around you happier.

“Control the controllables”

The second rule, “Accept and Give Constructive Criticism”, is a life lesson that I think is very valuable.  My volleyball coach in high school focused heavily on this during our practices.  Instead of saying what we shouldn’t do( ex. “Don’t miss this next serve”), she had us verbally say out loud to each other what we WILL do(ex. “I will make my next serve”).  This constructive criticism that we gave ourselves and others allowed us to improve because we focused on improving what we were doing in a positive way.

The last rule, “Don’t Shift Responsibility and Blame”, applies a lot to my core value of integrity.  By not shifting responsibility and blame, you are being accountable for you actions.  In leadership and in life, it is important to admit that you have made mistakes.  This allows you to grow and learn from your mistakes rather than run form them.

The book also mentions the steps to take in order to implement these rules into your life.  It says to focus on one rule at a time, and day by day increase how much you practice the rule in your life.  For example, if you wanted to focus on the rule “Refrain from Idle Complaints” you would focus everyday on slowly saying less complaints and instead making positive remarks.  This is the rule that I plan on focusing on first.  I know that there are a lot of days when I spend way too much time complaining.  Part of this is because I like to talk a lot, and when I don’t have much to say, I fill the empty space with little complaints, such as “I’m tired” or “I don’t want to do this.”  This is a really bad habit of mine but I think if I can cut it out, I will be allowing myself to be much more positive and spread positivity to others.

My group decided to implement these rules by passing out nice cards to people on campus that say nice things and motivate people to do their best!  Overall, I think this project allowed me to see how much little things we do can affect others.  It has made me more conscious of my day to day actions.

Why are we like this?

Another class we have to take for LAS is Intro to Psychology.  I absolutely loved the material that we learned in this class, and it has made me want to minor in Psychology.  I think learning about why people are the way the are is so interesting.  We also learned about how the brain works, and that fascinated me. The human mind and brain is so cool.  I think learning about how we develop and how the mind works allows us to have a greater understanding of others. We also talked a lot about how psychology can affect leadership.  We learned a lot about social psychology, and I think that is extremely applicable to being the leader in a group of people.

I think this class is the class that will benefit my leadership skills the most.  It helped me really understand the driving force of why we react to things the way we do, and why we have the personalities that we do.  Knowing this can make me more aware as a leader, and make me able to relate and understand more people. Also, our professor, Dr. Matthew Prewett, was one of my favorite professors I had this semester. I think he is part of the reason that I enjoyed the material so much!

This class also gave my LAS cohort the opportunity to bond!  We went through a lot of material for the class pretty quickly, so we all relied on each other to help study and learn the material.

My First Step to Becoming the President

Part of our protocol for LAS is taking Introduction to Debate together as a cohort.  We learn the different ways of argumentation and are then asked to debate about topics that assigned to us with groups that we are assigned at the beginning of the semester.  At first I wasn’t too excited about this class because I didn’t know what to expect because I had never formally debated before.  However, I ended up enjoying the debating aspect of the class.

The first two debates we were not allowed to pick our topics.  My group was assigned the topics “All welfare recipients should be drug tested” and “All schools should be single sex schools.”  However, the last debate we were allowed to choose our debate topic.  My group chose the topic “Religion should be taught in schools.”  The last debate was my favorite because I thought it was the most interesting.

This class really helped develop my leadership because it allowed me to learn how to have a productive conversation about an issue even when I disagree with others.  I think this is an important skill to have as not only a leader, but as a person.  I also loved this class because the majority of the class would all go get lunch together afterwards, so it gave us a really great chance to bond!

(LAS)ting Bond

Since I am a Leadership Advancement Scholar, I am given a mentor from the LAS Cohort above me.  Our mentors are there to guide us and help us and be our big siblings away from home! My mentor is Stephanie, AKA the coolest person I have ever met.

Each year the new Mentor/Mentee pairs go on a Mentor/Mentee retreat for a weekend where we do team building exercises and really get to know each other.  Before the weekend I had met Stephanie and got food with her a couple times, but I didn’t really feel like I knew her too well yet.  After the weekend, however, I feel as if I had met my (slightly cooler) twin.

We were asked to each make a giant road map on a poster about our lives, and to bring it with us to the retreat.  When we first got to the retreat we broke off into smaller groups and shared our road maps with each other.  My road map was the outline of a giraffe(my favorite animal) that was filled with all of the things that help make me who I am today.

 After sharing our road maps, each group went off and did different smaller leadership activities or conquered the high ropes course.  That night Steph and I got picked to go on a big group canoe trip that ended up being a memory I will never forget.  The trip started off a little hectic as our bus ride to the river turned out to be a little on the dangerous side.  When we got to the river, we were given our canoe, and it didn’t take long to realize that our canoe had a leak and was taking in water.  We were told to continue on the trip anyways and hope that our canoe would stay afloat.  The first hour was as close to smooth sailing as you can get when you have a sinking canoe.  The view was beautiful and the company was amazing.  After about an hour the sun began to set and our canoe was still filling with water at an alarming rate.  We began to scoop the water out of our canoe as we moved along the river in the dark.  However, scooping the water out of the canoe became pointless because we then were stuck in a giant rain storm in the dark.  We couldn’t see very well and we got stuck on a rock and had to get out and push our canoe to deeper water.  When we finally got out of the river, everyone was soaked and freezing.  The best part of this whole unfortunate trip, however, was that we laughed the entire time.   All of these things were going wrong, but Steph and I kept a smile on our face the whole time because we knew we were making the best memories.

The retreat really helped me bond with not only my mentor, but with my whole cohort.  I loved getting to learn about everyone and learn how amazing and fun my mentor is.  I cannot wait to see what memories I make with everyone throughout the years as a Leadership Advancement Scholar.