Leadership Safari for Leadership Development

I have been involved in the Leadership Safari program heavily throughout my time at CMU. It has given the the opportunity to develop into the leader I am today, and it has opened my eyes into new experiences and involvements I would not have had without it. This year, after my second Fall Leadership Safari and my experience as a Spring Leadership Safari last year, I was able to be the Spring Leadership Safari Staff Assistant. In this role, I was able to plan the conference for incoming transfer students and second semester freshman. I did this through programming elements of the conference, working with campus partners to build a service project, and utilizing campus partnerships in different offices to recruit students for the program. This was only the second year of Spring Leadership Safari, and my GA, Haley Anderson, and I were determined to make it a great experience for the students.

 I have grew through this experience in ways that I did not imagine the role as a Staff Assistant would bring me.  I developed my own sense of authentic leadership, and furthered my discovery of what being a leader means to me. One of the best things being a Staff Assistant for Safari gave me was working with Haley. Through my relationship with Haley, I have truly learned what mentorship looks and feels like. Haley was always there for me as a human, a student, and a leader on the campus. She sought my opinion and insight on elements of the program, and she guided me on things I had no previous knowledge of. I was able to receive incredible amounts of professional development, and I gained a resource to help as I anticipate through the journey of post-grad life as well. She has given me incredible support in things that have occurred in my life this past year, and she helped me learn how to use my values and heart in my leadership. Now that my role in Safari is done, I no longer consider Haley my GA, but a good friend. I could not replace my relationship with Haley and the support and guidance she has given me for anything.

Through the development of my leadership, I learned how important it is to be critical of the programs and institutions you are a part of in order to make change. Through my high leadership role, I saw not only the incredible parts of the program, but also the parts that I thought could improve for the well being of the student leaders involved. I was able to see things through a lens, and use my voice to try and make change for the future in this program and campus. This position brought me a lot of stress, but I am grateful for the experience because I would not be the leader I am today without it.

As I enter my senior year, my journey will the Leadership Safari program is done. I look back on my safari memories with joy, but I have realized that sometimes things help you grow to a limit. Once you have experienced the growth you can in a program, it is time to move on to things that can further your growth beyond what staying with where you are comfortable can. I look forward to the growth I will experience, and I look forward to using the skills that the Leadership Safari program has given me.

Learning to Lead

As an LAS cohort (plus one leader who is not a part of LAS) we take a class together called LDR 200L.  This class is a leadership class where we learn important skills needed to improve our leadership abilities. Throughout the class we had to facilitate different activities and learn about the different leadership theories.  Though there were multiple leadership theories that were applicable to my life, the one I found the most applicable was the Behavioral Approach to leadership.

A lot of time in leadership people focus a lot on the relationship between the leader and the followers.  Don’t be me wrong this is an EXTREMELY vital part of leadership, however I like how this theory focus a lot on how leaders can be a mixture of being very task-oriented and relationship oriented.  I consider myself to be a very personable person, however, when things are not getting finished or are left until the last minute I get pretty anxious, which will affect the people around me to become anxious as well.  I think knowing how to balance task and relationships is one of the most important parts of being a great leader.

I am going to be a guide for Leadership Safari this fall, so when I was learning the theories in LDR I would try to put them into context of how I can use my knowledge while leading a small group.  Behavioral approach was one of the most easily applicable in this scenario too because of the amount of activities that are fit in to such a short amount of time during Leadership Safari.  However, in order to make Leadership Safari an amazing experience for the participants, I will need to form fun and trusting relationships with them.  LDR 200 has made me feel much more comfortable with my leading abilities, and it also taught me that I have A LOT more room for growth; that’s a good thing!

I also learned a lot about how to debrief.  Going through LDR has taught me that debriefing is the most important part of leading an activity.  It is the part that connects all the dots and allows participants to see the bigger picture of what they are doing.  Debriefing allows the leader of the activity to learn as well and see a new a view point on things that could have not seen before.

A lot of people didn’t like going to LDR because it was three hour long evening class, but I can honestly say that I always looked forward to it because learning about things that were so applicable to our lives was SO FUN!

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!