A Week in Asheville

December of 2017, right when my Winter Break began, rather than head home and relax I decided to sign up for an Alternative Break.  Alternative Breaks are a program through Central Michigan University’s Volunteer Center where students take time during their breaks (such as spring, winter, or even weekend) to serve various communities all over the country, focusing on social issues that they are passionate about.  One interesting thing about alternative breaks is that when students register, they are not told the location of the break, but rather which social issue they will be addressing.  It is set up this way so that students serve on an alternative break that they are passionate about rather than looking for a vacation somewhere they would like to go.  The Alternative Breaks program is an extremely popular one at Central, with spots filling up just minutes after the sign up portal opens.

As a result of the high demand some friends and I woke up early and eagerly waited for the sign-ups to open up. Originally, I was planning on choosing the Natural Disaster Alternative Break as Florida and Texas had both recently been hit hard by  hurricanes. However, as I refreshed my page after sign-ups had opened up, Natural Disaster had already been filled up. As I realized and desperately searched for another AB to join I saw the perfect one: Access to Sports and Recreation. Sports and recreation have played a huge role in my life, as I was an athlete most of my life, so being able to help others have access to the same thing that I benefited so much from was something I jumped all over.

Leading up to the break we attended weekly meetings to discuss our jobs on the trip, role in our communities, and get to know the others going on the trip with us. At one of these meetings we found out our destination: Asheville, North Carolina to help out at a YMCA that we stayed out and serve the community. During our time in Asheville we had the opportunity to work directly (with students and the people we were serving) as well as indirectly.

The first full day we stayed in Asheville we worked on the grounds at the YMCA as they were not your normal community workout center, but rather focused on holding an after school program and a healthy eating food truck. One part of the after school program was a chicken coop that the YMCA maintained with the children. For the first day we participated in indirect service and fixed up the chicken coop which was overtaken by invasive species tangling the nets. Working to do this was a ton of fun as this was the group’s first experience working together. For the second day we worked on the woods behind the YMCA. The YMCA had a ton of land in woods that it could not use due to the invasive species that took it over. Our job was to remove the invasive species from the woods as well as possible and haul it to a truck to remove it.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After the first couple days of the unique “housekeeping” service we began to assist the workers at the YMCA with the healthy eating food truck. This food truck is run by the YMCA receiving left over produce from big grocery stores such as Walmart and Aldi due to these stores buying much more than they need. One fact that was shared with us while we were volunteering is that these grocery stores often buy 60% more produce than they need so that consumers can pick and choose the fruits and vegetables that they want. This results in an extreme excess of produce going to waste while still millions go hungry.  The YMCA took this situation to address the problem of word hunger by creating this food truck to take this left over food to areas of need all over Asheville free of charge.

However, this is not without its costs. The few 3-4 employees working to maintain the food truck have to sort literally tons of food a week and distribute it all over Asheville. This is where we came in. We assisted in sorting the food and distributing it to needy families throughout the week. This was easily the most rewarding part of the Alternative Break. Seeing the families come through with elderly people as well as young children come through the line and grab food that we assisted in providing alone made the trip worth it.

On top of the service, we had the opportunity to explore Asheville and North Carolina on this trip as well. Some highlights included the entire group hiking a mountain and seeing a beautiful view of the city, visiting historic buildings, and taking a night out downtown. Although everything did not go perfectly throughout this break, it was a great experience and I am extremely thankful that I had the opportunity to meet all the great people in my group and help the community of Asheville.

University Recreation

For the past two years I have been a part of University Recreation as an Intramural Official. I originally applied for the postion as a Sophomore looking for a part-time job to get some extra spending money but since it has become much more than a job. Since joining the URec team I have officiated flag football, basketball, and softball, as well as participating in these sports with many others. Officiating has relit my passion for sports as being able to play a crucial role in these high-stake (for the students participating in them at least) sporting events. It has given me the opportunity to be a student of these games all over again, from a different perspective. Not only have I had a blast officiating but I have been able to meet a ton of great people. Being able to go through training and officiate with so many people has given me a sense of community with Intramurals and at the student activity center.

Leadership Launch, Pt. 3

For my Junior year we, as always, had the opportunity of being a part of a “LEAD” Team. LEAD Teams are part of the Leader Advancement Scholarship protocol where LAS Scholars get the opportunity to be a part of an intercohort team that works to put together a volunteer event. Our LEAD Team was in charge of putting on the Leadership Launch event. Leadership Launch is an event that brings in high school students, with and without intellectual disabilites, from all over Michigan together as an event to emphasize the impact they have and the importance of inclusion.

Previous years, I was the leader of one of the groups and my job was to lead the group from breakout session to breakout session and have meaningful discussions with them about the discussions. However, this year I took on a new role and was able to facilitate the Vison breakout session with my mentor, James Barber.  James and I have had a great relationship since high school and have maintained it through our time at Central, so being able to facilitate with him worked out great.

For our breakout session, vision, our goal was to have students learn about the importance of empathy by acknowledging how every person may view the same situation from different perspectives and see the situation differently. Our breakout session was called “Zoom”  and began by everyone receiving the same photo but zoomed in a different amount. What we told the students was that the photos they had were all a part of a story and their job was to place the photos in order. The story would begin with a picture of a rooster and became so zoomed out by the end that you could see the entire globe.

Some groups were able to realize the photos were zoomed and solved it quickly and easily while others we had to give hints to. However, the substance of the activity came from the debrief that followed. James and I focused on how this activity related to other peoples’ perspectives and how the students could implement what they learned into their school.

The opportunity to debrief and facilitate was a great experience for me, for a couple of reasons. The first is, as a future educator, having the chance to speak to different groups, explain the excercise, and just facilitate in general was great practice for me. The second reason that this was especially beneficial for me was being able to listen to everybody’s input to the activity and hear what they had to learn helped me think about how I could do a better job of being empathetic and looking at others’ point of view more in depth.  Leadership Launch, for the third year in a row, was not only a blast, but helped me learn to be a more inclusive and considerate individual in everything I do.

 

 

Being a Mentor

As part of the Leader Advancement Scholarship, each Sophomore chooses an incoming Freshman to mentor. As a result, during competition day all the soon-to-be mentors flocked into the Powers Ballroom to scope out the incoming freshman, but more importantly, potential mentees. I don’t remember a lot of details from that day but I do remember meeting Thomas. He was introduced to me by a friend that gave him a tour. When he was introduced to me, my friend said later that he thought Thomas was a good potential mentee for me. So, after competition day, I did a little research and sure enough, Thomas seemed like a more athletic, better-looking replica of me. AKA, the perfect mentee.

So needless to say, I was ecstatic when I officially became Thomas’ mentor. As I got to know Thomas I quickly realized what a great guy he is. Thomas is extremely focused and goal-oriented. I know that when Thomas sets his mind to something there is not much that is going to stop him. I knew when I received Thomas as a mentee that he was a special guy. And sure enough, right off the bat, Thomas and I had a great relationship and our relationship became more of a friendship than a mentorship. Due to our interests being so similar, and Thomas being a naturally outgoing, happy-go-lucky guy, it didn’t take long for us to develop a strong relationship.

One point of mentorship that was emphasized to us prior to picking our mentees is that you don’t have to be best friends with them, just be there to support them and help them transition to college. Although not every mentor-mentee relationship results in a great friendship, I got lucky with Thomas and am looking forward to the amazing things he’s going to accomplish.

Student Government Association

As a result of my e-board position for Special Olympics College, I took on another role in the Student Government Association as a representative for SO College. Although when I accepted the position I knew very little about SGA, it did not take long for me to learn what SGA was all about.

My first day at SGA I had the opportunity to choose a committee to be a part of for the year. I chose Academic Affairs because, as a a future educator, the more experience I gain in the field the better. As a member of the Academic Affairs committee we worked together to first look at problems on Central’s campus in the field of academics. We did this by looking at each member of the committee’s personal experience and then, more importantly, did some tabling. Our goal during tabling was to survey a random population of Central students to see what types of problems students were having with academics.

After obtaining this information we set our goals on writing some proposals to get some change on campus. Throughout the year we wrote a couple of proposals including one for an online bump system to speed the process up, one to extend the library’s hours (open an hour earlier and stay open an hour later), a proposal to assist students in the case of medical amnesty, and more.

On top of participating in the committee I was also a part of the House of Representatives where I represented SO College. My job as a representative was to give my input on proposed bills and vote on these bills, just like the United States House of Representatives.

SGA provided me the opportunity to make a positive impact on campus and make my voice heard.  Although I wasn’t always ecstatic about attending the meetings every Monday night, I am glad I was able to be a part of such a positive organization. The people I met and relationships I made, paired with the constant opportunity to improve Central Michigan made my time in SGA a great experience.

Special Olympics College

Anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am about the Special Olympics. So, naturally, one of the first things I did on campus was join Special Olympics College, the organization on campus. My freshman year I spent as a general member and as the year came to and end it was suggested to me that I run for an e-board position. There were quite a few positions open, however, the one I ended up running for was Student Government Association (SGA). As I said when I ran for the position, my role on e-board extended beyond just representing SO College at SGA but also taking on a larger role throughout SO College. During the past year, I was able to take on a larger role in the organization. This included participating in many more unified sports and, of course, taking on my role of SGA representative.

One of my favorite parts of being part of the Special Olympics College is unified sports. For those who are not familiar with it, unified sports are intramural sports played with half Special Olympics athletes and half Central Michigan students. These sports include basketball, flag football, volleyball, kickball, and more. I took every opportunity I had to participate in these games which allowed me to take on a larger role in the organization and develop a relationship with the athletes.

One of the best moments of unified sports was heading down to Western Michigan University for a regional tournament. This allowed my relationship with the athletes that participated in the tournament to increase and gave me an outstanding opportunity with unified sports. The sprinkles on top of the sundae were that we took first place and will soon head down to Ohio State for the national tournament. Unified has been a wonderful opportunity for me and something that I have had a blast with.

Overall, I have cherished my participation with Special Olympics College on campus. SO College has provided me with countless opportunities to grow and limitless fun and priceless interactions with the athletes. In fact, one of my proudest moments of my Sophomore year was all my hard work as an SGA Rep paying off when I received a grant for over $1,000 to pay every member of our organization’s way to the Winter Games. This made all my hard work pay off and gave me a priceless reward for the effort I put in. When elections came up this year I was looking to take on a larger role in the organization. As a result, I ran for President and was lucky enough to be elected as the President for next year. I cannot wait for my involvement in the organization to grow and take on the role of President of SO College.

Theory Application

The biggest aspect of LDR200L was the different Leadership Theories. Early in the semester we were assigned group members with each group being responsible for teaching a different theory. Throughout the semester I was able to learn about many theories, however, it became tough to keep them all straight and attempt to implement and practice them. Despite this one theory stuck out: the Servant Leadership Theory. The Servant Leadership Theory has always been a theory I have practiced but learning about it and using it has allowed me to fully appreciate it.

The most obvious use of the Servant Leadership Theory was LAS in the D. Learning about these theories is interesting and beneficial, but what helps me excel as a leader the most is not just talking about the theories, but seeing them in use and using them. Being able to serve in Detroit allowed me to truly appreciate this theory.

Furthermore, I was able to implement Servant Leadership during my time with the SOMI LEAD Team. While working for the LEAD Team I was able to facilitate activities as well as volunteer. This allowed me to use multiple theories but the most prevalent is Servant Leadership. Volunteering at the Special Olympics was a perfect example of Servant Leadership. Simply serving on this LEAD Team allowed me to show leadership qualities but by doing nothing more than leading by example.

Overall, Servant Leadership is one of the most under appreciated forms of leading, but one of the most efficient. Implementing service leadership into my everyday life enables me to be a more efficient leader by motivating others through my actions.

A Year in the Books

As my freshman year winds down and I take a look back I can’t help but smile at how my year turned out. Choosing where I wanted to attend college was undoubtedly the hardest decision I ever had to make. However, looking back now at that decision, I couldn’t be happier. Throughout the past year, I met some of my closest friends, found my calling, and learned quite a bit both inside, and outside, the classroom.

Perhaps the most helpful part of my freshman year was the people I met. I knew when I accepted the Leader Advancement Scholarship that it was a special program. However, I never dreamed of how awesome the people around me would be. From the workers in the Leadership Institute to members of my cohort, and everyone in between, there’s never a time where I questioned whether I could possibly be in better company. The impact that my cohort has had on me can’t be put into words. One thing the people around me have helped me do is to be comfortable in my own skin. It’s easy to say I was proud of who I was in high school but since coming to college I have truly been able to be myself. My cohort has literally become some of my best friends and has helped me every step. Additionally,

Me and my cohort during LAS in the D. 

seeing their passion shine, day in and day out is something that has put things into perspective. Everything they do, they do for a reason. Whether it’s going vegan, shunning single-use plastic bottles, or encouraging me to vote whatever they do, they do with passion. They have helped me to be conscious of what I do, and be aware of my impact. As a result, I have not doubted for a second that I am a better person because of them.

Furthermore, I have had more opportunities to fulfill my passion than ever before and it has helped me find my calling. During high school, I had opportunities to work the Special Olympics but since coming to college I have been able to do more than I ever imagined. Throughout the past year, I had the privilege of being a part of the SOMI LEAD Team, going to the SOMI winter games, and have even been named SGA Rep of the Special Olympics RSO. During this time and the myriad of experiences I have had, I realized that working with students with intellectual disabilities, as well as teaching, is what I am passionate about and what I want to do with the rest of my life.

On a final thought, this past year has brought me more knowledge than I ever expected. Of course, I hit the books and survived the gruesome freshman year with my GPA intact. However, the knowledge I have acquired stems so much farther than the classroom. One thing I was not ready for coming into college was all the opinions and passion on every controversial topic out there. Whether or not you agree with their beliefs (which you won’t on every topic), you have to admire their passion. For example, even though I am not going vegan or becoming a vegetarian, I have learned tons about substitutes for meat, the harm it does, and the environmental impact. This is just one example from a year’s worth of learning about stats, governmental corruption, religions, and the list goes on. At the end of the day, knowledge is enlightening and I become more enlightened every day.

The past year has brought me friends, opportunities, and knowledge that continue to help me grow each and every day. But I know now, more than ever, that when they say college is the best four years of your life, they aren’t joking. Let’s hope next year can be half as fun as this one.

 

 

 

LDR200L

During my second semester at Central, to fulfill my LAS protocol and work towards my leadership minor, I had the privilege of taking LDR200L: Intro to Leadership. This class provided a more serious and in depth look at leadership than LDR100. LDR200L was different than any class I have ever taken because it was so focused on leadership. Throughout this course we have taken a look at several important leadership characteristics, leadership styles, and have learned some valuable skills.

During LDR200L we were responsible for presenting on two different occasions: our leadership initiative and our workshop. The initiatives were much more casual than the workshops but provided quality, hands on learning experiences. The initiatives were particularly enjoyable for me because the short duration allowed the presenters to focus on only the most important information and it was easier for me to maintain my focus throughout the entire presentation.

Furthermore, the workshops provided a more in depth look at some leadership styles. It is no secret that there are limitless leadership styles but knowing what the different styles are and how to use them properly is a challenge. Taking LDR200L gave my cohort and me an opportunity to take a deeper look into some of the more prevalent leadership styles. These workshops gave me a wide variety of different leadership styles and how to apply them to my everyday life.

LDR200L has been a bit of an eyeopening experience. As leaders we naturally get comfortable with our leadership style and the way we do things. We may refuse to embrace other leadership styles, be unaware of them, or just not understand them. However, being able to take part in this course was an eye-opening experience to how to become a better leader and maximize my impact.

LAS in the D Experience

LAS in the D was an interesting experience to say the least. Between the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, Cass Community Social Services, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and more there was never a dull moment. Each experience offered different learning opportunities, helped me grow as a person, and allowed me to bond with other members of the Leadership Institute.

To start the trip we went to the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy. Although I didn’t talk specifically about my expectations for Jalen Rose, my experience was extremely different than I expected. Despite my vague and skewed expectations it was a great experience. Being able to talk to the students of the JRLA and serve with them was a humbling experience. Throughout my time at Jalen Rose it seemed as though the students in our group were not having fun or enjoying themselves, however, during debrief they all said they had a great day. This was a significant moment for me because this helped me to realize that although you don’t always see you impact right away, that doesn’t mean you didn’t have an impact. Seeing the impact we had on the students and allowing them to serve while enjoying themselves was awesome.

Next, we had the privilege of going to the Detroit Institute of Art. Prior to this trip I had never been to the DIA or any major art galleries. I knew I was going to see some amazing

Kendall and I admiring one of our favorite pieces: Das Geviert. 

art but I never imagined the impact it would have on me. To start I enjoyed the art, however, I was so exhausted that I was ready to be done so I could rest. However, the more I observed the art and read about its meaning, the more I wanted to stay. By the time it was time to go, I had just realized that I had only explored a fraction of the second floor! My only complaint with the DIA is that I couldn’t stay longer but I decided that I’ll have to take a trip this summer to explore more.

To conclude our trip we volunteered with Cass Community Social  Services. At Cass they split us into three groups. The different volunteering that the groups did included shredding paper, working at a soup kitchen, and making mats out of tires. My group spent our time at the soup kitchen. I had the opportunity my senior year of high school to spend 5 hours volunteering at a soup kitchen in Saginaw so this experience wasn’t extremely new, but rather more of a reminder. During the school year I often get in a pattern and don’t include volunteering in that pattern. Being able to volunteer at the soup kitchen served as a reminder of how satisfying volunteering can be and the impact I can have everyday. As I continue my career at Central this was a great reminder of the importance of including volunteering and service in my everyday life.

Overall, LAS in the D was a great experience. Having the opportunity to serve in multiple locations as well as enjoy the DIA made the trip a memorable and worthwhile one. This trip served as a great opportunity to bond with my cohort and make a difference as well. But most importantly, LAS in the D served as a learning experience. Throughout the short time I spent in Detroit I learned a crucial lesson: service isn’t about the experience that you get. It’s about the experiences you provide for others.