Safari: Take Four

As said in previous blogs, I have been involved in a program called Leadership Safari at my university. During my first year, I came in as a freshman and was a participant. My sophomore and junior year, I have been a guide for incoming students. This year was the most special year for me. I got to serve as a ranger guide for this program. With that title, it meant that I have had experience with this program and I would be an assistant to the core guide for guide training and selection. I was placed on a team called Bubba Gump Shrimp Pink…which sounds just as goofy as it was. I got the opportunity to be paired with my best friend as my core guide and some of my closest friends has been from this group. I thought as a 3rd year guide, I didn’t have much more to learn from the program, but I was definitely wrong. I learned more from my group of participants this year than I ever thought I would. More than ever, I learned how to be patient with a group of people in a different way than being patient for a group such as my sisters. After growing my self confidence and comfort within groups throughout my college experience, I forgot how it felt to be an incoming freshman new to this environment. There were many instances where we went off curriculum and I had to make things up as I went. This group of students challenged how I think about social issues and how I follow the rules. By the end of the week, I knew that this was something I valued so much within my college career.

Pine Mountain Settlement School

I am currently a member of Alpha Sigma Tau sorority. Our National Philanthropy is Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan, Kentucky. It is a school for the community to come and learn about the area, participate in events, and attend day camps.

Over my spring break, I had the amazing opportunity to go there and volunteer my time. I spent five days there. Those five days changed my life and grew my love for Alpha Sigma Tau. I got to work with their archival work and learn more about the school, paint a farm house to host more visitors, and talk to adults who spent their lives at the amazing place.

The view and people were amazing. I cannot explain how thankful I am that I got to volunteer and experience that amazing place. Now I am counting down the days until I get to go back.

First Semester Volunteer Experience

Packing food with Leadership Safari

During my Leadership Safari experience, my group got to package non perishable food to send to a food bank. It was fun to have our group work together for a great cause.

Orientation Volunteer

During Safari, I got the chance to volunteer to swipe cards and guide traffic into the Freshmen Orientation pt 2. It was cool that I got that opportunity right from Safari and as a bonus I got a free t-shirt!

Crop Walk

As a part of Barnes and Robbinson Hall Council, I got to go door to door in each dorm collecting money to donate to Isabella County’s Crop Walk. I didn’t raise a ton because I only had the chance to go to college residents, but it’s better than nothing! Plus, I got to meet many residents around the community.

Spooktacular

As a part of Resident Hall Assembly’s Sober in October events, I got to volunteer with the Spooktacular in Robbinson’s Residential Dining Hall. I managed games that were played to win prizes, helped decorate, and helped clean up after the event.

K-12 Facilitation

This has been by far my most favorite volunteer experience that I have ever done. Two different times, I got to connect with students from high school’s around Michigan and facilitate leadership challenge activities. I got to watch the students grow from not communicating to laughing and having inside jokes. It was such an amazing experience to watch and be apart of. These students inspire me to be better everyday.

Tutoring

A lot of people don’t like algebra but I have a love for it…what else can I say? I have had the chance to get to know friends of friends who have needed extra one-on-one help with their MTH 105 and MTH 107 classes. Not only did I get to help them, it reinforced the basic algebra skills in my head so I could apply them more often in my calculus class.

Mentor/Mentee Retreat 2014

Fall 2014 I got the opportunity to go on a retreat to Eagle Village with my cohort, my mentor, and her cohort. For one weekend, we got to leave campus and stay overnight. We got to do a high ropes course, positive/negative reinforcement activities, fun games with everyone, sit around a campfire and share personal stories, and bond as a group of 80+ CMU student leader and Leadership Advancement Scholars.

My roommates and I feat. Dan Gaken.

My MASC/MAHS Leadership Camp friends.

My favorite part about the weekend was that I got to spend time with my mentor, Kim, and really get to know her. I look up to her so much with everything she has been through and what she has done to contribute to the campus. I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor!

My mentor Kim and I!

Kim and I with the Leadership Institute sign.

I do not only look up to Kim though, I realized that I have a group of leaders surrounding me who have all accomplished so much and have great futures ahead. There is something that I can learn from each one of them and I can’t wait to get to know everyone a lot better. I can honestly say that choosing to go to Central Michigan University and accepting the Leadership Advancement Scholarship is one of the best choices I have ever made. It brought be to a group of amazing, inspirational people who I get to be surrounded around everyday.

The 2013 and 2014 Leadership Advancement Scholar Cohorts.

The Alpha Leadership Experience

One of the first things I signed up for on campus was for Alpha Lead. I wanted to meet more students around campus that cared about growing and learning to be a student leader. I randomly got placed in the most amazing group with the best facilitators. From the first day, we learned everyone’s names, worked together, and laughed as a group. I don’t know what exactly made our group click so easily, but it made me very excited to come back each Thursday for five weeks. It was a great transition in the beginning of the year from Leadership Safari to real classes and coursework. Being on the Green Machine Alpha Team gave me the chance to become closer with one of my roommates, a couple of girls in my cohort, and students I got to meet from around campus. I really liked that it was a mixture of student leaders from around campus because I got to find connections that I wouldn’t have without it. Also, I enjoyed that we got to meet once a week for five weeks so we had time to reflect on what we learned and it wasn’t all crammed into a consecutive session. I saw my group connect and work together most when we had to use ropes to bring a ball from one side of the room to another. It challenged us to all play a role in the process instead of one person doing it alone because we all had to participate at the same time. I am very glad that I got the opportunity to be a participant in the Alpha Leadership Experience.

The Green Machines doing a leadership challenge activity

Leadership Safari 2014

Going into college, I did not know what to expect. I decided to begin college by moving in a week early and attending Central Michigan University’s Leadership Safari. Before I attended, I thought it was going to be something where everyone met for a little bit each day for a week and listened to speakers tell us how to survive college by their experiences.

Here is how it went for me…

First I met my safari group, Team Lizard! At the beginning of the week nobody knew each other, we didn’t really talk much, it was difficult to collaborate, and we did not work together as a team.

A group photo of Team Lizard!

As we moved through the week, we got the opportunity to bond and grow as a whole. We did leadership activities that showed our strengths and weaknesses, learned more about each other, and accomplished a lot. We learned from each other, our guide, and other participants.

We had amazing speakers tell us about their life stories and how they grew from them which inspired us. We needed inspiration like that beginning our college experience because all of the change and stress that it could potentially cause.

Team Lizard during a leadership building activity

Toward the end of the week, we realized that we already had one thing in common since the beginning. We were all going into our first semester at Central Michigan University. It was a given because we were all participants of Leadership Safari, but it meant more than it seemed. We were going to a new school, meeting new people, sharing a new experience, starting new classes, getting new professors, finding our way around a new place, but most of all, starting a new chapter in our lives at the same place. Of course we are all different and are going into different things, but something brought us all together for that one week. By the end, we made new connections, worked together, and got to know one another on a different level of working together.

All safari participants, staff members, and band members in the shape of the Central Michigan Flying “C”

Along with the learning and growing experience in a group setting, I got the chance to bond with my Leadership Advancement Scholar Cohort during the down time. We all had stories to share about our teams, things we liked about the experience, and the need for sleep and late night food runs.

A few members of my cohort and I trying to finish summer assignments during Safari down time

Overall, I had a really interesting experience through Leadership Safari. I got the opportunity to grow being a step-back leader and watch my teammates step-up, meet new friends around campus, and learn how to deal with specific situations.