Blog #9

This semester has been one to remember for me. I transferred to Ohio State with the intention to further my academics at one of the best universities in the country, so I anticipated classes that were going to push me beyond my limits. This course was definitely one of those classes. In terms of leadership, which is something that I always wanted to improve, I was able to do so. When I enrolled in this course I was a little nervous to be honest because I knew it would expose me to things that I wasn't especially good in, but I knew it would also give me the opportunity to work on those things. I gradually watched myself conquer things even outside the classroom that I know came from some of the activities we touched in the classroom. I am happy that I decided to take this course early in my OSU career because it'll benefit me now, and in the future.

One topic I found very useful was the strengths quest. It was alarming yet satisfying to see my strengths. As a leader it is important to know what it is you excel at and continue to improve on those skills. Since doing this activity I been able to implement some of those skills outside the classroom. The strength quest activity allowed me to acknowledge my leadership strengths and build on them outside the classroom.

I also thought the TED talk on vulnerability was very inspirational. As a male and a leader it is extremely important to recognize vulnerability and embrace it. That TED made me reevaluate my life and accept that being vulnerable is something everyone can relate to, and how we respond to that is a true testament to our character.

Blog #8

At some point in everyone's life I believe we all will experience some of Peck's theories and stages. I experience most of the stages every year working summer youth camps for the City of Gaithersburg. In brief, every summer for the past 5 years I work with an organization that provides a summer camp experience for kids around the Gaithersburg area. Community is something we value with the City of Gaithersburg so we try our best to develop a strong, inclusive and engaging one so that we all can grow. We offer things like amusement park trips, pool days, reading & math programs, overnight excursions, museum trips etc. We are separated into several sites with different types of camps. For an example we have Camp Endeavor which is a middle school camp, or we have Camp Discovery which is a elementary camp. In order for us to provide these trips and experiences, we have to plan the upcoming months with our designated camp site. Each year we are assigned to a camp site that we haven't worked previously. This is where I experience Peck's theory and stages.

In the first stage, Pseudo-community everyone bounces ideas off of each other. Since no one really knows one another everyone pretty much is avoiding conflict and any disagreement. This stage is very undeveloped because we could use this time to share our experiences that could help the group now and ultimately speed the planning process up. The second stage is chaos. In this stage people are beginning to settle in. Friends start to form. People find their role.We are now more comfortable speaking up and asserting our perspectives and ideas, but with that comes disagreement. People share ideas from past summers that they think should be added to our site or avoided. Some people bring in ideas that they feel worked at their camp but some of those ideas won't work at the new camp site and people sometimes take that personal, causing riff within the community. In the third stage, people are getting restless and pretty much annoyed with spending hours each day planning. The group realizes we need to come together and that the ideas people are sharing can actually have an impact on what needs to be accomplished, whether they are used or not. At this point people are tired of the immaturity and want to get things done. In the fourth stage, every member has an understanding of how the group works and people execute their role to the best of their ability. Everyone feels as if they belong and their input matters. We can bounce ideas off one another more effectively. We realize that disagreement in the long run helps us reach our goal because it allows everyone to think critically.

An overall consensus played a role in developing our authentic community. We all were able to voice our opinions. I think as a group we were able to realize the significance of this program and realized we were apart of something much greater than ourselves which ultimately got us to our consensus.

Blog #7

Personally, target identities have hit home for me considering that I am a minority. One example would simply be the fact that I am a non white race and go to a University where the majority is white. I've overheard a couple conversations of people saying the only reason most blacks/African Americans got into this school(OSU) is because of the affirmative action policy. This couldn't be more false. A lot of people often mistake affirmative action with rewarding non qualified students the opportunity of higher education. That is not the case at all, but we as minorities are targeted and discriminated against without scratching the surface.  

On the other side of the spectrum, we have non target identities. Being a male definitely fits this category. In today's society men are in the majority, so there are discriminations we as men don't have to experience that females and homosexual males go through. For an example heterosexual males are more likely to be hired in positions of power over women. Why is that? We as men can't fully understand our privilege until it is taken away from us. 

Being that I am a minority and a male, my experiences are very unique. I experience both sides of the spectrum in my everyday life. There are times where I experience privilege being a male, i.e being given the opportunity to work my way to powerful positions in the workplace that women or homosexual don't get, but there are also times I experience target identifiers, i.e only being able to acquire certain positions in the workplace due to my ethnicity. These experiences clearly affect my life differently, but they definitely coexist. I hope to live in a world where privilege no longer has a place in our society and equality is a true core value in our lives.

Blog #6

The LPI found my top principles to be Model the way and Enable others to act. My lowest was Encourage the heart. I pretty much expected my top principles to be ranked fairly high after completing the survey because it was more personal based, similar to Strengths-quest. I would say Model the way and Enabling others to act are correlated in a sense that when you lead by example others will pattern their actions around yours which ultimately enable others to act. I was a little surprised by lowest principle, Encouraging the heart. I'd like to think I am empathic person, but clearly that is not the case because Empathy didn't make my top 5-10 on the Strengths-quest survey. To put encouraging the heart in context of group leadership, one way I could improve this is to be more of vocal leader. Encouraging my group members at all times to achieve the ultimate goal of the group. This can be a tough task for me because I am not a fan of the "horah" type leaders which is why Model the way was ranked the highest on my LPI. Overall, the LPI survey was very helpful and opened my eyes to the weakness in my leadership skills that need to be improved.

Blog # 5 Random Act of Kindness

For my random act of kindness, I decided to let a friend use one of my swipes at Scotts Traditions. I have the unlimited meal plan and he had the 12 swipes meal plan. He only had 1 swipe left for the week so I thought he would benefit from this. Seeing his reaction made me feel really good about what I did. It was something simple but also something that could have saved him finacially in the long run. I chose to do this because a lot of my friends have the certain amount swipes plan and I always hear them talking about the amount they have and rather or not they should use one at a particular place. It is something they have to be conscious about, whereas I just swipe and go. What I took away from this assignment is that you never know what someone is going through and how you can affect their day both positively or negatively. Kindness is contagious and if we can continue spread that around, our society can be a better place.

Blog #4

I've been In a couple situations where being morally mute was the easiest thing to do rather than to do the right thing. I regret it, but I definitely learned from the situation. There was a time my friend and I  went to a grocery store a few minutes from my home. My friend grabbed something and went to the self-checkout line and realized his purchase showed up as $0.00. I knew exactly what was going on but instead, he left the store without paying. He could have easily paid for the item but he wanted to keep the money in his pocket. For a good week after that, I reflected a lot on myself. Honesty is something that my family values and preached all throughout my childhood. My mom always said she will not raise a liar, cheater, or a sneak. I felt like I let parents down because I didn't practice what they preached for so long. From that moment, I realized there will be several situations where being morally mute is the easiest thing to do rather than speak up. That doesn't make it right, though. This experience will always remind me what It feels like to withhold information. It really weighed on me mentally. I made a promise to myself that I will never allow myself to cross my values again because I believe If you stand for nothing you will far anything.

Blog #3

I took the bias quizzes for Gay-Straight, Light skin- Dark skin and President popularity. I really didn't know what to expect after taking these quizzes, but I answered the questions to the best of my ability.

The results I got from the Gay-straight bias quiz wasn't surprising at all. I have my beliefs on this matter and firmly stick by them. It told me that I have a"slight automatic preference for straight people compared to gay people". Personally, heterosexual behavior is all I knew and all I saw growing up. I knew that that's what I wanted from an early age. I think a big reason why my results came out like they did was because of the household I grew up in. My parents have been married for 29 years and counting, so I always believed that that was what a family should look and function like. Also, my religious beliefs. Being that                                                                                                                        I am a Christian we have our own feelings toward homosexuality that most likely impacted my results. With that being said, I do not discriminate any group, I just have my own boundaries and beliefs that I live by. These results will definitely give me more of an understanding of all groups and their beliefs when working with others. It's not that I didn't know this about myself, but it is always good to get a refresher on topics like this especially now that it's more prevalent in today's society.

The results I got from the Light skin dark skin bias quiz was surprising. It told me that I have a "slight automatic preference for dark skin people compared to light skin people. I found that surprising because the majority of my family is light skin and most are my friends are too. I feel like the results came out  that way because of my own mistakes during the activities. It doesn't matter what skin color a person has, but rather or not they are genuine in what they are saying is what's important to me.

The last quiz I took was on president popularity. The results weren't surprising to me.It told me I had a "slight automatic preference for Barack Obama compared to Franklin D. Rosevelt". That makes sense because, at the time when President Barack Obama was elected, I was 13 years old so that's really when I started to understand politics and wanted to understand. I knew of other presidents just based off classes I took in school at that time, but President Barack Obama was the first African-American president so that gave me something to relate to. I also went to the Inauguration which will definitely stick with me for the rest of my life. With prior presidents I felt as if I didn't know who they were, with President Barack Obama I felt connceted which probably lead to my results.

Blog #2

Without a doubt, Friday Nights is an all time favorite for me. In this short clip coach Gary is looking for a way to motivate his team in the State Championship game after getting embarrassed in the first half. Coach displays several characteristics of the Relational Leadership Model. He empowers and demonstrates the inclusive component with his football team by believing each member on the team is a key component. He wants the team to know that each and every guy in the locker room is your brother, someone who is gonna be with you in the midst of the battle and never weary. Someone you can count on. The purpose here was to get the team to understand that this is more than just a football game, It is something more than just winning or losing. It is the journey it took to get to this point. He stresses perfection on the field, but what he truly means is being the best man you can be off the field. He wanted to develop strong character through the adversities of football. If you can do that, you are the true winner despite what the score indicates. You won the overall battle against yourself.

Hello,

My name is Dimitrius Good. I am a Junior from Germantown,  Maryland. I am a Sports Industry major and considering minoring in Journalism. (Sports Journalism) I enrolled in this course because I feel that I am a natural leader, but I also know that there are techniques to go about leading that I would like to learn more about. In my free time, I enjoy being active. I love to workout, play basketball, football and just appreciate the outdoors. I also enjoy writing and playing chess. The goal for me is to work professionally, either the NBA or NFL, working in fields such as sports marketing, sponsorship, sports media and sports facilities. I plan on pursuing graduate school at UCF or Ohio University after my undergrad years here at The Ohio State University. Back home I mentor special needs children as a youth camp counselor for the City of Gaithersburg. From day one, I've always had a connection with special needs/autistic kids. I believe it is a gift God has blessed me with. The City of Gaithersburg offers a wide variety of events and field trips to enhance the summer camp experience, such as the Air & Space Museum in Washington DC, overnight camp excursions, and Washington Wizards basketball games. My job is to help develop these young kids with their everyday life activities. Whether it's improving social skills or school work, our goal is to see growth each day and ultimately each year they come back. I ended up mentoring a 4th-grade kid named Liam. The road was very bumpy to say the least, but once we both got acclimated with each other the bond grew stronger and stronger. Meeting Liam has been one of the best things to have happened to me. His optimism is very contagious and being his mentor has definitely helped change my mindset on life. I have learned that there are different ways and techniques to lead, and to get someone to respond to you. This experience has enabled me to develop more patience and to continue to figure out ways to be the best leader I can be.