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.