Leadership in Schools

Today I was given the opportunity to work with 5th graders from Waren Elemantry School. UD athletes put on a field day for these boys and girls and seeing their faces light up with just someone cheering them on was a great feeling. I was paired with 15 girls and we took them through a field day at the Fieldhouse ranging in activitives from potatoe sack races to obstacle courses. Knowing that some of these girls don't have positive role models in their lives is heartbreaking to me but being able to give them a few hours of fun, excitement and encouragement was a great feeling.

I think that the University should keep this tradition going with this school and other local schools because it's not too often that young children have the opportunity to experience having fun with college students. Talking to other athletes I know that they enjoyed it as well and we received a lot from it too.

Seeing a whole room with athletes playing with younger kids was awesome as well. So many people were leading the way in showing good sportsmanship, cheering on their teammates and showing gratitude to those who put the field day on.

I will take this experience with me for the rest of my life and I encourage everyone to give back to the community because you will receive a lot in return.

With taking this class I have learned a lot about leadership and how I can become a better leader for those around me. I wanted to interview one of my friends to see how she sees leadership and what she thinks about it.

What does leadership mean to you?

A leader is someone who people look up to, and is someone who you want to become.

Have you had a great leader in your life?

Yes. My mom for stregnth, sister for her wisdom, and my captains from my competive sports team. The way they handle situations and drive are aspects that I would like to apply to my leadership.

Have you had negative Leadership?

No, I have not.

What do you think qualifies someone to be a leader?

Someone who isn't always trying to be popular but do the right thing for the team or group. They also have thier goals set that want to accomplish.

What can a leader do to get the best out of you?

Push me to strive for the bestand know what I am capable of and help me strive to reach it.


It's great to see what others think and know that what we've learned can also be seen outside in those who have not had these classes. People can see a good leader from a bad one everywhere and knowing so makes me want to strive to be the best I can be in every situation or job I am in in my life.

Personal Mission Statement

For our last quiz of the semester we were given an organized way to make our own personal mission statement we had to list 3-5 characteristics of self we feel GREAT about, 3-5 ways we successfully interact with others, and describe our perfect world. From there we needed to combine 2 nouns, 2 verbs and our description of our perfect world.

My characteristics are:

• I have great energy
• I have charisma
• I have spunk
• I have compassion

My ways I interact with others are:

• I encourage others
• I inspire others
• I help others
• I believe in others

My perfect world:

In a perfect world the people around me are all enjoying each other’s company. There is no crime or a need to be cautious walking down the street. In a perfect world there is no starving children or homeless human beings. In a perfect world we all care for those around us.

My Personal Mission Statement:

I have great energy and compassion. I encourage and believe in others. In my perfect world the people around me are all enjoying each other’s company; there is no crime or a need to be cautious walking down the street. In a perfect world there is no starving children or homeless human beings. In a perfect world we all care for those around us.

Putting this together was fun and made me think about things that are important to me. I'm going to print out my mission statement and put it somewhere I will see it everyday to remind myself of what's important to me.

Leave A Trail

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

I received this quote on a plaque for graduation when I graduated from high school. I hung this next to my door so I pass it every time I leave my room. Some days I pass it and I don't even recognize it or acknowledge that it's there, but then there are days where I really read it and make it a goal to make a difference in my life and that of someone else's.

I want to make it an effort to lead people to something and somewhere that's positive. Somewhere they can make a difference and make their lives better and other's lives better too. In doing so I think that I will receive a great satisfaction in knowing that I've changed a life.

As of right now the way that I am seeing myself doing so is in coaching. This past spring I've been the coach for a 12 yr old volleyball team and nothing is more rewarding than seeing young girls grow in their skills and also who they are as people. I am hoping that this summer I will be able to volunteer with local organizations in coaching or just hanging out with young adults and teach them what I've learned through sports and through the great leaders I have had and have in my life.

Talisman Scavenger Hunt: My day as a Leader

For my day as a leader, our challenge was to do a Leadership Talisman Scavenger Hunt. It was my job to get my team together and have each person on my team consider one lesson from leadership that they find important to them. We had to find a talisman for each leadership lesson and explain why this particular lesson is important for leaders to know, do or be like.

I had eight people on my team and there was a wide range of personalities. There were a few that wanted to take the easy way out and just use one artifact for every leadership lesson, so it was kind of difficult getting them to actually understand the point of the assignment. Once everyone was on the right page with the assignment we went to Trabant and put our minds together to find examples that we could use. Some of the ideas we had were:

• Fun = Popcorn
• Direction = Compass
• Teamwork = Football Stadium

As a leader I think that I could have done a better job at explaining what we needed to do because the confusion in the beginning wasted some of our time. I think that I did a good job at helping my team find what they wanted to use as their lesson and how to represent it with a talisman. I enjoyed being the leader of this challenge because I was put into a situation where I had to adapt to those whom I was working with. I needed to work with everyone’s personality, those who were outspoken and those who were quiet. If I could do this assignment over again I think that I would take a different approach to it and have everyone decide what their lesson would be before we left and started looking for objects. I learned that once you get people into an environment with lots of distractions it’s very difficult to keep their attention on the job at hand. I will be able to tie in what I learned through this leadership challenge in many aspects of my life from now on and I think it was a great learning experience.

Leadership in my Life

When I think about how I am a leader I look at what I've done in the past, what I am doing now and what I can do in the future. In the past I have been the captain on my sports team, the leader of a group project, the leader with my friends and also a leader in myself. I know that may sound different but as a leader in myself I am challenging myself everyday to succeed and strive for the best I can be. I find myself sometimes sitting in the back and observing others around my and learning from them, thinking how I can apply things that work for them into my life.

In this class,LEAD200, I do this a lot and I have learned a lot about my leadership style. I have learned to present my ideas and work with others to combine our ideas. With our group project, Make a Difference, it is very interesting seeing how people work to get something completed. We have many leaders in our group but we are able to lead in different ways.

This semester I am in many group projects so I am not able to be the leader in all of them because then I think I would kill myself with work overload. In Lead200 I am not the "head leader" so to speak but I try to stay on top of things and contribute as much as I can. In Lead300 I am the leader and organizer for our big design project and then I have two more group projects that is overall working individually and put it together. With being in so many groups I am able to use what I have learned in my leadership classes and bring them into each one differently.

I think that I have grown a lot over this past year and in the future I will be able to bring everything I have learned in the Leadership major into my life and my job.

Trying something new

Last week Tuesday, we were put into teams and our assignment was to experience something that is new to us as a group and show the class today on what we learned. Our team all decided that we were not experts at all when it came to baking/cooking so that's what we did. We made Chile Corn Muffins with Chipotle Butter, this recipe is from Sandra Lee on the Food Network website. Kayla M. was our team leader for this project and she did a great job. She planned everything and got everyone on task right away and was very organized. When trying to find a time to meet together it was difficult for a time where everyone could meet. It ended up working out where my other group members met and made the corn muffins and told me about how it went because I was unable to meet with them. Sophie was the one who was influential because she went out and got the ingredients that we needed. Leigh had good technical skills that our group needed because she had the most "experience" with cooking new recipes and Kayla had the human skills because she was able to communicate with everyone and we needed to accomplish. Overall, I think that creativity in Kayla's part stood out by her finding an interesting recipe for us to make. I believe that Kayla was a great leader for this project because she was able to communicate with us and motivate us to keep on task and to finish the assignment ahead of time, instead of waiting until the last minute.

I enjoyed this assignment because I was able to learn something new and also experience a new type of food. Also, with learning new things from other groups it has inspired me to make an effort to learn something new every month.

Decision Making

Another one of our leadership challenges was to talk to three different people about a decision we are going through in our life. I have been contemplating on whether or not to study abroad in 2012 or in 2013, so then I can see my new nephew while he’s still a baby. The one of a different gender told me to study abroad now so because I may not be able to in 2013. He also said that I can always hangout with my nephew for many years to come. When I talked with someone from a different generation, older than I, she said that if she had to decide she would stay home in 2012 and then study abroad in 2013. She explained that she had three children and the baby years are the best and they don’t stay that way for very long. For my last interview, I asked one of my friends on the football team that is of a different ethnicity. When explaining my options he said that it’s an awesome opportunity for both, either way I would choose I go. He’s always wanted to travel abroad but was never able to, but he has two nieces and he loves being able to see them grow up. He told me to think about which one would make me happier and go at it 100%.

After talking with these three different people I have learned that people want to experience different things in life and since I am able to experience both that that’s what I am going to do. I have decided to stay home in the winter of 2012 to be with my baby nephew and help out my sister, and then study abroad in 2013. This way I can be home with my family and experience what it’s like to be an aunt and also be able to save more money and be more financially stable when I do study abroad.

Leadership Challenge #2

Our assignment was to "Make Someone's Day!" and here is my story

I wrote a positive letter to one of my teammates. These last couple weeks have been hard for her with some tough exams and some not so good practices. So I wanted to cheer her up. In the letter I wrote how awesome she is and how much I believe in her and that there are so many other people who believe in her too. I also went out and bought her favorite candy, sour punch straws, and put the letter and candy in her locker for her to find. When she saw it she got a big smile on her face and was asking everyone who wrote it. Nobody knew but me but I denied it. After that she had a great practice and just seemed a little bit more cheerful.

Doing this was a lot of fun and I think I'm going to keep it going throughout my team until I do one for everyone of them.

Virtual Water Cooler

Just to share a little about myself. I am a junior and an Organizational and Community Leadership major. I am originally from Michigan, but I am enjoying my life on the east coast. I enjoy just about every sport and I love to be active, not sitting inside a house cooped up all day.

This past winter I interned at a local non-profit and had a great experience. I had an amazing leader that made it a point to know everyone in the office and to see how they were doing. She made it an environment that was enjoyable to go to everyday. Since my experience I have tried to do better myself and get to know a little about people I have classes with and also those on my team. Since I see them everyday, I try to remember the little things that are going on in their life such as an exam coming up or an event that past and see how it went.

Having a great experience like the one I had has made a great impact on my life. I think my outlook would be a completely different if I had a bad experience. I see myself as lucky to have been able to learn so much from her.

continuation of my blog

As I begin the spring semester of my junior year I realize that I need to start implementing what leadership really is. I play volleyball at UD and going in to my senior year I want to be able to lead my team as best as I can. I am taking a class called Lead200: The Leadership Challenge, in this class we have schedule readings and last night as I was reading in Kouzes, J. & Posner, B The Leadership Challenge, it described the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. They consisted of Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. My favorite section was Enable the Heart. With being on an athletic team you have to build relationships and encourage your teammates to keep going. K & P said it perfectly.

" Grand Dreams requires a team effort, solid trust and strong relationships, deep competence and cool confidence, group collaboration and individual accountability to get extraordinary things done."

Next season I am going to put this in my locker to remind myself that as being a leader I need to look around at all my teammates and ask myself, "what do I need from them? and what do they need from me?"