Critical Reflection #1: July 15th

Creating a leadership action project is more difficult than I thought it would be. There are so many different things that I want to do, especially after I heard all the wonderful stories of what previous LEI members have done as well as work with some of the organizations that were represented the last day of "boot camp." The most difficult part is that I want to do some sort of educational project in the Birmingham area, but it is hard to go ahead and start one when I am at home and about an hour and a half away from Samford. Also, two other girls are thinking about doing the same type of project together so that we can combine our grant money if we apply. We were thinking about working with children in the Pratt City area since they have been affected greatly by the tornadoes by forming a mentoring program with the children, particularly middle school aged children, and being a positive role model in their lives through this rough time to help encourage them to continue their education through high school and college and being a support system for them during these trying times. As I sit here and type this, I am so ready to go out there and do it now, but I'm not in Birmingham yet and we don't have all the info yet on what we can do and what they need from us. We have a back-up plan to work with a Birmingham City school if for some reason they do not need/want us to help. I guess that is one of my biggest worries right now. I always want to have a plan of what is going to happen. I am not where near spontaneous. I like to be told when something is going to happen so I can prepare and be ready for it. According to my MBTI, I am an ISTJ which makes perfect sense to why I am this way. Oddly, I am the world's worst at keeping up with a planner and writing out a complete schedule, but I like to know when things happen so I can put them on my calendar, and I work better with sticky notes in front of me everyday to remind me whether it is on my desk or my mirror. It is also slightly stressing me out about this blog entry as we are suppose to post it on Moodle today, but we don't have our Moodle accounts ready. It's a slow process to be able to be the opposite of my personality, but I am praying about all of the stuff I posted above and hopefully God will show some answers soon.

Day 1

Forgive me if I start repeating myself. This entire week long of lectures, activities, and trips kind of all blur together sometimes so I will probably have to refer back to my schedule so that I don't jump ahead or fall behind in all of the details. The first day of LEI began with me getting up at 5:45 am to finish up my packing so that I would be ready to leave my house at 7:45 am to head toward Samford to meet with the other girls and my advisor that were going. My aunt and cousin came along so that my mom wouldn't be alone, especially with my younger sister, and they went shopping, of course, after they dropped me off. On our way to Samford on I-459, we passed at big truck driver who was swerving all over the place. We tried to figure out if he just tired or texting. Turns out that he was reading the newspaper and doing the cross-word puzzle in it. Go figure. At around 9:45 am, we left Samford and headed towards Judson College. My next encounter with another 18-wheeler driver came as soon as we exited the interstate. It kind of snuck up on us, so the girls following us missed the exit. My advisor was calling them to see if they were going to go to the next exit and turn around or just use their GPS and let it re-route them. As we were at the stop sign off the exit, the truck driver apparently didn't notice that we were stopped and had our breaks on and rolled up right behind us and laid down on his horn. He LITERALLY came within 6 inches of the vehicle! But we made it to Judson about 10 minutes before the other girls and within 5 minutes of walking on the small campus, I developed a blister on my right foot. It was killing me, but we had not checked in because we were waiting for the other girls. Also, our vehicle was on the other side of the building in which we had to check-in to. So we walked back to go move our vehicles and wound up walking around our residence hall that we were staying in just trying to figure out how to get in. Once I settled in, I immediately found my rescue in my flip-flops. But of course, we had to be in business attire for the sessions and I had no band-aids, so I put on a different pair of heels. This is one of those moments where you choose the less of two evils. So needless to say, my day wasn't looking too bright and I really wasn't looking forward to the rest of the week with how my day started and being extremely tired. It was boring at the start. We broke up into groups and my group leader wasn't there, so it was a bit chaotic not really knowing what to do. At the end of the evening, we were all very tired, but were slowly bonding. I still felt uneasy about the week and figured it was going to be one of those same ole same ole leadership conferences. Once I was able to go to my room, my foot was killing me and it got worse as I jumped in the shower and the water hit my open blister! No joke, the blister formed and opened within the first 30 minutes of being there that first day and was about the size of a quarter because it was two blisters next to each other. To sum it up, the first day was not very successful and I guess that is how all first things go. You don't really know what to expect because you have never done it. I am actually glad that the first day was uneasy. :) I'll go further into that as my days progress.

How It All Began

This post is long overdue, but I have been under the weather with a sinus infection. But let me tell you that I have just come home from a 7 day "Boot Camp" that has completely changed my life. I learned more about myself and others. Let me begin by talking about getting there. It started out with me losing an SGA Election. I was sad and extremely bummed out because I had lost because there were so many things that I wanted to do and change to make a difference at Samford. In hindsight, I see that God had a plan all along. God had planned for me to run for an SGA office position so that I would lose. Because I lost, the SGA advisor, wonderful Mrs. Janna Pennington, saw that I had great ideas, leadership abilities, and the desire to see and make a difference. This led her to invite me to apply for a summer leadership program for one week in June that would be held at Judson College in Marion, AL in the "Blackbelt" of the South. I was so excited because I had been hearing God calling me to do something with poverty, which has led me to have a desire to teach in high-poverty areas. Marion, AL is located in Perry County and is one of the poorest counties in the world! During my Senior year in high school, I did a campus tour of Judson College because a family friend who was an alumna from the institution wanted me to go there. I did enjoy the campus and all of it's simplicity and beauty, but I never felt God calling me there. It was my 3rd out of 8 choices of schools. But like I believe, God has a reason for everything. After that first exposure to this poor area, I couldn't shake the feeling. The summer after my Freshman year of college, I did mission work with the family friend who was an alumna from Judson. I, along with a girl from Auburn who was home for the summer, cleaned glasses that was going with some missionaries to Mexico and sorted through clothes and misc. stuff that we would be delivering to the thrift store in Marion. This just ignited the fire within me. My Spring semester of my Sophomore year, I wrote my issue paper on poverty of children in the elementary school setting. After doing research on children living in poverty, I have learned that it can only be changed with two things: a positive and encouraging role model and a high quality education. Unfortunately, both of this lack in high-poverty areas. Most students who graduate from colleges and universities that certify them as high quality teachers go on and teach in schools that already have great teachers. I'm not saying that this is bad. Sometimes God doesn't make people to teach in high-poverty areas. I just think that if more graduates who had a passion for children and for them to success in their lives, then they would want to teach in needed places. One thing that I like about these areas is that their are students that truly want the education and have a burning desire for this. Students in suburban schools take advantage of this and could really care less. They take for granted what they have. Sometimes I wish the government would let students switch for a week so that they can see how the other side of the world functions. With all of that being said, it excited me that I might get the chance to serve in Marion and learn how to become a better leader. As with God's plan, I was selected as one of three girls to attend the Leading Edge Institute. I was excited to see what it was about and to make an impact on an area that was speaking to my heart, but I was also expecting it to be like most summer leadership programs that I had attended where people quickly got into their groups and left out people and didn't really care. For now, I will leave it with that as it is getting late and I really want to add every detail possible. :)