spring 2020
Leadership scholar portfolio
A Note on Spring 2020:
Obviously, this semester didn't go the way that any of us were expecting. In light of the Covid-19 situation, Ithaca College students were unable to return to campus after spring break and we all had to quickly adapt to plans being changed. I was disappointed to miss two leadership conferences I was scheduled to attend, and of course opportunities for community service and on-campus involvement drastically changed. I'm proud of the way I was able to stay actively involved in my communities and fulfill all of my Leadership Scholar responsibilities while working and learning from home.
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ON-CAMPUS INVOLVEMENT
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One requirement of the Leadership Scholar Program is to be involved in at least one on-campus activity throughout the semester. My goal for this semester was to be on track to have a position on the executive board of an organization next semester.
IC Students Consulting for Non-Profits
An example of one of the documents I created to be sent to the client in our final deliverable.
An example of one of the documents I created to be sent to the client in our final deliverable.
This semester, I was primarily involved in IC Students Consulting for Non-Profits. This club has quickly become one of my favorite on-campus activities, and I love that it gives me opportunities to utilize the skills I learn in class, be a leader, and give back to the Ithaca community. SCNO continued to work with Hospicare and Palliative Care of Tompkins and Cortland County this semester, and I remained the project manager for my team. We were able to transition fairly smoothly from in-person meetings and work session to meetings over Zoom and collaborating on Google Docs. I definitely had to step up and take a more active role in planning meetings and checking in with the e-board members to ensure that we were staying on track with our work. This situation has definitely taught me that a big part of leadership is adaptability and quick problem-solving. Things aren't always going to go according to plan - not usually on as big of a scale as this, but it's still important to be able to take setbacks in stride and quickly develop solutions that you can communicate to your team.
leadership developMENT
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One requirement of the Leadership Scholar Program is to attend three credits of Student Leadership Institute (SLI) workshops each semester. The SLI offers sessions on a variety of leadership-related topics, each in a particular track - Leading Self, Leading Others, Leading in a Diverse World, or Leading@IC. This semester, I had originally planned on attending the Women in Leadership Conference in Seneca Falls, but after we had to leave campus, I decided to attend SLIs that would help me navigate the transition to learning and working from home.
The Wellness Wheel
The Wellness Wheel workshop introduced me to a representation of all of the different areas of one’s life that require attention, like finances, work, social interactions, and physical and mental health. The Wellness Wheel encourages you to be aware of how these different areas of your life interact with one another and impact you, so you're educated to make decisions that benefit you the most overall. I realized I sometimes do things because I think it will benefit me in a particular section of the wheel, but it’s not something that really makes me happy. That can take away from my emotional or mental well-being, and it might take up time that I could put towards thriving academically, professionally, or socially. Now, I’ll consider all aspects of my life before making big decisions and setting goals.
THRIVE Resilience Pyramid
The resilience pyramid outlining the different aspects of one's life that contribute to overall wellness.
Two of my Resilience Pyramid goals with a few steps I can take to reach each one.
The resilience pyramid outlining the different aspects of one's life that contribute to overall wellness.
The Resilience Pyramid leadership session, organized by the IC Center for Health Promotion, offered insight and advice as to how we can thrive during a time when our organized structures and routines are no longer in place. The resilience pyramid outlines the different aspects of one's life that contribute to overall wellness and offers strategies to thrive in each area. This workshop gave me the chance to reflect on how I've been treating myself during the period of social distancing, and strategize on how to find balance in some of the areas that I might be struggling with. After learning about the different areas of the Resilience Pyramid, I set both short-term and long-term goals for myself in the sections of Get Good Sleep and Eat Well - two areas in which some of my habits have gone off track since returning home. I'm excited to see the impact that improving myself in these areas will have on my quality of life during quarantine.
Virtual Park Salon - Larsen Wenzel
The LinkedIn profile for Motive, the creative agency that Larsen Wenzel works at. I connected with them on LinkedIn to keep in touch after the Salon.
The (messy!) notes I took during Larsen's discussion.
The LinkedIn profile for Motive, the creative agency that Larsen Wenzel works at. I connected with them on LinkedIn to keep in touch after the Salon.
This SLI session was a part of a series of virtual Park Salons facilitated by Park School Professional Development Coordinator Ann-Marie Adams. The salons connect current students from all academic disciplines with Park School alumni in sessions where the alumni share stories from their career, offer advice to students, and answer questions. This salon featured Larsen Zia Wenzel, a 2016 IMC grad who currently works as a strategist at Motive, a creative consultancy agency. Larsen began their career working for Nielsen and discussed navigating career changes, the importance of giving people an outlet to share their stories outside of traditional data points, and strategies for finding a work/life balance, especially while working from home. I learned a lot from their presentation about real-world experiences working in different sectors of the communications industry, and about how storytelling and data analytics can be combined to create compelling communications campaigns.
Community service
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Leadership Scholars are required to be involved with one community service project each semester. The service can be anything of the students' choosing, from a one-time event to a semester long project. My goal this semester was to attend a Service Saturday event,
Smithsonian Digital Volunteers
The description of a project that I contributed to the transcription and review of!
An example of a transcription from the Sally Ride papers that I reviewed.
The description of a project that I contributed to the transcription and review of!
I had originally planned on going to a Service Saturday this semester, a Leadership Scholar tradition that I haven't been able to take part in yet! After circumstances changed, I was looking for a way that I could virtually donate my time and give back. Thanks to the Office of Student Engagement, I was introduced to the Smithsonian Digital Volunteer project, where I was able to transcribe and review historical documents so they can be digitally preserved and easily accessed by future generations. I was a little nervous at first to be doing work for an institution as significant and revered as the Smithsonian and started out by reviewing transcriptions that other volunteer created, eventually working my way up to creating my own. I found this project to be very meaningful, and like it was an opportunity to contribute to something so much larger than myself. I intend to continue doing digital transcriptions for the Smithsonian in the coming weeks, especially after the semester ends and I have more free time.