When I originally signed up for the Leadershape Institute I thought it would be a quick way to finish my last Honors Experience. I thought that I would be able to breeze right through the curriculum because I had served in a variety of leadership positions before. Little did I know that I would find a core group of friends, a chance to have an impact on younger students, and finally a way to put tangible goals to my visions and ideas.

I noticed that my role as an upperclassman was extremely prevalent while working in our cluster group. I noticed myself taking part as a mentor to a few of the freshmen or even those that were struggling to understand their role with privilege. I thought that I had nothing to learn during this process, but I was wrong. I was challenged with my ideas and the new role I had taken on as President as my sorority. Through Leadershape I gained a passion to truly serve and give back. My ideas and visions heavily differed from the rest of my peers because a lot of them were pre-med or engineering majors that wanted to focus on healthcare or technology.

 

Blueprint:

 

My vision:

 

-Be able to implement leadership curriculum for students and primarily focus on the first-year experience at the University of Cincinnati.

 

Manageable Goals:

 

-I need to talk to my mentor, Jodi Stooksberry, on how to best implement leadership curriculum to hopefully start a dialogue with the Center of Frist

Year Experience and Resident Education and Development.

-Create a basic curriculum to be implemented to help mold young leaders in our UC community.

 

Stretch Goals:

 

-Have every college in the state of Ohio implement leadership curriculum through a center primarily focused on first year students.

-Have every college in the United States implement leadership curriculum through a center focused on first year students.

 

In the days since...

 

Since I have left Leadershape my vision has not changed but the route I have taken has differed slightly. I have always had a passion for helping students ranging from the ages of 16-19. These students are finishing up their high school careers and are beginning their lives as a college student or are going into the “real world”. I was fortunate enough to be asked to come and serve on a panel by the Ohio Department of Education to work with Ohio State University and their program called DACUM. DACUM stands for “Developing a Curriculum”. There were 10 students ranging from current high school students to college students that served as a state or national officer in a Career-Tech Organization. We had representation from 5 different organizations including Business Professionals of America, FFA, DECA, Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, and SkillsUSA. We also had 5 facilitators from around the country and the world and came from places including Saypan, South Africa, Michigan, California, and Ohio. The goal of our panel was to create duties and tasks that a student leader must fulfill during their position. This 2 day intensive process resulted in us completing the task at hand. From our results the Ohio Department of Education is hoping to take our list and develop curriculum to teach different leadership skills to help with the duties and task we acknowledge were pertinent in a student leader. Another goal of the Ohio Department of Education is to take our information nationwide to try to get leadership curriculum to students who are in career-tech organizations. When the list is published, I will post it on here!