SAIL

Now, “youth” are not the topic of my community engagement project this spring, but by talking with some friends recently, we concluded that kids are pretty inspiring and wonderful. Billy Cosby really had a good thing going when he said that ‘Kids Say the Darndest Things’ (this link showcases my absolute favorite segment from the show). Another glimpse into the inner workings of a kid’s mind is my seven-year-old cousin’s quote concerning women that wear black to look thin: “If you just worked out more, you could wear whatever color you wanted”. Is that not a hoot?!

Kids naivety makes them impervious to the adult “rules and regulations” that pertain to the rest of the grown world. They ask fantastic questions. They love unconditionally and call everyone their friend. They don’t mind getting messy to have fun. I believe that we can all learn a thing or two about living life to it’s fullest by preserving the ideals that kids hold close.

Bringing up cause and effect, and starting at the “roots of the community issue”, we need to remember that kids truly are the future of our world, so it’s vital that we look after them, encourage ambition and creativity, and, last but certainly not least, allow ourselves to be inspired by how they think and what they do. =)

Has a kid inspired you lately?

For the past three to now going on four weeks, I have enjoyed reading everyone’s blog posts and seeing the dynamics on the floor shift. Unfortunately, my schedule this semester has not given me time to be more of the in-class participant like I had hoped it would work out; however, my leadership role(s) on campus have only grown stronger and more engaged.

As many of my floormates know, I am a Senator in Student Government and sit on two different House Committees in the Senate: University Services and University Life. Student Government for the past semester progressively and collectively had been planning for an outreach project in the state, but was not quite certain of the most strategic way to do so.

This past Thursday, all of the hard work and dedication from Student Government truly paid off: We hosted Mason Lobby Day at the Virginia State Capitol and General Assembly. Each student was split into a group depending upon where the student resides and represented that particular region of Virginia. Now for many of you all, I am sure you were wondering yourselves what about the out-of-state students: They were given a randomized region of Virginia to represent.

My role during Lobby Day was to represent the great region of Southwest Virginia and discuss the current and future role Mason plays to the state of Virginia to gain support for the campus. My region was a little harder yet more important to gain traction with from state legislators, because GMU is not as popular is SW VA as it is in NoVA. During the day, I was assigned three state legislators to talk to and persuade them with my personal snippet as to why I consider GMU so advantageous to my current education, life experience, and future career. All of these were such easy targets to discuss, because each subject was why I chose George Mason.

Reflecting upon the GMU Lobby Day, it was such a great opportunity for me to work as a group function for leadership and strengthen relations among the government. One of my career goals is to become a lobbyist, and I enjoyed being able to provide my past leadership skills to build future knowledge of an occupation I am highly considering.

I encourage each of you all this semester to take the time out to push your leadership skills to the test by taking the plunge out of your comfort zone and working towards your future! It is our time to shine LCE!! Also, feel free to use me as a liaison between your interests and passions to work with Student Government or if you need promotional help on Mason Cable News! Be sure to tune in every Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. on Channel 231!

Best,

Lauren-Haley

Many people say that a leader has to have a certain quality about them. For example, people might say that a leader has to be a great speaker and that they could rally the people behind them. Having that quality is nice, but not every leader  can do that. I found an interesting article on this topic by Dr. David G. Javitch. His article, 10 Characteristics of Superior Leaders, talks about what great leaders should have.

The first characteristic that he talks about is mission. This is plain and simple. The person knows what they want to do and why they are there. “A superior leader has a well thought out (often written) mission describing the purpose of the organization.” The next big quality of a leader, is their vision. Its not about the eyesight, but rather about what they plan to do in the future. “A vision needs to be abstract enough to encourage people to imagine it but concrete enough for followers to see it, understand it and be willing to climb onboard to fulfill it.” The next key characteristic is having good communication skills and interpersonal skills. The leader needs to be able to get everyone to understand what is going on and then being able to take input from their followers. That feedback from the followers is crucial. The person in charge might not know that what they are doing is disliked. This leads me into the next quality, inspiration. Leaders need to have this. It is mainly about the morale of the group. If the morale is high, then the group will accomplish more.

That was a brief summary of some good leadership qualities that can be used. Do you have any qualities that a leader should have?

I want to kick off my first blog post of 2013 with one of the biggest issues I am facing this semester. It’s an issue that I know many of you and other college students around the globe are also facing. It’s an issue that appears in numerous movies, TV’s, and books. So, obviously it’s not an originally issue, but that doesn’t make it any less difficult.

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