SAIL

By Lori Lawson

Foreword: If this offends you, I am sorry. I am sorry that you do not see the gravity of the issue of victim blaming, which is an issue that needs a voice. Today, that voice is my voice. Victims are victims. No one deserves to be raped, injured, or murdered, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, age, appearance, or any other factor that has even been used to excuse a guilty party.

While my blog post today may not be directly linked to leadership or community engagement, I think that we could all stand to take a moment and examine who we hold accountable for what actions and why. As a leader, or even community member, it is important to understand how important equality and removing bias are in creating a well-funcioning group. Today’s example is what is known today as “slut shaming.”

In a nutshell, slut shaming is blaming the victim of sexual assault for making themselves a target through the way they dress or act instead of assigning blame for the assault on the rapist. Essentially, this is a manifestation of the idea circulating that women need to be taught not to get raped rather than teaching people not to rape. Now, you may ask, where did I see this occur that was so shocking to me? An interview.

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As you’re growing up you learn that difference between a follower and a leader.  A leader is someone that takes the first step, shows by example, and isn’t afraid to be wrong at times. At first I use to believe that a leader was a person that would just take the role and have control of everybody and everything that is going on at the moment. Now that I’m growing up I’m realizing that just because a person speaks up first and decides to take control does not make him or her a leader. A leader can be anyone at anytime of the day. This leadership class made me realize a lot about the different types of leadership roles and how to go about each role. There are a lot of qualities to have as a leader not just someone that can tell people what to do and boss them around.

As a person I was never the one to step up and say something first. I was always behind the scenes and if you need my help I was there to contribute. I am a shy person and never felt like my opinion was good enough for a group discussion. I would sit back and listen to what everyone had to say and put everything together for the group, assuming more of an organizational role. Now seeing that there are different components in being a leader being the behind the scenes person can also make you a leader too because you are taking the role and collecting all the data and compacting it into one message for the group or maybe even a group paper. All my life I would always finish the work for a group and take the responsibility for finishing that assignment. Doing all that makes me a leader in itself. I’ve never noticed that but that is good quality to have as a leader; a person a group of people can count on

Helping others is a major component of being a leader. I was able to experience this at the last service project that was at the Food Bank. Even though all we did was sort out food and stick them in boxes at least I knew that in the long run it was going to a good cause. It made me realize that I was more fortunate than others, which I’m thankful for; going to the Food Bank is something that I normally would not do but from meeting new people and hanging out with the people on the floor it was really nice. It was really cool how we all worked together and got all the food packed in a very fast amount of time. Everybody contributed in helping to accomplish a common goal. At the end of the day, the director informed us that we had packed nearly three hundred boxes and thousands of boxes of food. To me this was astonishing to be able to service others in that short amount of time. Ultimately I felt so selfless in helping others. Often times I feel that a lot of people look at what they can get out of a situation rather than what they can offer to others. Being a leader requires sacrifice, and that often means providing service to others and the community without getting compensated or a reward out of it. I found a fitting quote about selflessness that I felt directly applied to this post-

“Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life’s deepest joy: true fulfillment” -Anthony Robbins

Ultimately as leaders our goal is to make ourselves, our families, our colleagues, our community, and our world a better place. If we all worked to put others before ourselves than I believe the world could be a better place.

-Tediah Grant

In my personal opinion, experiences make great leaders! If you think about it, our experiences help to comprise who we are as individuals. Whether the experience is good or bad, the shape us in ways that sometimes we may be unaware of. For me, my relationships with people in the past help to navigate my relationships with people now. I think a lot of times people let the negative situations they encounter with people affect them in ways that take a toll on their present and future relationships. In life, we are all bound to be disappointed; it’s just an unavoidable factor of life. How we handle these various situations is what transforms us into great leaders. Important qualities of leaders include courage, stability, strength, endurance, and inspiration. Leaders are often role models, and as we have people looking up to us, whether it’s someone younger or a fellow student, it is our responsibility as leaders to teach them and guide them in the right direction. How do we teach them? From personal experiences! Being in a situation and overcoming varying circumstances is much different from an outside perspective. Being able to demonstrate that it is possible to get through a certain situation is a powerful aspect of being a leader. Many times, a situation may be difficult to talk about or share with others, but I feel that these situations are important to express because not only do they encourage someone who may be experiencing a similar situation, but it also encourages oneself by means that it helps to bring home the idea that, “hey, this is what I went through. But more so this is what I overcome!” I think having these moments make us stronger as an overall person. In addition, when going to lead a group of people, it makes it easier to relate to people finding a common ground based on experiences. Being able to inspire people is a profound factor of leadership and by sharing experiences-I feel that many people are inspired and effective leaders are born.

When I went to the food bank to volunteer with the class, I honestly had no clue what was in store for me. When I hear the word food bank, I think of one giant pantry in a sense that gives food to the needy. When we arrived in D.C., we were met by a van that drove us to the location. This intrigued me because –

• The food bank is a non-profit organization so no funds were collected to buy the van.
• Gas is required in order to make these multiple trips to pick up the volunteers!

Prior to even physically volunteering, this brought home the idea of community engagement for me. When we arrived at the food bank and began to pack the boxes in their different categories (mine was canned vegetables :D) I began to think of all the good that we were doing for the community. Somewhere, some family was going to need these non-perishable items during the cold, winter season. In the moment the boxes felt tiresome, but to think of all the good that was coming of this was an overwhelming feeling. After we finished our shift, the woman who had been guiding us through the day had told us we packed thousands of pounds of food, which literally made my mouth drop. In this moment, I realized leadership is silent. Leadership does not have to be making a speech or leading a group of people or vocalizing oneself in any way. Leadership can be in the form of recognizing there is a need and doing what you feel is necessary in order to meet the need. This “Aha” moment in a sense really resonated with me on the way back to campus. If we all just found a need and worked to combat it, we could all make the world a better place!

I found this article, The 11 Leadership Secrets You’ve Never Heard About, on Forbes.com by August Turak. It talks about how there is 11 secrets to leadership. It was a very interesting article. It talks about how followers become great leaders. He says ” We often switch between leader and follower many times in a single day, and success depends just as much on being a great follower as it does on being a great leader.” This quote says it all. To be a great leader, you need to know how your followers are feeling and what they are going through. Turak’s first tip is that you should always bring something new to the table. If you do this, people will start to look at you as a leader. Another great tip that he says is that you should be a great communicator. If you are a great communicator, then you will know what needs to be changed and what is working. HE then talks about how you should  “Leaders are busy. The last thing they want to do is supervise. Great followers reason backwards: they use future goals to prioritize today’s activity.” This last one is the best to me. People have to have goals, that is what drives them to do more.

So I decided to go to the Capital Food Bank Trip and I was really hoping that it would be a good day. I get nervous to go on activities with this hall because everyone already knows each other and I feel constantly left out. I am having a really hard time getting comfortable at Mason and so I usually avoid confrontation all together. I thought I would give my floor another chance and maybe things would be different, so I went. Well they weren’t! I still felt left out but I actually had a great day. When we finally got to the food back even though it was an hour late, I felt this overwhelming compassion to help. Even though I was not comfortable with those that I was working with, I was so happy that I could help those in need. I was overlooking the importance of the people that were going to get the boxes we were filling and I was thinking about myself. Even though I didn’t not have the best day, I know that I really made someone else’s day even better then I can image. So next time I think about myself and how I am going to feel, I will take a step back and thing about the impact I could have on someone else’s day.

-keilah S

ANDY GIVES AWAY WOODY!

This was by far the saddest thing I’ve had to watch. I remember seeing Toy Story 3 when it first came out and I literally walked out of the theater when I saw what was happening haha. Toy Story played a significant role in my childhood and I could not believe the creators chose to end it that way.

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