SAIL

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SPRING BREAK 2013!!!                                                   

…During Spring Break, Paige, John and mysel will be going to Philadelphia. While there, we will be helping out with creative writing workshops for K-12 students and building playgrounds. Being able to be a part of the trip is exciting! However, after class on Wednesday, I couldn’t help but think and reevaluate the goals I have made for the trip. During class, we established that fixing a problem only veiwing the surface level issues related to it is not really fixing the problem. Read the rest of this entry »

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