As with every RC assignment, a critical component of sharing a journey is for the plan ahead. What am I going to do now? I have so many leadership skills and tools under my belt and now I need to use them. I have developed a newfound understanding of who I am as a leader but I am definitely going to need to find holistic peace with the fact that I am now an adult in the real world. In all honesty, that is a scary thought. So instead, I want to talk about my plans knowing that they are not set in stone and finding comfort in the uncertainty.
I am going to be pursuing my Bachelors in Education this fall and start working with youth who are capable of changing the world. I am eager to empower youth to make a difference and support them as they are rather than trying to turn them into something that society wants them to be. I am also eager to work as a peer to my students rather than enforce a rough power dynamic. I want them to learn from me as much as I want to learn from them. I am ecstatic to start this plan and create even more connections with the Fredericton community. I am more confident in my problem solving, social interaction, literacy, time management, and wellness skills thanks to the interdisciplinary, hands-on nature of the program. I am eager to implement these learning outcomes in my classrooms and adjust the way I teach to support students in a way that suits them. For now, I am going to be working with UNB REDS Youth programs and practicing the employment skills I have taken away from this degree. I am excited to spend my first summer in Fredericton with my friends and community. The next adventure on the radar is going to be another time of growth from new experiences. I am afraid, excited, anxious, and eager to start my new journey and thankful for all of the skills that RC has given me to prepare for the real world. Until next time Maggie Jean <3
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n order to define the nature of leadership, I found it beneficial to consider what is not the nature of leadership. For there to be a good nature of leadership, there must also be a bad one which is why I was transformed by the works of Kellerman (2005) discussing “Bad Leadership.” According to the author, bad leadership is categorized in two groups, unethical and ineffective. In contrast, this suggests that good leaders need to be effective and ethical.
Developing a leadership philosophy is an important part of growing as a person. Over the past three years, I have become more observant of the different leadership styles around me. As I watched groups around me form, I have adapted different leadership techniques based on what has worked and failed for previous groups. I have noticed that everyone leads differently, and different kinds of leadership styles are needed for different groups. An overarching theme I have seen in building a successful team is creating an open space for everyone to be themselves. I think that self-expression and mutual support are the most important aspects of creating a strong team dynamic because it leads to the highest level of productivity. As I move forward in my leadership experience, I want to be mindful of this aspect of leadership. I aim to recognize the values within my perspective and gain understanding for the diverse values of others. Creating an Inclusive Environment Intersectionality One of the most influential works from my degree was by Crenshaw (1991) which discusses intersectionality. This concept explores how different aspects of one’s identity such as race or gender led to varying levels of privilege or oppression (Crenshaw, 1991, p. 1241). This was an eye-opening article in terms of my leadership lens especially as I had never considered how inclusion looks different for different groups of people. Prior to reading this piece, I understood that there were different needs for inclusion, but I had never considered the impact of being a minority in multiple different groups and how that impacts your everyday life. Intersectionality in my opinion, is one of the most important concepts to keep in mind when working in a team in part because you need to keep an inclusive lens, but also to utilize the different backgrounds of each member and maximize the impact and outreach of the project. Learning Disabilities While working through the Community Problem Solving course this fall, I have been learning about available programs across the country for adults with learning disabilities, specifically, where the gaps in programming are. As an aspiring teacher, the things I have learned with Learning Disabilities Association of New Brunswick (LDANB) are crucial to creating a welcoming atmosphere for all learners. I am passionate about lifelong learning, and I would love to bring this idea into practice in my classroom. As I lead youth, I want them to see diversity as positive in essential to being successful. I want to lead youth to be more open and accepting. I want any setting that I work in to be a comfortable, safe and supportive space for all and the concepts I am learning about through LDANB are taking me in the right direction to do so. All my experiences at UNB have transformed my leadership values into what they are today. As I reflect on my high school self, I see her success and determination, however I also see tremendous areas of growth that lead me to being the person that I am today. Not only am I much more confident in my skills and abilities in leadership, but also in general which has led to me making stronger connections than I ever could have dreamed. My experiences have taught me that authenticity is my most meaningful trait to contribute to relationship building and the support from others empowers me to make better contributions to my teams. Townhouse is a club dedicated to off-campus students who need help connecting to UNB as they don't have the typical residence experience. I am currently working as the Townhouse Coordinator and am responsible for leading an executive teams and creating events to connect students who are not living on campus.
When working as the Townhouse Coordinator, I have been faced with countless obstacles, including an unmotivated team. This work is very exhausting as I must do all the tasks without delegating and I am constantly trying to empower my team to communicate better. This experience has taught me the importance of conflict management and knowing when to take official action to reconstruct a team. My first semester team was lacking in communication with me and would often not show up to meetings or events. As a leader, this felt very isolating and draining because I was putting in so much work and would often see little to no reward. I had to consistently remind myself that every positive interaction with one new person is life changing and worth every moment. In my second semester on this team, I gave everyone on the original team to step down from their role and only two members stayed. I learned how to let people go from a team and rehire a team which are both crucial skills to have in the workplace. Additionally, I learned the importance of starting fresh. At first, I was still holding on to the poor communication from the first team so I was hesitant to trust my new group with tasks and delegate. I am still adjusting to this but my team has shown up consistently and we have worked on a few big events this year. I have taken on many roles in different clubs and societies over the course of my degree, but I always stuck with the Mental Health Association. I had experience in High School with planning Mental Health Events and I was very eager to do the same on campus. As university students, practicing personal well-being is often viewed as an afterthought. Students are often on their own for the first time, taking more difficult classes, and learning how to take care of themselves all without sufficient resources to support them. I wanted to do everything in my power to turn campus into a positive atmosphere and because of RC I had the skills to do this.
I learned how to take meeting notes in our Forum class which was useful as my role in the secretary position for this club. In the later years of my degree, I learned how to host meetings and moderate discussions to ensure that everyone has their chance to participate. I have also learned how to use my leadership style to empower my team which has been critical in the events we have been putting on. We got off to a slow start with this club but I am so proud of the work we have accomplished this year. We hosted 3 successful fundraisers and developed 2 new initiatives that I think will have a lasting impact on the UNB and Fredericton community. I was an O-Week Leader for my first year on campus (2021) as a RedShirt and a BlackShirt in the following year. Both of these experiences brought me some lifelong friends and memories which I will cherish forever. I was able to make the most of these experiences because of the skills I obtained at RC. I learned how to navigate conflict, problem solve, plan events, and lead a team through this program. All of these skills were crucial as an Orientation Week Leader. We were responsible for creating a welcoming space while we were actively problem solving during larger events such as check-in day.
Check in day was a mess at the first year I volunteered for as a RedShirt and because of the leadership role I was in, I was mostly observing and reflecting. There were parents in line for over two hours, too many different check-in locations, not enough scheduled time for volunteers to rest, and a lot of miscommunication from different volunteers. By the blast-off event that night, everyone was burnt out and lacking the energy needed to bring the UNB Community Alive. This was a consistent struggle throughout the week because of how everyones social battery was impacted by the pandemic. I used all of this analysis as I worked with the 2022 O-Week team. I used my observational reflection skills to propose alternative solutions when I was in a BlackShirt role in 2022. I asked a lot of clarifying questions as we practiced in forum to ensure that everyone was on the same page this year. The second year that I was a leader for this event, was almost boring. There were very few problems that we encountered and lots of us were struggling to cope as we prepared for the worst. This was a big learning lesson for me to apply our wellbeing practices and validate my teammates emotions. I helped them learn how to take care of themselves and live in the moment. I learned so much from O-Week and I couldn't have done it without the amazing RC team and the lessons I have learned from the program. This year, we were the first students to try out this new model of portfolio. I knew it had to be based on the learning outcomes but my growth has been more than just six learning outcomes. After all, it is the experiences that teach us the skills we need for life. For me, I wanted this project to be reflective of my whole degree. While we are still required to incorporate the learning outcomes, this is not where most of my growth has come from. I decided to display my experience through a website that summarizes something I learned in every course. The reality is, I cannot summarize what I learned in this program based simply on the highlights from the learning outcomes because I have grown through every step in my learning journey. I hope this portfolio does it justice because RC did not just change who I am as a student, but who I am as a leader. After all, Renaissance College is the home of Movers, Shakers, and Change Makers.
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