Cite your Resources

Resources! They are quite valuable, aren't they? All across campus there are a wide variety of resources just waiting for Iowa State students to utilize them. The financial aid office, the browsing chapel library, advisers  the Hixson computer lab, or even the student counseling center. All of these resources are available and can make our lives easier. I, myself, have used many of the resources available on campus, and I am constantly discovering other resources available to Iowa State students. The possibilities are endless.

 As peer mentors, our job is to let the incoming freshmen know that these resources are available and to refer them to the proper resource when necessary. Last semester, my co-leader, and I did a great deal of referring when the students in our section came to us. One thing that I learned was you are going to have to use previously learned skills, such as active listening and knowing the difference between interpersonal communication and advice giving, to understand a student’s needs and to be able to help them. I do not remember a student saying “I’m in need of a resource on campus where I can receive free counseling.” The students might be vague or a bit unclear, so it is our job to use the skills we learned in this class to find out the issue at hand and provide the proper resource for the students. Another thing I learned is that I do not know of every resource available on campus. I am constantly learning about new resources. This is why it is great to have a co-leader. My co-leader helped answered the questions for which I did not know the answer. I feel this is why we have co-leaders. One person could lead an entire recitation, but that one person does not know everything. The co-leader provides balance. Of course, there is a chance that the co-leader may not know the answer as well. This is why Chelsee, Allie, and Debra are here. They are a resource as well. We can look to them when we do not know the answers. Aren't they fantastic?

And now, in order to distract from the fact that my post is short, here is a clip from the office. Toby works in HR and can be seen as a resource for people in the office.

A long diversity post about my spring break

Last week, I spent my entire Spring Break in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. What was I doing there? I was helping out the Cheyenne River Youth Project. This project is located on a Lakota Indian reservation, and I went there as part of an alternative spring breaks program at my college. A great deal of stuff happened while I was there, and I’ve decided to blog about it over the next five days.

Overall, I loved my experience there. I learned new things, acquired wise advice, and bonded with some cool people. If I had not gone on the trip, I would have just spent my time at home. This was a more productive use of my time, and it is probably one of the most important things I will ever do in my life (I’m probably exaggerating). I have numerous things to say about my trip, but I guess I should start with where I volunteered.

I volunteered at the Cheyenne River Youth Project in Eagle Butte. This organization was founded 25ish years ago in order to help the youth in Eagle Butte. What many people fail to realize is that the youth on reservations are at risk due to issues such as gang activity, poverty, and educational issues. I did not realize this until a short while ago. All of these issues are important to understand because they affect everyone on a reservation including the young people. I’m not saying every reservation has these issues, but they still exist on some reservations. The Project in Eagle Butte has been designed to provide activities for teenagers and little kids alike in order to prevent nefarious activities from going on in the community. Nobody wants to see wasted potential occur with anyone, and I believe that the project can help to insure that most of the students do healthy activities that will not ruin their chances at a great future.

Other aspects of the Project include the fact that many colleges and high schools visit the area to help as well. This can result in issues that I will get to in another post. The Project has a gym where teenagers can play games (mostly basketball) at night, they recently hosted a “Passion for Fashion” night, and they have libraries and an art room. All of these aspects combine to show the true nature of the Project: to help teenagers feel welcome and encouraging growth. The Project also has an afternoon drop off session for little kids where they can learn, play, and have a small dinner. It was a joy working with the little kids even if they were a little brutal at times. Finally, the Project does try to help the community by offering family services. This service allows those in the community to request items that the Project may or may not carry. The Project has a warehouse that I saw. It is pretty big, but it does not carry everything. Still, families do utilize it and seem relatively happy about it.

So what did I learn from all of this? I learned a great deal about culture, empathy, and diversity. I understood what it felt like to be the outsider in the community. I could tell that the residents of the reservation knew I did not belong. They did not go to any lengths to make me feel unwelcome, but I knew I was out of place. Furthermore, I learned more about empathy. One of the speakers said to us that we would never truly understand their issues because we are not Native American, and we could not think like they did. This is true. I will never be Lakota, but I should still attempt to understand their issues by learning about them. The speaker told us that he was proud of our generation because we were willing to learn and correct the mistakes of our past as well as being accepting of others cultures and identities. I feel this is an important step to take not just in Indian affairs, but in world affairs. In order to truly understand others, we should learn their story, understand what has happened in the past, and make sure that we do not repeat mistakes. It is with this that I believe that we will truly change the world for the better.  

Relating Everything to Spring Break

This past week I spent Spring Break on a Lakota Indian reservation in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. This explains why I am waiting until the last minute Sunday night to submit my blog post. While on the reservation, I had time to mull over what Shelby and Stephanie talked about in class as well as the Harlem Shake information that Allie talked about before the lesson. When it comes to the Harlem Shake, I learned that we have to consider the culture it came from before we use it for anything. I think that it would be okay for us to use it because if we are sort of mature about it, we aren’t insulting the Harlem culture where it originated. Furthermore, I think that we are making enough changes that it isn’t really the Harlem Shake but a variation of it. As long as we give credit to the original, there should be no problems with it. Finally, I think the Harlem Shake can be an ice breaker or a learning tool. While I was in Eagle Butte, the teenagers I interacted with were distant from us because they knew we were just here for a week. By Friday though, they were more accepting of us. On Friday, we ended our time with them by doing the Harlem Shake which they were strongly willing to do. I feel that if we had done the Harlem Shake earlier, we might have let them know that we weren't just here for a project; we were there to help them and have fun.

Shelby and Stephanie asked “How can you apply knowing your learning style and the strategies associated with it to improving your academic success?” The answer is that if you know how you like to learn as well as possible inhibitors to your learning, you can adjust your study habits to fit the style. For example, if you know that you like lecture style classes, you can adjust your class schedule to match those types of classes. I am happy to know my learning style and the strategies I use, so I am improving my academic success. I am still learning, however, so there will always be room for more improvement. I can also apply this knowledge to the Lakota reservation that I was at last week. A lot of the teenagers have trouble academically. This relates to the fact that educators on the reservation do not do a great job, and the fact that parents on the reservation do not motivate their children to do well. If the teens knew these possible inhibitors to their success, then possibly they could find ways around them to enable their success. Furthermore, some of the teens do not know of their learning style. I feel that education on this as well as education on possible academic success strategies could help the teenagers in the future. Relating this to diversity and culture, I know that life on the reservation is drastically different than college life or life where most of the peer mentors grew up, but I still feel that these strategies could help the teenagers there. After interacting with these teenagers over the past week, I have found that I really want to help them with the issues that surround them, and I feel that the skills I have as a peer mentor could help me with that. 

Groups 2: Leadership Boogaloo

In class this week, Brady and Josh led a fantastic discussion on leading groups. One thing we talked about was the characteristics of an effective leader. We argued that leaders were communicative, empathetic, friendly, and dedicated among other things. When it comes to leading groups, leaders have to model effective behavior. If they want a project to be successful, then they have to show the rest of the group the behavior that will lead to success. If the person in charge is a slacker, then everyone else might not care about the project. Leaders also recognize and reward. I feel this is extremely important because working in a group can be stressful. If a group manages to effectively work together and complete a project, then they should be able to celebrate somehow. Furthermore, if one person in a group does a fantastic job, then a leader should recognize that person and let other members of the group know that the behavior of that person enabled success. Personally, I feel that a leader needs most of the qualities that Josh and Brady mentioned, but all leaders will not have all of the qualities. Some situations may call for certain traits and may not require others. Also, being a leader is a learning process. It requires reflection after the leadership role has finished in order to understand what traits need to be improved upon and what traits have already been excellently used.

Brady and Josh also talked about the impact on the physical environment on groups. It is always a surprise when you realize how you are seated can affect the nature of a group. Personally, I am a fan of living-room seating because it is the most comfortable and allows for easy discussion. However, this arrangement will not work for every group. Some arrangements such as horseshoe seating and roundtable seating may be more important depending on the project or what is being discussed. In terms of theater seating, I am not a fan. It seems too boring, and it doesn't seem to allow discussion. Still, this arrangement may be necessary for lectures or certain presentations. So while one method may seem better, it is important to know that all of these seating arrangements may come in handy at one time or another. 

So now that you know the good qualities of a leader, maybe we should take a look at a leader who leads groups poorly. 

We All Score for ISCORE

At ISCORE, I attended two events. One of the events was “Dumb Things We Need to Stop Saying.” One important thing I learned from this was the difference between intent and impact. Even if you have good intentions, you can still cause harm in what you say or do. Another important thing I learned was that when you do offend someone (it’s bound to happen sooner or later), you should not be defensive. Instead, you should just apologize and accept responsibility for the offensive thing you said. One of the dumb things that we should stop saying was “Some of my best friends are (insert group here).” This is dumb because it seems like someone is trying to cover up their mistake or racism with an attempt to prove that they are accepting of a certain group. Instead of saying this, they should just note that they are aware of the issues that bother a certain group and make note that they are empathetic towards that group. Another dumb thing that we say is “It was only a joke, don’t take it so seriously.” This is dumb because it is an attempt to cover up racism. The problem is that if something is truly offensive to someone, then they are going to take it seriously even if you claim it is a joke. All of this is important to remember because next fall we will be interacting with students who come from different areas of life. Knowing the dumb things we say will allow us to say the better alternatives. It will also help us in our personal lives when we try to have conversations with people from cultures different than our own.

Another event I attended was “What are you.” This even talked a lot about racial identity and our obsession with it. One thing I was surprised to learn about during this event is that an increasing number of people are identifying as mixed race. This went against my beliefs because I’ve always identified with my whiteness meaning I only classify myself as white. I’ve always thought that a lot of other people did the same.  However, this event taught me that a lot of people identify as mixed race, and historically, others have tried to identify people as only one race. The Dawes Rolls for Indians and the One Drop Rule for blacks have been instances where the federal government tried to force a group of people to identify in only one way. However, this has been problematic for people who do not identify in just one way. This could even hurt people who feel like they belong to one group but are classified as belonging to another. The good thing here is that the United States is slowly changing this policy, but progress still needs to be made in our society. We have to get past the issue of race before we can fully advance as a society. This is important to know next Fall because, even as peer mentors, we are still going to classify students by race unconsciously. It would be wise to understand this, so we can make the conscious decision to note that we should allow the students to define themselves rather than have us define who they are. 

Twittering Tweetish Twurts

This week in class Tyler and Kat led a fantastic discussion on groups. During the discussion, we did an icebreaker where we held sticks and passed them along to others who were next to us in the circle. I think this is a great representation of group process. When we passed the sticks to others, we had to make sure that the sticks would stay up long enough for the others to catch them. If one person did not do this, then the whole group would fail. In addition, we had to focus on the task at hand. If we did not do so, then the sticks would fall and the goal wouldn’t pan out as well. Finally, when we upped the stakes by tossing the sticks to one another, this became representative of the stakes being upped in a group. We had to try harder just as one would have to in a group. In the end, groups require effort, communication, and teamwork or else goals will not be met.

This week was also social media week. I am already a strong tweeter, so I did not have to change my ways much. However, I did notice some of my fellow Hixsons say that they were going to block their tweets again when the week ended. I never understood the reasons for blocking tweets. I’ve always figured that Twitter was meant for random, odd people following you, and blocking your twitter seems to negate that purpose. If you want to follow only people you know, then isn’t that the purpose of Facebook? Still, I feel a learned quite a bit about my fellow mentors. They are a talkative and reflective bunch, and I feel this was a great bonding experience for all involved. The negative side of Twitter is that it is incredibly easy to post something that you may wish you hadn’t posted. For example, I’m sure that the students who posted the negative comments about the Kansas-Iowa State basketball game wish they could take back what they said. These students are a reminder that the whole world can read your tweets, and they are judging you for what you say. This includes your future boss. Perhaps the people who block their tweets have a point. Your future boss cannot read your tweets if he cannot see them. Still, it is important to remember that your tweets are visible to some people, and you should always be aware that what you say has meaning and can affect you in the future.