Activism:
This week we went to St. Matthew’s Church where we coordinated leadership activities for the kids. The kids were 5th ad 6th graders and we did leadership based activities with them including the human knot, elbow tag, icebreakers, obstacle courses, etc. Building leadership came from games like the obstacle course where one person led another using only words to direct a blind folded kid through the obstacle course. The contact we made with the community partner was very positive, some of the group met with Rev. Sonya on Wednesday to discuss what was expected of us this weekend, and of course we were all at the church on Saturday early to set up and stayed late to clean up. Sonya and some of the parents were very pleased with the way we handled the evening, which was really nice to hear. Honestly, this weekend was all a success, everyone showed up on Saturday, all the kids were well behaved and everything just worked out very smoothly.
Reflection:
I have no doubts that Rev. Sonya is an advocate for girls leadership. She was so willing to help us this weekend, including Saturday when she helped us brainstorm for Sunday. Our actions follow the lines of us doing transformational leadership more then us helping others achieve leadership. In a lot of ways we have been doing what van Linden and Fertman describe as transformational leadership, “It is concerned with how individuals use their abilities to influence people” (9). All of us in our service learning have been brought our own strengths to this group the entire semester, and this weekend it showed when we were working with the kids. Those of us that are goofy and act like children anyways (me) were able to get on the same level as the kids and make stuff more fun, those of us that are really good at organizing and keeping things under control did this, and those of us that that are good at planning helped to make sure everything ran smoothly. Our entire group was able to work as a well-oiled machine, everyone brining something to the event this weekend that ultimately made it a success.
Reciprocity:
This week’s service learning was just a lot of fun, which I think is cool because we were able to give back and incorporate leadership and make it really fun for everyone at the same time. I definitely gained some perceptive this weekend of what service learning is suppose to be and how it is suppose to look and be achieved, and I definitely feel like I’ve gained competency when it comes to planning events like this, something I hadn’t done before. I think community service and giving back is kind of inherently feminist, which we did this weekend. I do feel like this weekend broadened the type of service learning I can do and now want to do, helping at a church doesn’t have to be off limits and was actually a great experience.
Word Count: 497
Works Cited
Van Linden, Josephine. Youth Leadership: A Guide to Understanding Leadership Development in Adolescents. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998. Print.
