I received the majority of my leadership minor during my sophomore year study abroad.
The classes I have chosen for this assignment are:
MKTG 3954– Study Abroad
MKTG 4404– Field Practicum In Marketing
MKTG 4644– Marketing, Sociology, & Public Interests
LDRS 1015– Exploring Citizen Leadership
For my Fall 2017 Study Abroad course we spent 9 weeks living in Lugano, CH and 5 weeks in Rwanda.
This was the class that introduced us to leadership concepts in a developing country. We learned how to interact in cultures we were unfamiliar with and allowed us open our minds to different leadership styles across Europe and Rwanda.
This class specifically introduced me to public health, and has led my coursework through undergrad and, hopefully, into a masters in public health program. It taught me how to work with others in different majors and how to work in a new group dynamic outside of political science students. It also taught me community values of a culture I could not understand until I was in it. The other classes on this trip, some of which I will talk about today, helped mold my views, this class solidified my future goals of creating a positive social change.
MKTG 4644– Marketing, Sociology, & Public Interests
This class taught us how to collect and show information in hopes of being able to secure a grant for the cause we were working on. We did practice surveys in this class to help us understand how to create a good survey and understand the data we receive. We did this by creating a survey based on our peers opinions of the study abroad trip we were on. This was done so we could have real experience prior to doing the important research in Gatagara. I also believe that this survey was a way for the professors to understand how we were feeling as students on the trip and what things need to be improved.
Below was the survey that we created with how we planned on getting responses.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OndULhuh00Iyijuv0CX0TSYl1Fx5YfXwMTdEqE3XVlQ/edit?usp=sharing
This was the results of the survey
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_XiIpaoCV7Utiekiiep0lgmM8kTlTJC4COIrZozr6Q8/edit?usp=sharing
MKTG 4404– Field Practicum In Marketing
The goal for my group was Menstrual Health Management (MHM) for young girls in Gatagara, Rwanda. This was done through Kids Play International. This was the first big trial of community leadership on this study abroad culture. We ran a series of three focus groups at different schools in Gatagara to understand how periods affected young girls in Rwanda, and how much access they have to menstrual products. What we learned is that the answers we received were dependent on the group we were working with, and how the questions were asked. Our findings showed that many young girls miss out on education due to their periods, and the ways that were available to manage period symptoms, were unsafe to the girls.
Below is our analysis plan for the focus groups we conducted.
Analysis Plan
- We will be asking about personal experiences of the girls through a focus group
- We will be analyzing
- Their feelings and knowledge about menstrual health
- How others (males, family, teachers) treat them
- Resource availability We will be asking about personal experiences of the girls through a focus group
- We will be analyzing
- Their feelings and knowledge about menstrual health
- How others (males, family, teachers) treat them
- Resource availability
- Sexual harassment
- A debrief right after the focus groups will help clarify the information that was shared along with listening to the recordings
- We will be searching for the overarching themes that arise during the discussion.
- Once the information is collected we will discuss the focus group results and analyze the themes and ideas presented in the group.
LDRS 1015– Exploring Citizen Leadership
This is the only class, besides the capstone, that was not taken during my study abroad. We were assigned random groups and our assignment was to create a service learning project.
My team consisted of myself, Dave, Ryan, Ryan, Jordan, and Kalil. Together we decided to make our service project focused on helping out the Montgomery County Animal Shelter. Every week we met to work on this assignment and to see how everyone was doing with their piece of the work. Near the end of the semester we got together to help clean animal crates and pick weeds around the shelter. Three people who were not in the class with us joined and together we cleaned 20 crates and pulled hundreds of weeds. The shelter mostly runs off the efforts of volunteers so we did the work that needed to be done to help keep the shelter in top condition for the animals and employees that worked there.
This class also had us learn about past leaders and their leadership styles. This helped us learn about our specific style of leadership and other ways that we could incorporate into our service project and everyday life.
This was our examination of our teem norms and how we interact together as a group.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-kFNJ1YfezEvuzFL26zt0tbOWOYadzV9rrll5HBrtE4/edit?usp=sharing
Below was our end presentation for our service project.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17YOo3jwDLO3PfcQ5R8atwOZYfKNUGD2IwshV_Alkw6Q/edit?usp=sharing
Overall these classes have greatly influenced how I am as a leader, how I interact with the world around me, and how I view my future. Each course I have taken for this minor has helped me grow as a student, a leader, and a person. This is just a summary of what I did in these classes, but the impact has spanned beyond classes.
Rachel's Leadership Blog 