My big 4 leadership memories in college all have come from my sophomore year onward. The most impactful one for me happened last semester, Fall 2019, with a professor. One was in Rwanda with our trip leader, when speaking to our NGO hosts. Another was in the intro to leadership class during our group project and assignments. The last one was teaching children in Rwanda.
The one that impacted me the most was with my professor. It was my senior seminar for my major and I had been doing okay in the class. Early in November 2019, I had a family friend pass away in her sleep at 23. The news was shocking and it took me awhile to get back to, what is my now, normal life. I had emailed my professors about the loss and then went into office hours for my professors at a later time to figure out what I missed. For this class it was all reading and writing, but I had lost the ability to focus on books. My professor said he completely understood, told me to grieve as needed. He gave me an extension on the final paper and sat down with me to talk about class concepts and check on my mental health. Dr. Brantly showed me leadership and helped me navigate through one of the most difficult times in my life. I was stressed about life, about classes, my job, and my family. I was not sleeping or eating and it took everything in my power to not cry for months following the tragedy. Under his guidance he allowed me space to get my head together and in return I managed to finish the class on time with a good grade in the class. He was not pushy or rude, he just helped me succeed in a time when I felt like I needed a win.
While my study abroad group was in Rwanda, one of the leaders of an NGO we were partnered with had one foot out the door. We stayed in this location for 14 days. She was leaving the country two months after we arrived and had generally stopped caring about the program or us while we were there. As young adults we could tell that she didn’t want to be there and did not care that we were there with her. We were not allowed to leave the compound, had very few activities to do, and minimal interaction with the people we were there to serve. One of the leaders of the trip, Louise, came to check on everyone in that period. She knew what was going on, and instead of causing a ruckus, she became friendly with the leader brought up some suggestions to make our trip more impactful for everyone involved. The leader did not see it as an attack, took her advice, and made our last few days there much more enjoyable for us and for the children that participated in the program. Louise knew coming in strong would not have helped and she played her cards in a way that improved our stay exponentially. Watching her help us out in a way that was not pushy or intrusive made me realize that leadership can mean a lot of different things, but the main goal was to help others. Lousie helped us out and greatly boosted our morale and the NGO leaders attitude toward to the job and us.
Once we switched locations in Rwanda, from the one mentioned above, to our second location. This location we spent the full two weeks we were there teaching English and conducting interviews about local interventions to see how they were going in the area. Here our leaders were much more involved and allowed us more freedom in our teaching and research. This is where I learned most of my leadership skills and was allowed to implement them. The age group we were teaching was 7-9 years old. They were a ton of fun to teach and hang out with, but they were also loud and it was difficult to keep them on task. We quickly learned that “lecturing” did not work, at all. We had a translator, but it was difficult to keep their focus. One adjustment we did was we would show them the concept, like addition, and would have them come up to the board and practice. Once we felt like each child had learned the concept, they would get a sticker. If some of the students were struggling one of us would sit down with them and help them practice the concept with the help of the translator. Those kids then got to go to the board and show everyone what they had learned and receive a sticker. This reminded me that people learn in different ways and that leadership styles would have to vary from person to person. Some kids are more self sufficient and others need to be watched more closely. Asking each child what they were struggling with and sitting down to help them worked very well. In a multi language classroom patience and kindness are the most important things.
Lastly was the introduction to leadership class I took spring of my sophomore year. I knew a lot of people in the class from my trip, but had none of them in my project group. I am also aware that we were one of very few groups that got together on a weekly basis to work on our project together. At the beginning it was difficult to find a time to meet, but as time went on and our schedules became more predictable finding a meeting time and place became easier. The first thing that we did was create a group chat so we could all stay in contact, we then picked a project and a general “leader” that would assign tasks and make sure everyone was on schedule. This role was assigned to me. I had done group projects before, but not ones that lasted an entire semester, like this one had. They trusted me to make sure we could find a time to meet, assign a point of contact person for the shelter that we were working with, someone to do student body outreach, and someone to edit any videos we submitted. This felt like a big task at first, but as the semester went on I realized that some team members did not need to be reminded about work, others needed a gentle reminder about the assignments, and some would get a call a day or two before something was due to remind them about the work. Once I learned the different ways that people in my group functioned it became easier to schedule work. This felt similar to my teaching in Rwanda, but it was much easier to communicate with and contact our members. In the end we had a successful project and a new friend group at school.
Different kinds of leadership are needed in different situations. The guiding force behind individual leadership styles should be the drive to do good work and the capacity to allow each member to do their best work. This can be done with reminders and a set schedule, or with one on one interactions that help shape how the team will operate. Sometimes people work well with space and sometimes getting together is the best way to get it done. This assignment was a nice reminder of what has helped shape me as a leader.
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