Future Child Advocates….part 2

After falling in love with Future Child Advocates and all that it stood for, I decided to not only come back for a second year, but I also took on an eboard position as Public Relations chairperson. I loved working with the amazing girls that were on eboard and just seeing how passionate not only they were, but even the general members. The club consists of all girls (not on purpose) who each have such a strong passion to be a voice for kids who don’t have one. They are passionate about being a positive light in children’s lives and for sticking up for them when they need someone.

At each meeting we work towards furthering our education on child abuse and neglect so that we can be better prepared when we are working with children hands on in our professions and every day life. This RSO is also very dedicated to giving back to the community. One of my favorite memories of this year was volunteer at the Whaley’s Children Center in Flint, MI. This is a large foster care system that houses children who experience problems at their home. They are dedicated to providing the best service and care for the children there and I could see that all throughout the time I spent there. We got to spend the day just helping organize whatever they needed, we decorated their parlor for Christmas time so that it felt like home for the children, and then we actually got to spend time with some of the children. For me this was the best part. The kids were preparing a Christmas concert to perform for their families who could make it, so they asked us to stay and sing along with them. I can honestly say that I don’t think I have ever sang louder or more out of tune in my entire life, but boy did we have a blast. Those kids taught me more about love and joy than anyone else, and yet for most of them, they have been so deprived of that for their entire lives. This experience really just opened my eyes to the what true happiness looks like when you have nothing.

Being apart of Future Child Advocates has been one of the best parts of being at CMU and I can’t wait to see what we do next year!

Our donation of 2,000 socks to the local homeless shelter

Advertisements

#retreatyoself2017

Before embarking on this years Mentor Mentee Retreat, I sat down and gave myself time to just think about what I really wanted this weekend to look like and what I wanted to get out of it. Although this is my second year going on this retreat, it was still very new to me for a couple of reasons.

The first reason, and the most obvious one is because of my role. Last year I was that nervous yet excited Freshman who was ready to get to know her cohort and grow closer to her mentor. This year, I had the privilege of embarking on this adventure as a mentor to my beautiful mentee, Brooke Galloway. When I thought about this weekend with Brooke, I keep smiling thinking about all the fun things we were going to do together and about how excited I was to grow closer to her. Brooke is one of the sweetest girls I have ever met who has a heart on FIRE for Jesus and I love that so much about her. I was really hoping to be able to push Brooke out of her comfort zone and little did I know she would be doing the same thing to me.

I loved being able to watch my cohort interact with the new members of their LAS family tree and I absolutely loved the vibes of the weekend; the constant chatter and laughter coming from lifelong friendships being built, constant encouragement as friends help each other during the activities, and the sound of leaves blowing from the cool crisp air that chilled everyone’s fingers and toes. I gotta say, some of my favorite parts of the weekend were spent having quality conversations over a warm cup of coffee or hot cocoa.

However, my favorite part of the trip was the time I spent one-on-one with my mentee, learning about each other and growing with each other. I learned so much during our activities about how Brooke was a very strong leader and I admire that about her. I learned about how much more extraverted she is than me, but yet again research shows that yin and yang relationships are the strongest 😉 We spent the weekend laughing, pushing each other, and learning new things about one another. I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend with a better mentee.

Enjoy these pictures of our great weekend!

our cute little cabin

High ropes course

my amazing roomie and friend ❤

The lovely 2016 cohort

The family tradition lives on 😉

“But why?”

For those of you who read my blog post about Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk called “Start With Why”, this post will be a follow-up to an even deeper discussion that my LAS cohort discussed about it in class. For those of you who have never heard of or seen the ted talk, I would recommend you read my blog post about it here!

Last week, my leadership class was assigned an assignment to watch the ted talk before coming to class. In class we discussed why we thought “why” was so important. Why is that everyone follows why you do something and not what you do? To us as leaders, we found this topic very important because we want to appeal to people through our passions and actions and not just because we may be called a leader. We began looking at different businesses “why” statements and even different leaders’ around the world.

We were then asked to buddy up with a classmate and describe to them our passions, our role models, things that make us mad, sad, happy, etc., thus helping one another form our why statements; why we do what we do.

If you had the chance to read my blog post about “Start With Why” you would’ve seen that I originally created my own why statement. However, after my class I wanted to write a better one. I later met with other classmates asking them for their opinions and seeing how they view me as a person and a leader, thus giving me my new why statement:

“Inspire others to love fearlessly and serve endlessly”

I am a firm believer in the power of love and sometimes I feel that I let the power of love keep me from really giving my all to something. I want everyone to find something that they love to do and do it without any fear. I also feel that as a Christian, one of my duties is to serve others until the day I die. I also just love serving others any way possible and it is something I want to do forever.