Monday, July 20, 2015

Leaning Lots of Life Lessons

I was really excited about the first day of class today, our leader-fellow, Jeff, escorted us to the Ratty where we stood in line to get breakfast. I had a pancake and some eggs. Then Tory, our TA, took us to Watson CIT, the building where our class was held, it wasn't too far away from the hall. 

After arriving inside the building, which was freezing cold inside, we met our professor, Mary Grace Almandrez, and went through introductions and some ice-breakers. Mary Grace is a very energetic and fun person, I am very happy to have her as our instructor for the class. 

We took some time to go over basic guidelines and class expectations that had been outlined in the syllabus. There was a quote on the board, ''A misinformed people is a subjugated people.'' by Gloria Anzaldua that we got to dissect and share our thoughts on.

I loved how passionate all the ladies in the class are and how effectively our ideas are communicated.
We also went over some of the text we had read for homework. It talked about "The 7 categories of otherness" and discussed racial image, history, and recent controversy.

 That led us into the topic of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman, and president of the NAACP in Spokane Washington, who identifies as Black. I had mixed feelingss about this story the first time I heard about it a couple of months ago, and that has not changed. I hope to reflect upon it more.

After discussing The Cycle of Socialization we were dismissed. A group of us walked to the V-Dub for lunch, although I have heard many great things about it I did not thing it was much different from the Ratty, if not worse. I got some rice, and chicken, which was fine.

Since we still had a little bit of time Gabi and I walked back to the dorms. We got to talk about college and possible major's. After grabbing a sweatshirt for the ice-cold classroom us and a couple other girls from the class rushed back to make it there on time.

Back inside we where instructed to create maps of what led us her into this course. I enjoyed reflecting on that. We got into groups of four and shared our maps, it was fascinating to see how different we all are, and yet we have this one passion in common.

We had a while before the workshop so Diana, Esme, and I went to the Blue room to relax, I snacked on some chips, odwalla, and a very delicious chocolate chip cookie from the cafe across the hall. We stated towards the workshop which was on the second floor of that same building.

The workshop focused on helping us discover our style of leadership; North, South, East, or West. I discovered I fit West the most, The detail-oriented leader who likes to be practical and have an organized plan. We put on little skits of us playing exaggerated versions of our leadership styles.

I didn't feel very hungry so instead of going to dinner I decided to go exploring. I went through Thayer, visiting some interesting shops and window-shopping. I picked up so awesome postcards and some sour-patch kids. Then I hurried back to the main green for our Partner Scholar Orientation.

We did introductions and played games, Kisa who was in charge of the event also led the Leadership Orientation. She's a very friendly person and I genuinely enjoy seeing her. We then returned to Perkins. Esme, Diana, Wendy and I decided to go out for pizza.

After getting some pizza and mozzarella sticks we parted ways and I returned to my dorm in order to get everything I need to done. It was a great day and I am super excited for those to come.




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