Socialization, Collaboration, and Communication

I woke up to the sound of rolling thunder and pouring rain just outside my window. How could this be?! Literally just a few days ago it was scorching hot with an unmerciful sun. It's summer. This is just part of the new environment that comes with being on the other side of the country for a couple of weeks.

In class today, we had a gallery-type walk in class that focused on sexism and how women are often -- subtly and not-so-subtly -- undermined in spaces like articles, websites, magazines, shopping, and more. We were shown different items that were scattered around the classroom walls, and we used post-it notes to express our reactions to the images and well as reactions to the other post-it notes. Some of the texts were very infuriating and very sexist, and the girls later discussed the images together.

After a very emotional and touching day of class, Erin and
I were walking together before our workshops when we saw
a super duper adorable bunny on our way there.

After lunch at the V-Dub, class continued, but was now being run by Tory, our TA. She led the second part of the Diversity workshop, which we had not been able to get to last Wednesday. It was a very emotional discussion and activity which we participated in, where we discussed parts of our identity such as body image, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, and more personal issues. I learned so much more about my classmates and we grew even closer as a group and as a small, supportive community.

After class, each student at the Leadership Institute had been assigned to a certain workshop. There were five worshops: Action Plan Prep; Diversity: Gender, Sex, Sexual Orientation; Communications; Social Classmates; and College Transitions. I chose to be a part of Communications at the Crystal Room in the Alumnae Hall. There, I learned about the importance of verbal and non-verbal communication. We did fun activities, and for the second activity, I was partnered with Jonta, who bonded with me over our love for volleyball. She was very funny and easy to talk to. In this second activity, we were supposed to communicate a description of an image so that the other person could draw that same image without seeing it.

Jonta and I comparing the original image (right) to the communicated image (left).

Then later tonight, I went to Tory's room for her "office hours" in which she offers consultations on course material, action plan prep, and just about anything. She's a very helpful resource and hanging out with her tonight was fun and educational.