The University Honors Program believes in the power of a community that brings together students from all disciplines to help solve the world's complex problems. We know that we are facing unprecedented challenges to the UC community and to all of our communities.
UHP students are leaders in almost every aspect of the campus and local community, so the experience is providing a space for UHP student leaders across campus to collaborate with and learn from each other, as they navigate the challenges and opportunities of continuing to lead from a primarily remote format for spring semester. This space will foster new ideas and conversations that will help all student leaders and the groups they are leading to be successful during this unique time. This program will be student-driven and will cover the topics you need in order to keep the group(s) that you are leading moving forward.
Weekly Reflections
Week 1: JANUARY 24, 2021
01/24/2021: Right now in my second semester of college, I have gotten involved as a member with different on-campus organizations such as the swim club, SCNO, CECH ambassadors, and AFP-NOLA. In addition, I am currently working with a sophomore to create a Circle K club which I currently serve as the Vice-President. I hope to get actionable items I can use to help strengthen the Circle K and bring personal knowledge on how to be a better leader. I am most interested in learning more about membership retention and recruitment, succession planning, and fundraising.
Week 2: FEBRUARY 11, 2021
At our second meeting, I learned about strategies on how to effectively engage with members of student organizations. I found it helpful and thought-provoking since I am currently in the process of establishing a new student organization so in order for it to succeed it must have members that want to engage. One takeaway from the meeting was to think about your events in a member’s perspective. Ultimately, I was a member in the high school level of circle k: key club so I have to remember and think about what I enjoyed about being a member. Towards the end of the meeting, we talked as a group about different tangible tips to make events more engaging. Two tips stood out to me: co-hosting events and mixing up the type of event the organization did. Those stood out to me because through circle k that is what I have been working on this semester. Earlier this week we hosted a high school fellowship with Mason Key Club where we did ice breakers and a service project. It gave them and our club different people to talk and engage with. The other tip stood out to me because since most of our members are freshmen they have had a unique freshman experience so having different events in person and virtual gives them different opportunities.
Week 3: FEBRUARY 25, 2021
This week, the meeting's focus was about recruiting members as a new organization membership is important, so recruitment is essential. During the meeting, we learned different things to think about when recruiting members. Topics included what characteristics you want in a member and what makes your club stand out. One big takeaway was preparing a short pitch about the club. Being able to give a quick but informational pitch for the club can help us recruit for the rest of this year and next year. Overall, this meeting was helpful because next year, we will start tabling and recruiting more members next year.
Week 4: March 11, 2021
This week for the roundtable, I got the opportunity to present with another participant. The topic we presented was about succession planning and how to transition. I had attended a workshop during winter break about succession planning to share and gather more information about the topic. While preparing for the presentation, it reminded me that I needed to start succession planning with my own club. Overall, it was fun to work with the other roundtable member and share the information with my peers.
Week 5: March 25, 2021
This week, we reflected on our organizations and how COVID-19 has affected and changed them. I got to discuss how they have been impacted organizationally and personally as leaders. Because of the time I was gifted, I figured out that awards are just pieces of paper that I don’t need to base my validation on. I need to be more concerned about how I impact the person next to me. The meeting was an excellent opportunity to think about what changes Circle K wants to keep and what we are ready to get back now that things are opening up. Next year will undoubtedly be an adventure. Since Circle K just got formed this year and got approved as a new organization to UC’s campus, we will be figuring out our traditions and how we want to meet. One of my Circle K goals is to offer both in-person and online meetings and service project opportunities to engage everyone who wants to participate in Circle K. It will be interesting how that goal will come to fruition.
Week 6: April 8, 2021
This week, we discussed event planning since things are opening back up and in-person events will start becoming more prevalent. One thing I took away is how to advertise your event and who to advertise it. I hadn’t considered emailing it to people directly who are in related majors to your club or event. I have never thought about emailing people directly. Being a new organization on campus, it will be interesting how we execute events on campus. I enjoyed talking about the events since everything was virtual this year, and most everything will be in person next year.
Week 7: April 25, 2021
In our last meeting, we reflected on the past year, and the past few weeks, we had been on the student leadership roundtable. We discussed our past successes and challenges, and it was really cool to discuss with fellow students and hear what they have been successful at and challenges. One success we have had is engaging other students outside of our club with our virtual clean-up, and one challenge we have faced is changing leadership over the past year. Overall these past few weeks have been fun to learn, present, and exchange ideas with fellow student leaders.
Showcase: Personal Leadership Charge
Goal #1
In the past, I have struggled with being able to sustain a club. I tried to create a youth council in my local city for a couple of years, and I didn’t have support and didn’t develop others, and it failed. Going into creating the Circle K, that experience has made me question my abilities as a leader, creating doubt and fear. I really want to show myself that I can develop others and create something that is sustained. Also, by creating a succession plan, I will learn how to effectively take notes and put thoughts and mental notes essential to the paper's position. I believe this is a skill that will help me pass college. When a leader of an organization retires or leaves, many organizations lose that organization's knowledge. They have to figure out what to do or recreate the work the individual had already created. A few years ago, one example of this was a friend my dad worked with who unexpectedly passed away. He was the main person in charge of an event he had never written down any of the passwords, what software he used to create the program, or how he found sponsors, so when the time to put on the event they were at a loss because none of the knowledge he had could be used, so they had to start from scratch. Taking the time to learn and practice creating an effective succession plan will help me when I am in a job or another group I am a part of.
Goal #2
Through the second goal, being able to sit down with each board member, will help me develop myself by learning about others leading with me. It will also help me learn about creating mutual relationships of trust and caring. In my future career, I will be working with a team of people in whatever I end up going into. Practicing relationship building in college will help me know how I can work with a team. I honestly struggle with working on a team, and I get impatient with people and judge. I think it goes to the root cause of me being hard on myself and having high expectations. Because I view myself in this way, I start seeing others in this way. I believe by truly understanding their point of view and reminding myself by meeting with them that I do not need to be hard on myself. Everyone has a different set of skills and strengthens to help me as a leader and the organization.