"Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it's got about 18 million cracks in it and the light is shining through like never before."

-Senator Clinton, June 7th, 2008 (near the end of her campaign for president in 2008)

Presentation Poster

Great job, Erin and Kira!

Weekly Activism Log for Service Learning-Week 4

1.Activism:

This week focused on marketing YWLP. Particularly designing a flyer, papering campus, and speaking in classes about a meet & greet to recruit new big sisters. I contacted Maria, the fantastic director of the YWLP program on campus, throughout the week. I was successful (after a fair bit of dismaying outcomes with Microsoft Publisher) to create two versions of a flyer for the meet & greet (the theme is a clothing swap!). A pitfall was that I put the incorrect e-mail address to direct inquiries and so when the day came to paper the campus with flyers, we relied on a different flyer that Maria had made. I had the chance to see the inside of more bathroom stalls than I ever had before, for I posted many of the flyers on the inside door. In the next week my hope is that current big sisters in YWLP will pass the lovely flyers to their interested classmates, thereby spreading the interest.

2. Reflection:

As I continue to see more of the workings of the YWLP, a sense of community does help encourage me to feel passionate about the feminist cause. As I see women working together (they do tend to collaborate), I see the process as very effective. I have stepped inside of the YWLP office many times this week, and each time some project is being worked on. I have witnessed a positive self esteem activity being planned for YWLP, and women encouraging each other about classes. I feel like a community can help a cause and a person to excel. Even if the stereotype is that women always collaborate (or can only do this) to be successful, I feel that the collaborative efforts of teams as a source of leadership should be utilized, although not solely. Maria herself seems like a strong woman leader, in more of a typically communal style. She always kindly listened, encouraged, and inspired me to be creative.

3. Reciprocity: 

Not only do I now have a superb group of powerful individuals that I know, who support a million amazing events/programs (Take Back the Night, Let’s Talk About Sex, Vagina Monologues, YWLP), but I also feel like a strong part of the feminist movement. I was welcomed in as a fellow defender of women, another strong voice who is now filled with much more knowledge about how easy stereotyping happens. I feel that the more people know about women liberation, the more it will spread until we as women will have more equality. I have felt encouraged, inspired, and lead by strong women over the course of this service learning project, and I feel a firmer basis of strength in myself as a woman because of it. In this particular project I got to practice good communication, creative computer skills, a bit of my susceptibility to error (the e-mail incident), and some public speaking practice! Now that I know programs like YWLP and all the other programs that put on events this semester are out there, I am inspired to be involved in them, or at very least keep my feminist candle burning bright to inspire those around me (women and men) and the next generation.

Inclusive Leadership (Engagement Requirement)

Last Tuesday I attended a talk about Inclusive Communication by Barbara Thompson, an assistant director of the Department of Diversity Initiatives on UCF campus. Thompson has been working in education for 20 years and currently teaches many classes at the university. She spoke of how she truly loves people. I loved hearing that.

Thompson handed everyone in attendance a business card when they first entered the room. The back of the card has the information in braille. As the group began to sit down in preparation for her talk, she explained that her business card is valuable as information to more people now. I really liked this notion, for it showed that in at least one discernable way she lives what she preaches.

Thompson started off the session by asking the group “what does it mean to set up an inclusive classroom?” This question led to a discussion which can be accurately summarized as an environment where people can feel comfortable. Thompson notes that when a person talking at the front of the room is acting in a non-inclusive way (I say “acting” to note the mess of verbal and nonverbal cues present) via their word choice, topic, or body language that they can lose an audience. She also mentions that as an educator you should make sure to teach to all learning styles, and warns you to not fall into the trap of teaching solely in the same style as you learn. As an educator it is important to do what you can to make your audience feel respected, valued, and included, as opposed to worthless, meaningless, or dismissed.

An overriding theme of the talk was to have a respect for individual human dignity. To understand that people come from all walks of life, and that using stereotypical phrases (Thompson handed out a whole list of common phrases that had past cultural references, usually all negative, about many groups of people), using defensive body language, and not being culturally competent can hinder the audience’s learning and your own chance to create and teach in an inclusive environment. She stressed the importance of understanding cultural variance in your day-to-day interactions, that something unacceptable in your culture may be respected method of performing an action in another region of the world.

                I really like Barbara Thompson and all of her ideas and handouts about communication-one last thing I want to mention that she said was that teachers were expected to be perfect, infallible, never making mistakes. She began the lecture by talking about how every person she was talking to was an education major, and I held my tongue. It is true, it is easy to point at the person communicating with you and point out mistakes. The truth is that she did a wonderful job with showing the group how many ways you can unknowingly push people you are interacting with away, and I found this talk to be highly applicable and useful in any area of communication.

Weekly Activism Log for Service Learning-Week 3

3.   Activism:

This week provided an opportunity to have an “in hind sight” meeting with my group’s community partner, Professor Meredith Tweed. We were successful in pinpointing ideas to improve any future events. Firstly, spending more time to market the event (tabling, flyerng, etc.),not only would that hopefully garner more support for attendees, therefore spreading the message out to more students, but it would also grant the group more service learning hours. Secondly, having a room more enabled for discussion, being that our room was set up for a lecture, so when the discussion part of the activity came along it was a little awkward to communicate effectively. Now that this project is over, we are looking around for more things to do to help the community. I sent a letter as the representative of my group to the LEAD Scholars who hosted Leadership Week, to thank them and suggest the discussion room idea. I also asked about pictures that we can use to display for our project presentation.

2.   Reflection:

This week taught me a bit more about leadership styles, as we all sat in the room discussing the “Wallet” seminar that occurred I recalled how different women asked and answered discussion questions with a different kind of approach, and how certain women unpacked their backpacks and explained things differently, too. I feel like women seeing other women lead the seminar and discuss these issues further advanced the education of the next generation. As Eagly and Carli note, “women’s increasing education predicts their future workplace advancement,” not only in the classroom but also seeing women outside of the classroom lead (16). Once women leaders become the “norm,” I believe that it will be easier to diversify the workplace to include a fair balance of men and women of all backgrounds.

3.   Reciprocity:

I am treated to the involvement of woman's liberation on campus. Being around so many people motivated to empowering women is a gift of its own. I learn so many things that are occurring in society that can help make the labyrinth more difficult for women to navigate, in this case knowledge is power, and I feel I am more adept at stopping these events from occurring (for things like sexist jokes, answering people’s questions about women advancement who do not know the statistics, or influence on hiring trends in a job where I have a say). In this way I feel I am growing as a cultured individual who can know the sad current truths about woman’s difficulty in advancing, and help to create new truths in any way I can.

Pink Art II (Engagement Requirement)

For my engagement this week I attended the Pink Art II show at the Orlando City Arts Factory. The event was sponsored by the UCF Women Studies department. Dr. Maria Santana of the Women Studies department introduced the event, encouraging participants to purchase the donated pieces of art on the walls. Proceeds go to a UCF Women Studies scholarship program and the YSC (Young Survival Coalition) organization. Guests were gifted with specialty reusable bags with information about self-breast exams. The speaker of the evening was Linda Schoulte, a breast cancer survivor. Linda began by speaking about how she felt so young and healthy at 37, and did not think much when she noticed an odd shape to one of her breasts. She waited for her appointment to get a mammogram, and then almost allowed herself to wait another two months due to work having to be rescheduled. She notes that the day she discovered she had breast cancer (January 27^th) marked the beginning of a different phase in her life. If she were to draw a line in the sand marking one of the pivotal moments in her life, it would separate life before breast cancer and life after.

                She spoke about how important having a support group is, and how a lot of times young women who are diagnosed with breast cancer get treated and then move on with their lives, not staying around to support the next generation of diagnosed. Thankfully she was able to find a supportive friend, and together they overcame the cancer. Linda mentioned a few startling statistics: that 1 in 8 women are diagnosed with cancer, and how 1 in 35 die from the disease. She shared how much she hoped she reached everyone, scared them, or at least let them know a little of how life changing it is to be diagnosed. Overall Linda promoted being aware of your health and any changes to your breasts, to not feel completely invincible like she did just because you are young. She wrapped up her discussion by telling everyone in the crowd to “check your boobies once a month!”

                I liked how Linda shared her story with such detail (mentioning exact dates, her supportive friend’s names, and statistics) because I feel like that raises the chance of embedding the chance of contracting breast cancer in people’s minds. However, as I thanked her for her participation and complimented the art after her talk, she mentioned how one of the art pieces on the wall looked “freaky.” I was disheartened by the fact that she would criticize a piece of art that was donated to help the cause. The piece was one of the highest priced pieces of art on the wall, a framed photo of a woman, partially abstract, with her lungs showing. If that portrait was to bring in a substantial donation to the cause, I would hope the woman encouraging the event (with a vested interest) would not discriminate.

"After years of analysing what makes leaders effective, management gurus have figured out how to boost the odds of hiring a great executive: Hire a female"

-Sharpe, 2002, in BusinessWeek

Weekly Activism Log for Service Learning- Week 2

1. Activism

This week consisted of three different service learning events.
Saturday I attended part of a Young Women Leaders Program research day-incorporating both time for the younger girls to interact one-on-one with their respective older mentors, and many group activities. 

On Wednesday I helped to orchestrate and carry out the planned "What's In Your Wallet" UCF Leadership week seminar. This event was held by our community partner and professor Meredith Tweed. Not only did each involved member get to actively lead a certain part of the seminar, but there was a great group of interested students who attended and deeply discussed the topic of privilege and how it interacts with leading.

Later in the day I volunteered with the LEAD Scholars department at UCF to help facilitate a seminar called "Become a super hero through research." The seminar brought forth a handful of undergraduate freshmen and sophomore students who were interested in finding a mentor and leading through researching topics in their major. The instructor (Doctor Schneider of the Undergraduate Research Office at UCF) was helpful in sharing information with students about how to begin their research, and what events happened to encourage their garnering of support, and how to plan ahead for grants and timing.

 2. Reflection

While attending the Young Women Leaders Program event and observing the women in attendance I realized that each big was respectful and assumed mature attitudes from their littles- therefore enabling the younger women to act as they see fit-encouraging their growth and learning process throughout the day's activities. When a research student would lead the entire group they would in different styles-some slightly more agentic, some communal. I got to see how having strong women mentors can be very important for women of the next generation to see and grow accustomed to-blazing a trail to make the labyrinth a little bit easier to navigate.
With the “What’s In Your Wallet” seminar, I was not only able to analyze more of my own leading style (I tended to want to be kinder, more stereotypically “feminine” with the group of attendees)—I also was able to analyze all types of students who chose to attend this seminar and discuss issues involving race, sex, and gender-and ingrained and given privileges- and then linking those topics to leadership.

3. Reciprocity

Of the events I participated in this week, I either observed women leaders or was a woman leader. Both gave me some unique insight-I was inspired by women who were speaking out in the discussion about people with privileges and how that can hinder the vision of the leader-simply the ignorance of not knowing how different people’s level of privilege can be. I felt supported in the group to lead, and felt privileged with the encouragement I received. It opened my eyes to how difficult it must be to lead when there is not support-or especially outright disapproval of a woman leading.

"Sisterhood is powerful, the personal is political, women do not trash women..."



-Kaplan and Rose (quoted in "Women and Leadership" book by Jean Lau Chin)

Weekly Activism Log for Service Learning- Week 1

1. Activism: This week my team and I had our first meeting with our community partner. We completed the proposal last week, which specified the game plan of the "What's in Your Wallet?" event-who was taking part, who the community partner was, and a time-line of our future meetings.

During the meeting we were successful in gathering more information on the teaching plan for the event (in particular, the main activity of our event and how we could specialize it towards the theme of leadership). We also took the meeting time to set the next deadline for our event-submitting prompts and discussion questions to ask the group of attendees at our event. A pitfall was communication with e-mail, leading to some frustration, confusion, and a mildly imbalanced work load.

During the next week the team will finish the teaching plan, perform a dry run of the event, and then lead the event next Wednesday.

2. Reflection: Being involved this week in a collaborative style has indeed make me think about how it could help out leaders all the time to be able to work well with others-disregarding the idea that it's simply a "woman's style" of leading and that is the only way they lead. We are conducting an event with college students, who commonly are the subject of experiments dealing with thoughts on leadership, and acts of prejudice. In the book "Through the Labyrinth"  Alice Eagly and Linda Carli note that "when groups are viewed in new roles, people's spontaneous mental associations about them change to correspond to these roles" (Eagly 89). If we can help the attending college students both see women leading this event, and ask them to see how many types of people and potential leaders there are out there, then I feel we will have done a good job.

3. Reciprocity: This opportunity to aid the community (specifically a community close to me and at the center of campus, college students) will also aid my skills of leading, analyzing, encouraging, and constructing an outlet for positive change when it comes to leadership and the reduction of obstacle-inducing stereotypes.

I predict that the whole process of planning, constructing, and performing an event to increase awareness of all types of great leaders for the next generation will help me to feel powerful and awesome for taking part and working towards such a noble goal.

Service Learning Proposal

Contact Information:

Service Learning Proposal For Leadership Seminar entitled “What is in Your Wallet?  How Identity, Social Location, and Privilege Impact Everyday Leaders”

February 17, 2011
Meredith Tweed

WST 3371-0001

Group Members:

Jordan Allen - Facilitator/Planner

Starr Blaisedale - Facilitator/Planner

Ruby Gutierrez - Facilitator/Planner

Kira Peterman - Facilitator/Planner

Judine Tessier - Facilitator/Planner

Community Partner Profile:

Meredith Tweed, University of Central Florida

Address: 

University of Central Florida

Colbourn Hall

Office 411D

4000 Central Florida Boulevard

Orlando, FL 32816

Contact:

Meredith Tweed, mtweed@mail.ucf.edu

Community Partner Mission Statement:

The University of Central Florida is a “public multi-campus metropolitan university that stands for opportunity” and works to meet Central Florida’s “economic, cultural, intellectual, environmental, and societal needs” by supplying education opportunities for the community, as well as doing research and “enriching student development and leadership growth.”  The University also works to address a multitude of issues on many levels, from the local level to the international level (www.ucf.edu “Mission Statement” 2009). 

Political and/or Social Basis for Organization:

The University of Central Florida, as a public institution, is by nature unaffiliated with any political parties.  The University is, however, committed to providing equal opportunities for all students and has a “steadfast commitment to inclusiveness, excellence, and opportunity for all” (www.ucf.edu “Strategic Planning”).  Additionally, the University is committed to the principles of integrity, scholarship, community, creativity, and excellence. 

Needs of Community Partner:

The University of Central Florida needs committed students, faculty, and staff to work in a variety of ways to move towards its mission and achieve its goals. As cultural competence gains notoriety, the importance of involvement in the community becomes a stepping stone to exhibiting the skills necessary to work with a variety of people.  When working with a variety of people, it is necessary to have a working understanding of the position of identities separate from our own.  Thus, the University of Central Florida must facilitate a platform that allows for these “introductions” to occur.

Proposal:

Defining the Problem:

The University of Central Florida is home to students of all different ages, race, culture, and backgrounds. Some are more privileged than others and have grown up having completely different lifestyles. Students may not realize how much they are influenced on a daily basis due to their own unique experiences. Leaders can be more effective if they understand the impact of their own background, and other’s backgrounds, when they lead in areas inside and outside of school. It is important to educate tomorrow's leaders about themselves and what they bring to the community, while encouraging understanding of others to bring about achievement of potential and contributing towards the success of the community.

Propose a plan:
To be an effective leader is to be able to work well with others; a leader must understand the strengths and weaknesses of the community they are leading as well as their own. According to studies done by Dale et. al on information retention rate of individuals, when someone only hears the information they only retain 10% of it, when they hear it and see it they retain 30% of it, and when they hear it, see it, and experience it the retention rate all of a sudden jumps to 90%. To maximize retention, the presentation must be hands on. First we as a group will "unpack" our own wallets then analyze each other’s identities and guess our own strengths and weakness, incorporating auditory and visual learning. Then we will have the audience (with us included) do the same exercise. We will have the group compete to accomplish a certain task that will allow them work together and use everyone's ability. We will then ask them what they have learned about themselves and each other, and how they can use what they learned to better themselves as leaders. We want to educate tomorrow’s leaders about themselves, while encouraging the understanding of others. 

Rationale:

People of all backgrounds can benefit in the future if we teach leaders of tomorrow to acknowledge and embrace their differences and translated them into strengths. “To fully understand why gender stereotypes limit women’s leadership opportunities, we must consider how people think about leaders.” (Eagly et al 90.) If we can get through to UCF students by having them discover and look critically upon their thoughts on leadership, and why they possess them, we can help reduce the stereotyping and discrimination that could surface later in their lives-further evolving how leadership is defined and who it is bestowed upon in the future.

Action Steps:

Our group has accomplished the task of exchanging contact information and formulated the proposal plan. We will provide Professor Tweed with continuous updates of our progress through meeting times (tentatively on Tuesday evenings). Professor Tweed has already submitted an approved proposal that our group will assist in facilitating during the scheduled event on Wednesday, March 2, 2011.  On that day we will introduce the activity: What’s in Your Wallet?  Our group will be required to adjust the activity slightly to bring to discussion other categories of identity that the presentation does not originally address.  Our group is expected to work together and provide a cohesive presentation that raises the awareness of women in leadership and we plan to accomplish this goal by attending the meetings scheduled for planning, and receiving feedback and support from Professor Tweed.

A few group members will also partake in helping YWLP perform their research day on February 26^th, 2011.

Timeline:

02/03/11 - Information between group members exchanged

02/07/11 - Requested submitted proposal for presentation

02/09/11 - Received submitted proposal from Professor Tweed

02/10/11 - Forwarded presentation description to group members

02/12/11 - Group made decision to complete Service Learning Proposal as a group

02/13/11 - Google Docs created for group facilitation

02/14/11 - Received approval for presentation; forwarded to all group members

02/17/11 - Service Learning Proposal submitted

02/22/11 - First group meeting with Professor Tweed: 4:00-5:00 pm

03/02/11 - Scheduled Event: Superheroes: Leading the Way

Presentation: What’s in Your Wallet? How Identity, Social Location, and Privilege Impact Everyday Leaders

               Time: 11:00 am to 11:50 am

*Planning will begin on 02/22/11 and continue, following a tentative schedule, until the day of the presentation.

Bibliography:

Chin, Jean Lau. Women and Leadership: Transforming Visions and Diverse Voices. Malden, MA:

Blackwell Pub., 2007. Print.

Eagly, Alice Hendrickson., and Linda Lorene Carli. Through the Labyrinth: the Truth about How Women Become Leaders. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 2007. Print.

University of Central Florida. Web. 17 Feb. 2011.< http://www.ucf.edu/>.

Word Count: 1026 (not including the bibliography)

Quote from Mary Wollstonecraft

"She declared there to be no greater misery, besides, than loving someone whom reason cannot respect."

Intro

Hi!

I'm Starr (adored nicknames include, but are not limited to: Starrshine, Starrlight, Starrfish, Starrissocoolwhoa)-

I'm from Gainesville, FL. I moved down here on my own 1.5 years ago to get a Bachelor's (and eventually a Master's) in Accounting.

I'm a senior now, I graduate with my Bachelors in May! I had two specific classes left to take, and I wanted to go full time. Hence I am taking one graduate level business law class (it's pretty interesting), two required business/accounting classes (important to my major), and Women and Leadership purely because I believe it will be interesting and teach me what thoughts are out there about women leaders, and ways to potentially work with and improve the situation for women leaders in the work force. It's also neat (and a little scary) to break out of the standard line of business classes.)

I work as a waitress part time, I love cats (I have three), I love to blog and take pictures and write the occasional Harry Potter fanfiction. I'm in an accounting organization and I love being involved in their funny recruiting videos (I like to make people laugh). I rent a room out of a house with a lot of cats, I love my roommates. My family lives far away (Ohio and Arizona).

I'm so used to business classes now this is quite new! Sitting in a circle, discussing, writing, MLA format (ah! It's been so long)-I'm excited, though.

I'm interested in women's leadership because I am a woman and I have and will be in all sorts of leadership roles in my life. I work at Steak n' Shake as a server, and I see women lead as managers, or experienced waitresses, or any waitress for that matter-as a server you are responsible and in charge of taking care of customers, navigating and multitasking the many steps of a meal and payment for said meal, not to mention socializing and creating a positive environment on behalf of the company you work for.

I see leadership in my family-my mother and step mother, my sister (she is the cook in the family). I see my teachers (all are women this semester) as inspiring leaders. I see leadership in the local grocery store (mothers, managers, a female cashier.) All these women to me are confident and know that they're capable to be in a position of power-why shouldn't they be? I feel that even the most stereotypical of adjectives to describe women as leaders "emotional, bitchy" - can be their greatest strength.

I view leadership as well-rounded when it comes to women-although I am biased. I feel a woman can sometimes lead in an even more thoughtful way (more sensitive to group member's feelings and ideas) than some men can. In any case, whatever your gender, leading is intense. To communicate and take control of a situation, lead people, encourage, motivate, spread knowledge and succeed-it's a lot of responsibility. If a woman is emotional, she can see others emotions and help to transform them into being helpful for the group's cause-or know when a group member needs support. A woman acting "bitchy" can simply mean that she is showing who's boss, or the leader-and since women aren't as commonly in leadership positions, this can be a change for some people-and change can be scary.

All in all, I'm looking forward to reading, writing, discussing, meeting and hearing other people's ideas, doing community service, and furthering my knowledge about women in the world.

I have read, understood, and agree to the terms of the course syllabus and blogging protocols.