Creativity

Creativity is an essential component of innovation and growth.  Being creative allows people to think out side of the box and come up with new ideas.  Without creativity many of the things we use in our day-to-day lives would not have been invented.

Working as a camp counselor there have been a number of times that I have had to be creative.  A particular time that I had to be creative was over this past summer, when it started raining at camp and all the actives that my co-consolers and I had planned had to be canceled.  We originally planned to play outside with the kids all day but the sudden downpour of rain didn’t allow us to do that.  Instead we were forced to spend a few hours in a gym.  We had to come up with a game for 80 3^rd-6^th graders to play.  In the gym my co-counselors and I noticed that there were a number of basketball, empty trashcans, dodge balls and mats.  We began to brainstorm all of the things we could do with those materials.  We ended up coming up with a game called gladiators.  We stood the mats ups and told the kids that they had to hide behind the mats and shoot the basketballs into the trashcans without getting hit by a dodge ball.  The game ended up being a huge success and ever since then the kids have asked to play the gladiators game.

I do not think my prospective on creativity changed because of the workshop.  But I do think the workshop showed me that it is not as hard as I thought it was to be creative.  If I just take more time to actually think about what I am trying to do, instead of jumping right into things I think I could be more creative.  I really enjoyed the play activates that we did during the workshop.  They really were a lot of fun. 

Initiative

Initiative is stepping up to the plate and taking the action.  Taking an initiative is doing something before someone has to ask you to do it.  In BLF we focus on initiative because in order to be successful in anything you are doing it is essential that a person take initiative, especially in the workforce.

I think that all the panelist were very interesting, and they all had very different backgrounds. I found it very interesting that all the panelist at the workshop mentioned getting coffee with people at the work place as a way to take initiative and make meaningful connections.  This was something that I had not thought about before.  The panelist made me realize that taking initiative could be making simple small actions.  I also noticed that all of the panelist stressed the importance of developing mentorship relationships.  This is something I also think is important and something that I am trying to work on.  Overall, the things that I took away from the panelist were try to excel in everything you are doing, be humble, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and always try to think outside of the box.

Top Chief BLF Edition

I really enjoyed the teamwork workshop.  I had a lot of fun cooking with my mom, Libby and her friend, and Hafsa and her mom.   I think that our team worked very well together.  We were all very open with sharing ideas and listening to others.

            Our group got off to a little bit of a rocky start because we could not decide what to cook.  Libby is a vegetarian so we had to make sure she was able to eat whatever we made.  We spent about our first 10- 15 min trying to decide what we were actually going to make.  Everyone had a lot of great ideas.  We finally decided to make a vegetable soup and grilled vegie sandwich.  But then…..we found out there was not any bread for us to use, so we were back to the drawing board.  We then decided to make a potato lackey in place of bread.  For all of the confusion about what to make I think our group did a great job with remaining calm and working together.  Once we knew what were making everyone just jumped right in and helped each other with whatever we could.  Since my mom and Hafsa’s mom were the only really cookers in the group we all worked to help them with whatever they needed.  I think that our group was very successful because all of us really enjoyed eating our final product.

            I think that being able to work with a team is very important.   In school we have to work in teams all the time and it is important to be able to work with different types of people.  Also, upon graduation, in the work force I am sure there will be plenty of times that I will have to work in groups.  From this experience I have learned of to work with a group of all different ages and skill sets.  I think with this challenge it was important to take the time in the beginning to plan out everything that needs to get done.  With the Operation Feed Challenge I want to make sure that my group takes the time to make a plan and set up goals in the beginning. 

G360 Review

When I first looked through my G-360 review I noticed that in just about every area my self-ratings and peer rating were all about the same.  For most categories there was only about at .1 or .2 difference in the ratings.  I thought my results fit me pretty well.  I was a little surprised that my peers rated me higher in creativity than I rated myself.  I do not think I am a very creative person so it was interesting to find out that my peers think differently.

            I enjoyed getting feedback form the rest of the group; I think that is best way to learn.  Since we did not have any major conflicts within our group there was not any tension about giving feedback, everyone was very open with both positive feedback and constructive criticism. I have to admit that it can sometime be a little awkward when I have to share constructive criticism with others out loud.  It can sometimes be challenging because you do not want to offend anyone when your intentions are simply to help him or her for the future.  However, I think everyone within our group took the constructive criticism very well. I think getting feedback is very important.  I especially think it was key to have the verbal feedback to go along with the G-360 reviews because the review only gave you the raw data rating it was nice to be able to talk to understand why people gave you the ratings.  I think that feedback helps you become a better leader. It forces you to stop and reflect on what has happened so you can make adjustments for the future.

            With the feedback I have received I am plan on making an action plan to change some of my behaviors.  Feedback is only good if you actually implement changes in what you are doing.  I am hoping by making an effort I will have different results the next time we complete the G-360 review.

A Closer Look at my Team

                                 

Candice really helps with getting the group together. She is the one that is always sending messages and setting up meeting times.  Also, she has done a really great job at reaching out to her OSU faculty network and seeking their support with the challenge.

Beth is defiantly the go- getter of the group.  She is constantly making phone calls and reaching out to anyone she can possibly think of.  Also, she is very organized and keeps track of everything that everyone else is doing.

Cameron is very dependable.  Whenever anyone comes up with a new idea or task Cameron always steps up to the plate.  He is relatively quiet, but when he has something to saw it is worth everyone listening to.

 


Ben is constantly thinking outside of the box, which is great for our team.  He is always thinking of new people we should try to reach out to.  He has also done a great job of reaching out to his network of friends and family members from home.

Then there is me, I think that do a pretty go job of supporting my team members and appreciating their hard work.  But, it is defiantly something I can improve on.  I need to work on acknowledging the little things that my team members do, not just the big things.

Cultural Understanding

When I saw that Jessica was my partner I immediately began thinking of experiences to share with her that are meaningful to me.  I decided to bring her to one of my BuckeyeThon meeting.  I have been a part of BuckeyeThon since my freshman year and it is a cause and an organization that truly love supporting.  The entire BuckeyeThon Steering committee is broken into sub-committees, and I am part of the Recruitment and Retention Sub committee.  Jessica got to go to my sub-committee meeting and the entire steering meeting.  I hope by coming to the meeting with me Jessica was able to get a better understanding of BuckeyeThon and why I am so passionate about it.

             Before Jessica came to my BuckeyeThon meeting I went with her to her Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow meeting.   I know absolutely nothing about agricultural so it was nice to go to the meeting to see what the organization did.  I know that Jessica’s major is Agricultural Communication, so I thought it was really nice that she is part of an organization that compliments here major and gives her experience in the field.  While at the meeting I could tell that everyone was really excited about what they were doing.  One really cool thing I found about the organization was that every meeting one of the members brings dinner for the whole organization.  It was a really nice was for everyone to mingle before they started to work on business things. Another thing that stuck out to me about the meeting was that the organization was putting on so many different events.

Overall I really enjoyed going to the Agricultural Communicator of Tomorrow meeting with Jessica and I hope she enjoyed the BuckeyeThon meeting.

Retreat

Being an Ohio State student who is involved in multiple student organizations I have been to a plethora of retreats.  But, I have to say that our BLF retreat last Sunday was probably my favorite.  Going into the retreat I did not really know what to expect.  I was just hoping we didn’t do all of the typical icebreakers and I was pleasantly surprised when we didn’t.  There were a few things I wanted to get out of the retreat.  I was really hoping to get to know all the fellows better particularly the senior class.  Before the retreat I had not really many interactions with the senior fellows and I did not even know most of their names.  I really enjoyed working with them and getting to know them better.  It was good to see them outside of a semiformal meeting setting.  I was also looking forward to getting to know some of the junior fellows better.  The fellows who are not in my pod or challenge group I had not really had a chance to interact with.   Overall the retreat was great for getting to know all of the fellows.

Going into the retreat I was also looking to build a better since of trust between the fellows, and that is exactly what we did.  I think it is very important that we all trust each other since we spend so much time working together.   We did a number of trust building activities.  I think my favorite one was when we had to guide one of group members to find an object on the ground.  But the twist was that one person could see but not move or talk, another person could move but not talk or see, another person could talk but not see or move, and the last person was a spotter who could not do anything beside stop the person that was moving from bumping into things.  I think that activity required a lot of trust with each other because we had to depend on everyone to help guide us.

The retreat definitely showed us a lot of things that will help all the fellows with our challenges.  We were able to get to know each other better, build a better since of trust, and learned how to think outside of the box.  The retreat was a lot of fun.