Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Turn the TV off, Please!

Kisa's little"energizer" actitivites really make a difference in class. We started the second day with a warm up that helped the whole class get to know a little more about each other. We gathered in a circle and played a game. I find this interesting because I'm a person who can't sit still, but when I'm standing up I want to sit back down. I don't know, maybe I'm just really weird about that.

The first on the agenda was exploring our leadership roles and purpose.  We were asked to identify our biggest leaders and describe their characteristics. I realized that the biggest leaders doesn't have to be anybody with a title name, or somebody who is always on the news, or somebody who has helped twenty million people at once. The biggest leaders in my life are the people that I surround myself with, especially my family. I never really acknowledged the fact that my mother is probably the best leader, not only for myself, but also for the rest of the family. Maybe it's because i'm so used to her just being so strong and dependable that I've never thought of how much that has affected me. It's strange how we often ignore how much a person impacts our life because we're so accustomed to them just doing what they do. I also noticed that after being broken up into groups, most groups also chose their family members as their leaders. I think we chose them because they've had a direct impact on our lives to the point where they actually inspire us to become better people. When my group described our leader's characteristics, I immediately knew many of our family member's characteristics will overlap and we will all be able to relate to each other. Some of the characteristics, from my memory, would be: dependable, assertive, strong-willed, receptive, trustworthy, and open-minded.

I also realized that we chose these leaders because we've seen them overcome certain obstacles in their lives. And though they might have not "lead" a team through these obstacles, they've lead themselves. Through their process of facing their own adversities and seeing them succeed is what made us think of them as leaders. Today's class reminded me how important perserverance is.. Having that ability to keep going without letting anything, not even possibilities of failure, affect you from reaching your goal is something that will get you through the toughest times of your life. I think I would definitely try to have more perserverance in my system because a leader that perserveres through whatever challenges he or she faces is a leader that will inspire others, who then might want to become leaders too. I want to be a successful leader, and I want to be able to inpire others around me to become leaders for themselves, so that's why perserverance is important.

For the latter part of class, we watched a film called Miss Representation. The film focuses on the media's negative impact on how young women and women. It also shows how a media's misrepresentation of a woman's societal role have affected powerful women. I learned how disgustingly open radio personnel and news anchors degrade women. I felt strongly about most of the issues the film talked about, especially the part where the media sets standards for young girls. They are forced to see beauty in the lines of being 6 feet tall with a 00 pants size. I can see how this affects girls in my community, and even shocking that it can also be seen in elementary school. It leads to girls not having self-confidence, which is someything we also talked about during class. I want to work with educating younger girls around my community about media literacy. I want to advocate that a person's apperance does not determine their existence.

On a lighter note, I attended a Zumba class after class. It's one of Brown's many activities that I surprisingly enjoyed. Well, before the Zumba class, all 8 of the cohort attended a pizza party sponsored by Brown's Partnership program, where we had the chance to talk to Brown students about college. I feel that because of the Ivy League Connection, I'm becoming a college expert! All of the Brown students, alums, and admissions officers that I've met gave me the confidence to try my hardest on the application process. This is a really influencial thing because with confidence, I'm able to lead myself to the right direction, which is all too relevant to today's class.

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