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Leadership Experience Reflection
This past summer I was an intern for the Marvin Lewis Community Fund. The goal of this organization is to reach out and support our community through various programs and fundraisers held throughout the year. These events help to promote the organization and raise money for the Scholarship Fund and Learning is Cool Program, which an educational program in various schools throughout Cincinnati that promotes and rewards students for strong academic performance. My internship was a volunteer position through which I worked different events, and also helped to complete office work throughout the week. While in the office, I worked with the other interns to complete various tasks each day. As an intern, I not only became actively involved in my community but I also took on a huge leadership role through which I was able to demonstrate to others the importance of servant leadership.
I first heard of the Marvin Lewis Community Fund my senior year of high school when I applied for their scholarship. I was so blessed and honored to be awarded as one of their 2011 scholarship recipients, but at this time I did not know how great of an impact this organization had on our community. I wanted to be able to give back to the MLCF because of the generous scholarship they had granted to me. I believe in the idea of paying it forward and that we are called to serve those who are less fortunate. Therefore I was very happy to accept a position as an MLCF intern because this was the opportunity I had been hoping for.
While growing up, I attended a Catholic grade school and high school which played a big role in forming my ideals and values. I was always encouraged to become involved in community service and taught to serve others. Through becoming involved in my community, I became a leader to others around me. I lead them by example and showed them what sacrifice and service meant. I not only took on leadership roles through community engagement though. All of my life I have always had a huge passion for sports. I have played on many different athletic teams, which has really aided me in learning how to work well with others, and as an individual I have always challenged myself to find my role on that team. As a captain in high school, I lead the other girls on and off the field through my actions of dedication and hard work. I knew the importance of my role as a leader, and since I had younger girls looking up to me, I made it a priority to think about my actions and how it could possibly affect them. On teams where I was not a captain, I still lead others through my hard work, which pushed my teammates to play to their highest potential.
Looking back now and reflecting on my leadership experience this summer, I believe that leading Kairos my senior year of high school is what had best prepared me for this work. Kairos is a 4 day retreat that is entirely prepared and lead by students and faculty members of my high school. My Kairos experience as a retreatant completely changed my perspective on life, and there are so many lessons that I learned that I still carry with me today. Being a Kairos leader is completely different though in the sense that you are now passing on what you have learned to the next set of retreatants. This experience isn’t about you anymore; it is about leading others and being completely selfless in order to give them the best retreat possible. I truly demonstrated servant leadership while leading Kairos.
My first experience as a MLCF intern was with the Marvin Lewis Golf Classic. This is the biggest event put on by the organization so I had little time to settle in; instead I was thrown into the chaos of the final days of preparation for this major fundraiser. I accepted the challenge though and remained calm. Looking back now I see that that is what a true leader does. When they are faced with adversity they rise to, and above the challenge. For the golf outing, I helped to put together the gift bags for the participating golfers, make signs for the various stations around the golf course, and I made sure that everything was packed into the various trucks and pods to be taken to Shaker Run Golf Course. Then, the day before the golf outing, I spent the morning and afternoon helping to set up everything around the golf course. This was a very long, busy, and stressful day, but all of our hard work paid off because everything was ready for the following day. During the Golf Classic, I was there to oversee that everything ran smoothly and I helped to check in the volunteers who had so graciously donated their time to helping out at our event.
The Marvin Lewis Golf Classic turned out to be a huge success. We raised $320,000 which will be used for the Scholarship Fund and for the Learning is Cool program. I believe that one of the most important things that lead to our success was the ability of the facility and interns to work together. We were all similar in the way that we wanted to help and serve others, so everyone was very supportive and willing to help one another.
Although the Golf Classic was over, our work had only just begun. There were other events that were fast approaching, which therefore that meant more planning and more work. A big part of the Marvin Lewis Community Fund is the Learning is Cool Program, which provides an educational incentive that rewards kids for strong academic performances. This program partners with schools from all around the greater Cincinnati area. Kids who had made the "A" Honor Roll for two quarters of the school year were invited to an end of the year event held at the Cincinnati Zoo.
The event turned out to be a huge success, and over 3,000 kids attended. The MLCF had rented the zoo out for the evening, which allowed families to walk around and see the various animals. I, along with the other interns, helped to check the children in when they arrived. Although this was a chaotic process, it was very rewarding to see how excited the kids were to be at the zoo, and to be honored for their dedication throughout the school year. These children had worked hard and definitely deserved this wonderful evening of recognition. Helping out at this event was very different than at the Golf Classic because I was able to see who our organization was directly affecting.
The last big event of the summer that I was a part of through the Marvin Lewis Community Fund was the grand reopening of Dave and Busters. This was an invite only party where more than 800 people from around the city attended. Since this was a third-party event for our organization, we were able to raise money by selling split the pot and raffle tickets. At first I was nervous to approach people and sell my tickets; this was something that I had never done before. Regardless, I knew that this would not only be a good experience for me by pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, but that more importantly I was doing this as an act of service. By taking this step, I was able to learn that although it may be scary at times, I am capable of facing the unknown. I have learned that the more I am willing to put myself into unfamiliar situations, the more I will be able to grow as a leader and serve others. A true leader never becomes complacent; they are continually pushing themselves to become better.
Planning and working certain events was not the only thing I did though. During the week, I spent time at our office completing various tasks with the other interns. Some days were spent running different errands for the staff members, stuffing envelopes and sending out mail, counting inventory, or reorganizing the storage areas. Reflecting back on my day to day work as a servant leader, I realized that I was able to grasp some important lessons. I learned that not every day of work is going to be perfect or go as planned, but your attitude and your approach to a situation can make a difference to you and those around you. I also learned the importance of working together for a greater purpose. There were times when we had different suggestions on how to approach a task or run an event, but when we were able to combine our ideas, we did our best work and service.
There were times when the work that I was doing was rather repetitive and therefore not very exciting. I was not being paid for my time, and I knew that I could have chosen to spend my summer earning money to pay for my college tuition. Although this concept was something that I struggled with over the summer, I never let these thoughts affect my performance at work. I always did everything to the best of my ability and was selfless in doing so because I knew that my work was making an impact on the community. In the end, I did not make money this summer, but the lessons I learned turned out to be far more rewarding than any paying job.
Also while in the office, after an event was over we would converse on how we thought things went overall. Through these discussions, I was able to learn more about how I could better my role as a servant leader. We would start off by talking about if we were successful in reaching our goal, rather if it was raising money for our programs or serving our community. Then we would talk about what we thought went well, and what things needed to be changed for the following year. I actively participated in these discussions because I knew that my opinion was important in trying to better the service of the Marvin Lewis Community Fund. Through this, I was able to see the how important the process of reflection is. The faculty of the MLCF strived to serve the community to the best of their ability, and as an intern I was able to see this great quality of a servant leader demonstrated.
Looking back on my internship with Marvin Lewis Community Fund, I realize that I did dedicate a lot of my time to this organization and to the betterment of my community. I could have chosen to spend my summer working somewhere I would have been paid, but this organization had blessed me with a very generous scholarship, and I felt that it was only right to pay it forward. At first I thought of this internship as a way to become involved in my community. But throughout the summer, and now looking back and reflecting on my experience, I saw more and more how much leadership played a role. I became a leader amongst those in my community and my first priority was to serve them.
There are many ways in which a leader can be described and various theories that go along with this role. The type of leadership that I demonstrated this summer fits best into the theory of servant leadership. A servant leader is someone who is completely selfless. Their first and foremost priority is to serve others, and then they choose to lead in order to better serve others. The best example of servant leadership was demonstrated by Jesus Christ. He lived in order to serve and teach others, and ultimately he sacrificed his own life so that one day we could enter the Kingdom of God and live amongst him. As John even said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” John 15:13. This is a true example of self-sacrifice.
Reflecting back on my experience with the MLCF, I can see how my role went beyond serving the community and how I became a leader to those around me. Before starting my internship, I had viewed this as an opportunity to serve my community and prepared myself in that way. But without knowing it at first, I became a leader also. If I had seen my role as one of leadership from the beginning, I would have prepared myself slightly different and focused more on this. I would have read and studied more about servant leadership prior to starting my work in order to be best prepared. But I believe that my strong background and morals had already prepared me for the work I was going to be doing. Therefore, I knew the importance of my role and impact my service would have on my community, so I remained focused in my work.
At a young age, I had people in my own life that I viewed as leaders. I have always looked up to my older brother, and once I entered high school I began to look up to upper classmen who lead by example. These people impacted my life in such a way that inspired me to become a leader to others around me. I recognized what qualities they possessed that made them leaders, and I began to strive to be like them because I wanted to be able to have the same impact on other people as they had on me. I believe that over the years that I have developed into a strong leader. Every day I strive to lead others, but I try to do it in a way that does not call attention to myself through setting a positive example of diligence and hard work. I am not a perfect leader though, and I know that I have room for improvement. One way in which I can become a better leader is by reminding myself to reach outside of my comfort zone and explore new things. In doing this, I will be able to grow as an individual and as a leader.
As I move forward into my next year of college, I will carry with me what I have learned over the summer. I was blessed with an amazing opportunity to work alongside other servant leaders, which allowed me to see how willing they were to help and give up their time to better our community. This caused me to set a new standard for myself as I served others, and I believe that I was successful in my desire to reach that goal. Through this whole process, I grew as an individual and as a leader. I demonstrated to others the importance of serving our community, and the leadership which this requires. I gained a lot personally from my experience, and this is something that I am eager to share with others with the hope that they will also be drawn to an act of service.
The lessons that were instilled in me this summer are something that will be very valuable when I work as a nurse. For as long as I can remember, I have always known that I wanted to become a nurse. As a nurse, your first priority is to serve your patient and adhere to their needs. I love helping and serving others, and this is something that I can do directly as a nurse. My act of servant leadership this is something that I will carry with me, and I believe that down the road it will make me a better nurse.
Below I have pasted the link to my blog that I created while interning for the Marvin Lewis Community Fund. Throughout this experience I was able to learn a lot and grow individually as a leader. This is represented in my blog through talking more in depth about my day to day experiences and personal feelings while interning.
http://molliewilliams14.blogspot.com/
I first heard of the Marvin Lewis Community Fund my senior year of high school when I applied for their scholarship. I was so blessed and honored to be awarded as one of their 2011 scholarship recipients, but at this time I did not know how great of an impact this organization had on our community. I wanted to be able to give back to the MLCF because of the generous scholarship they had granted to me. I believe in the idea of paying it forward and that we are called to serve those who are less fortunate. Therefore I was very happy to accept a position as an MLCF intern because this was the opportunity I had been hoping for.
While growing up, I attended a Catholic grade school and high school which played a big role in forming my ideals and values. I was always encouraged to become involved in community service and taught to serve others. Through becoming involved in my community, I became a leader to others around me. I lead them by example and showed them what sacrifice and service meant. I not only took on leadership roles through community engagement though. All of my life I have always had a huge passion for sports. I have played on many different athletic teams, which has really aided me in learning how to work well with others, and as an individual I have always challenged myself to find my role on that team. As a captain in high school, I lead the other girls on and off the field through my actions of dedication and hard work. I knew the importance of my role as a leader, and since I had younger girls looking up to me, I made it a priority to think about my actions and how it could possibly affect them. On teams where I was not a captain, I still lead others through my hard work, which pushed my teammates to play to their highest potential.
Looking back now and reflecting on my leadership experience this summer, I believe that leading Kairos my senior year of high school is what had best prepared me for this work. Kairos is a 4 day retreat that is entirely prepared and lead by students and faculty members of my high school. My Kairos experience as a retreatant completely changed my perspective on life, and there are so many lessons that I learned that I still carry with me today. Being a Kairos leader is completely different though in the sense that you are now passing on what you have learned to the next set of retreatants. This experience isn’t about you anymore; it is about leading others and being completely selfless in order to give them the best retreat possible. I truly demonstrated servant leadership while leading Kairos.
My first experience as a MLCF intern was with the Marvin Lewis Golf Classic. This is the biggest event put on by the organization so I had little time to settle in; instead I was thrown into the chaos of the final days of preparation for this major fundraiser. I accepted the challenge though and remained calm. Looking back now I see that that is what a true leader does. When they are faced with adversity they rise to, and above the challenge. For the golf outing, I helped to put together the gift bags for the participating golfers, make signs for the various stations around the golf course, and I made sure that everything was packed into the various trucks and pods to be taken to Shaker Run Golf Course. Then, the day before the golf outing, I spent the morning and afternoon helping to set up everything around the golf course. This was a very long, busy, and stressful day, but all of our hard work paid off because everything was ready for the following day. During the Golf Classic, I was there to oversee that everything ran smoothly and I helped to check in the volunteers who had so graciously donated their time to helping out at our event.
The Marvin Lewis Golf Classic turned out to be a huge success. We raised $320,000 which will be used for the Scholarship Fund and for the Learning is Cool program. I believe that one of the most important things that lead to our success was the ability of the facility and interns to work together. We were all similar in the way that we wanted to help and serve others, so everyone was very supportive and willing to help one another.
Although the Golf Classic was over, our work had only just begun. There were other events that were fast approaching, which therefore that meant more planning and more work. A big part of the Marvin Lewis Community Fund is the Learning is Cool Program, which provides an educational incentive that rewards kids for strong academic performances. This program partners with schools from all around the greater Cincinnati area. Kids who had made the "A" Honor Roll for two quarters of the school year were invited to an end of the year event held at the Cincinnati Zoo.
The event turned out to be a huge success, and over 3,000 kids attended. The MLCF had rented the zoo out for the evening, which allowed families to walk around and see the various animals. I, along with the other interns, helped to check the children in when they arrived. Although this was a chaotic process, it was very rewarding to see how excited the kids were to be at the zoo, and to be honored for their dedication throughout the school year. These children had worked hard and definitely deserved this wonderful evening of recognition. Helping out at this event was very different than at the Golf Classic because I was able to see who our organization was directly affecting.
The last big event of the summer that I was a part of through the Marvin Lewis Community Fund was the grand reopening of Dave and Busters. This was an invite only party where more than 800 people from around the city attended. Since this was a third-party event for our organization, we were able to raise money by selling split the pot and raffle tickets. At first I was nervous to approach people and sell my tickets; this was something that I had never done before. Regardless, I knew that this would not only be a good experience for me by pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, but that more importantly I was doing this as an act of service. By taking this step, I was able to learn that although it may be scary at times, I am capable of facing the unknown. I have learned that the more I am willing to put myself into unfamiliar situations, the more I will be able to grow as a leader and serve others. A true leader never becomes complacent; they are continually pushing themselves to become better.
Planning and working certain events was not the only thing I did though. During the week, I spent time at our office completing various tasks with the other interns. Some days were spent running different errands for the staff members, stuffing envelopes and sending out mail, counting inventory, or reorganizing the storage areas. Reflecting back on my day to day work as a servant leader, I realized that I was able to grasp some important lessons. I learned that not every day of work is going to be perfect or go as planned, but your attitude and your approach to a situation can make a difference to you and those around you. I also learned the importance of working together for a greater purpose. There were times when we had different suggestions on how to approach a task or run an event, but when we were able to combine our ideas, we did our best work and service.
There were times when the work that I was doing was rather repetitive and therefore not very exciting. I was not being paid for my time, and I knew that I could have chosen to spend my summer earning money to pay for my college tuition. Although this concept was something that I struggled with over the summer, I never let these thoughts affect my performance at work. I always did everything to the best of my ability and was selfless in doing so because I knew that my work was making an impact on the community. In the end, I did not make money this summer, but the lessons I learned turned out to be far more rewarding than any paying job.
Also while in the office, after an event was over we would converse on how we thought things went overall. Through these discussions, I was able to learn more about how I could better my role as a servant leader. We would start off by talking about if we were successful in reaching our goal, rather if it was raising money for our programs or serving our community. Then we would talk about what we thought went well, and what things needed to be changed for the following year. I actively participated in these discussions because I knew that my opinion was important in trying to better the service of the Marvin Lewis Community Fund. Through this, I was able to see the how important the process of reflection is. The faculty of the MLCF strived to serve the community to the best of their ability, and as an intern I was able to see this great quality of a servant leader demonstrated.
Looking back on my internship with Marvin Lewis Community Fund, I realize that I did dedicate a lot of my time to this organization and to the betterment of my community. I could have chosen to spend my summer working somewhere I would have been paid, but this organization had blessed me with a very generous scholarship, and I felt that it was only right to pay it forward. At first I thought of this internship as a way to become involved in my community. But throughout the summer, and now looking back and reflecting on my experience, I saw more and more how much leadership played a role. I became a leader amongst those in my community and my first priority was to serve them.
There are many ways in which a leader can be described and various theories that go along with this role. The type of leadership that I demonstrated this summer fits best into the theory of servant leadership. A servant leader is someone who is completely selfless. Their first and foremost priority is to serve others, and then they choose to lead in order to better serve others. The best example of servant leadership was demonstrated by Jesus Christ. He lived in order to serve and teach others, and ultimately he sacrificed his own life so that one day we could enter the Kingdom of God and live amongst him. As John even said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” John 15:13. This is a true example of self-sacrifice.
Reflecting back on my experience with the MLCF, I can see how my role went beyond serving the community and how I became a leader to those around me. Before starting my internship, I had viewed this as an opportunity to serve my community and prepared myself in that way. But without knowing it at first, I became a leader also. If I had seen my role as one of leadership from the beginning, I would have prepared myself slightly different and focused more on this. I would have read and studied more about servant leadership prior to starting my work in order to be best prepared. But I believe that my strong background and morals had already prepared me for the work I was going to be doing. Therefore, I knew the importance of my role and impact my service would have on my community, so I remained focused in my work.
At a young age, I had people in my own life that I viewed as leaders. I have always looked up to my older brother, and once I entered high school I began to look up to upper classmen who lead by example. These people impacted my life in such a way that inspired me to become a leader to others around me. I recognized what qualities they possessed that made them leaders, and I began to strive to be like them because I wanted to be able to have the same impact on other people as they had on me. I believe that over the years that I have developed into a strong leader. Every day I strive to lead others, but I try to do it in a way that does not call attention to myself through setting a positive example of diligence and hard work. I am not a perfect leader though, and I know that I have room for improvement. One way in which I can become a better leader is by reminding myself to reach outside of my comfort zone and explore new things. In doing this, I will be able to grow as an individual and as a leader.
As I move forward into my next year of college, I will carry with me what I have learned over the summer. I was blessed with an amazing opportunity to work alongside other servant leaders, which allowed me to see how willing they were to help and give up their time to better our community. This caused me to set a new standard for myself as I served others, and I believe that I was successful in my desire to reach that goal. Through this whole process, I grew as an individual and as a leader. I demonstrated to others the importance of serving our community, and the leadership which this requires. I gained a lot personally from my experience, and this is something that I am eager to share with others with the hope that they will also be drawn to an act of service.
The lessons that were instilled in me this summer are something that will be very valuable when I work as a nurse. For as long as I can remember, I have always known that I wanted to become a nurse. As a nurse, your first priority is to serve your patient and adhere to their needs. I love helping and serving others, and this is something that I can do directly as a nurse. My act of servant leadership this is something that I will carry with me, and I believe that down the road it will make me a better nurse.
Below I have pasted the link to my blog that I created while interning for the Marvin Lewis Community Fund. Throughout this experience I was able to learn a lot and grow individually as a leader. This is represented in my blog through talking more in depth about my day to day experiences and personal feelings while interning.
http://molliewilliams14.blogspot.com/