Blog 3: Consciousness of Self Joe Van Hulle

I loved some of what this chapter discusses, mainly feedback and reflection. I can relate a little bit of my family life to it. I also like to apply psychology to just about everything so I going to do that a lot in this blog.

Psychology:
Reflecting on oneself or on a group can be very beneficial at times, but only if we go about it the right way. When we gather information about ourselves we often look for positive information. In general we don't search for accurate info. So, in the process of reflection we could end up going in a positive direction or negative.

First we can reflect; thinking of the good aspects. Maybe we acknowledge the not so good. This is where we tend to diverge from constructive reflection. For the most part we like to feel good about ourselves so often we look to spin the bad aspects into better light than they are. This can be done by shifting blame onto others or the circumstances. So by not acknowledging possibility for improvement it becomes harder to improve. If we don't make excuses we leave the door open for improvement. In short we have to be open to the discomfort that comes with acknowledging the aspects of our life that are lacking.

Feedback can get tricky as well. If we ask for feedback, more than likely we want to improve. We just don't know what to improve. If we receive unsolicited feedback, on the other hand, we throw up a wall. We feel our performance is being attacked. This is why having a system in place to contribute feedback is important. It helps disarm the individual being criticized allowing to absorb the feedback better.


Family:
My mom and dad are both really great at giving feed back. Well, less so with mama vh.

My mom can be very upfront with her feedback. She always gives it to you straight, no sugar coating, even if you don't want it. For a long time I'd be very defensive and disregarded her advise. But frequently mama vh is right and I am wrong. It can be difficult to listen when you are being harshly criticized but there's ways to ease into it.  We all work out our perspective which is limited. When we get feedback its a little window into what others perceive, so they probably have a reason for what they say. I learned from my mother's to take it with a grain of salt and be more accepting of feedback.

My dad, being all about methods, has a system for his feedback. First he'd bring the topic up, then discuss what was done well, discuss what went bad, and, finally, offer how to improve. He used this method a lot after my baseball games.
'Nice win, you had some great throws from third and you really hustled for that single you hit. Now, if you make sure to get squared up on the grounder you can knock it down if it takes a funky hop. and When your in the box make sure you keep your eye on the ball till you make contact or you'll keep hitting grounders'
My dad taught me never to blame others or the situation for my mistakes or shortcomings.

Any discomfort created by accepting feedback or recognizing our shortcomings should be considered growing pains.

Blog 3-Caitlin L. Jones

One of the ideas that was expressed in the chapter that stuck out to me was reflection. I feel that reflection is a great quality to have when one is a leader. Reflection can be responsible for improving one's performance and honing their skills. If a leader makes a negative choice that has bad consequences, they shouldn't repeat it. Plain and simple. If they refuse to reflect on the situation, they can ultimately create even worse problems or go on repeating those mistakes. I had always loved the quote, "those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Reflection isn't about beating yourself up over mistakes, it's about learning from them to become a better leader. After my term as social chair had ended, I was left with the decision of whether or not I should run again. The end of my term as social chair had been rocky. There wasn't necessarily anything wrong with the events I had planned/etc., but I had gone through personal struggles that made me not put as much effort into it as I should have. No one else was running for the position; many had expressed surprise and even shock when I stated that I didn't plan to run again. To them, things seemed great, events were planned, paperwork sent in on time, and no major problems had occurred with social events. No one was quite sure who would even want to run. However, I made the choice to not run again(or for any position) and instead focus on myself and improving my situation. This choice was influenced heavily by my own reflections and analysis of my term. If I was going to run for a position in my chapter again, I would want to make sure that I could fully devote myself to living up to my chapter's values without distractions.  Without proper reflection, I might have foolishly tried to run again and risk making things worse as a whole. In the end, I feel that the right choice was made and now I can focus on becoming a better leader for my chapter and to give them my all.

Consciousness Of Self

I really like chapter nine because it relates to a few of my recent life experiences...

Reflection and feedback are two practices that I recently used as a leader to help solve some issues that my fraternity had been having.  I really think that feedback is crucial with problem solving.   Obviously, without feedback, it's sometimes hard to recognize what issues people may be having with the direction of the organization.  Feedback is also a great way to lead into reflection.  Once you receive feedback, it really gives you the opportunity to reflect on what was said, what you see as reasons for the organizations issues, and ways in which you can go about fixing the problems with the organization. 

Chapter nine also referred to my recent involvement with a student organization and program on campus.  Over the summer, I served as a facilitator for the First Generation Buckeye Leadership Connection.  I am currently serving as a peer mentor for a couple of First Generation College Students and am on the executive board for the First Generation Students at Ohio State.  Chapter nine did a great job of explaining how as people begin to develop consciousness of self based on their values, personal style, talents, skills and specialized knowledge, they tend to become passionate about certain issues. As a first gen student myself,  I think this consciousness of self really explains my passion to be involved with this program and student org on campus.

All in all, I think chapter nine does a great job with providing words and descriptions to processes and steps that people take in their leadership positions and will serve as an excellent guide for solving future leadership dilemmas.

Reading Reflection - Emily Shellhouse

Chapter nine reading was interesting to me. I just learned about value creation in my consumer behavior class. We discussed how we develop our core values and how they are different for everyone. Our families, friends, social class, age, ethnicity, and culture create our values. Personally I believe I have the values I have today from my family. I have always looked up to them and followed in their footsteps. I was taught to be kind to others and to understand that everyone is different.  Because of my family I have the friends I do today. We share a similar value set and have the same principles about life. This is one of the reasons I joined Pi Beta Phi, our values are: Integrity, Lifelong Commitment, Honor and Respect, Philanthropic Service to Others, Personal and Intellectual Growth, Sincere Friendship. Not only did I have the values before joining the sorority, I have expanded them through my experiences with Pi Phi.

            From my values my personal style, talents, skills, dreams, and aspirations developed. I don’t think I have fully developed my personal style, I feel like being twenty-one I still have so much time to grow and figure out who I am. My talents and skills come from what I value in life. I enjoy competition so I try to excel in things that are competitive. My strengths achiever, focus and, consistency all help me set goals and use my skills to reach them. I wouldn’t say I am much of a dreamer but I do aspire to be successful and happy. I try to be realistic when I think about where I want to go in life. I believe that as long as I have goals that can be achieved I will always have the passion to work hard and get them. There is always going to be one or two things that I will dream about having and probably won’t get and that’s okay. But, by having a realistic approach I feel like I won’t let myself down nearly as much as I would if I had goals I would never achieve. 

Reflection

The idea of reflection really stuck out to me when reading the chapter for today. I believe that an important part of life, why experience is so valuable, regardless of leadership is learning from the mistakes of the past. The famous quote states that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over again while expecting different results. The flip side of this is that if something works well, then it is important to repeat it to ensure sustained productivity. Reflection after any event or meeting is critical in keeping organization and improving as a chapter. This is something that I believe that we do well after philanthropy events, subrituals, etc. but not necessarily after meetings. I believe that the attitude in my chapter is currently geared towards the mentality that reflection is only necessary and productive after an actual event. I think that we would benefit greatly from reflections after both chapter and exec meetings. Reading this chapter has given me this realization and while I think that it is a little unrealistic to expect reflections after chapter from members, I think it is reasonable to implement a type of reflection for the members of my executive board after meetings.

Individual Identity

After reading chapter 9 the one thing that really stuck out to me was the aspects of the individual identity. This was a really interesting topic to me because to me the 4 things we need to identify about ourselves makes us the person we are today. The four listed in the reading was values and principles, personal style, talents and skills and dreams and aspirations. I think in order to be successful at anything we do we need to utilize all four of these aspects.

  In this blog I want to explain how I have identified all these things in my life and used them to be successful at what I was trying to accomplish. The story will be about getting the outstanding counselor award over 50 other counselors at the summer camp I worked at. 

The first thing I had to utilize were my values to achieve this award. The main place I learned my values was from my very first counselor when I was just 9 years old. His name was Paul Cappodona and  to this day he remains a mentor and was previously my boss at the camp I worked at also. He taught me many things in order to get this award. The first thing he taught me was identify everyone has something to contribute. No matter how the person may come across there is something that they bring to the table that no one else brings. As a counselor I have always tried to identify the kids strengths that I look after and if they were not getting along with the rest of the group I tried to find a way where they could show there strengths to the rest of the group. One kid for example was always trying to take charge at inappropriate times and getting into fights with other kids over who leads an activity. So I gave him the opportunity to lead one activity a day and many kids wound up becoming friends with him because he had great ideas. The next thing Paul taught me was to put myself out there. This was an important one in becoming a successful counselor because sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself and go with the flow. I was not always the most outgoing person, but I have forced myself as a counselor to lead camp wide activities (the camp has over 400 campers) and try to take charge whenever I can.

The next thing I had to identify was my personal style. When it comes to being a counselor there are many types whether it is the strict one, the mature one, the funny one and so forth. I had to identify that I am an achiever. I want to be looked up to and with that I made sure to lead by example. Even if there were activities that we did a 100 times as counselors I made it my mission to look as excited as possible so campers would also be excited. Even if I hated the activity, I know younger kids emulate exactly what someone older does and made sure to be the loudest and most active of anyone at the camp. 

The next thing I had to utilize was my skills and talents. I knew I was a good communicator and I am able to relate very well to people especially one on one. As a counselor one of the first things I did was have a private conversation with each of my campers and get to know them on an individual level. By doing this they trusted me very quickly and knew I was looking out for their best interest.

The last part of the individual identity is dreams and goals. In order to obtain this award and be the best possible counselor I could be I had to want to earn this. I knew ever since Paul made such an impact on me my first year at camp I wanted to do that for a camper. The impact he had on my life was more significant then almost anyone else and I wanted someday to be able to do that. There were days as a counselor where I wanted to be by myself and not talk to anyone. I had to remember my goal was to positively impact all these kids and 10 years from now have them still remember lessons I taught them.

I think without drawing on all four aspects in the reading I never would have won this award and never would have felt so accomplished about winning it. Although this is the first time I read this, I still utilized all of these aspects unknowingly to accomplish a goal I had set out to do for over a decade. 

Blog 2

Sorry I forgot to post this earlier.

I found it really interesting reading about the origins of Greek Life.  I wrote a paper on Greek Life stereotypes this summer.  After writing it I thought I had an idea about the history of Greek Life, but I had no idea how interesting it really was.

It makes sense how they started.  Back in those days school life was really boring.  Naturally, they would have to find some way to pass the time.  Thus Phi Beta Kappa was formed.  Even without Phi Beta Kappa I believe that fraternities would exist.  Maybe today we would not have Greek Letter based Organizations, but we would still have Greek Life.

I think this is exemplified with a lot of the organizations formed in the early 20^th Century.  This is true with my fraternity.  We were originally formed in 1906 as the Non-Fraternity Association.  A few years later we changed our name to Phrenocon and then in 1916 we nationally became Phi Kappa Tau.

We were founded in Miami, Ohio.  NFA was founded to combat the ever-increasing dominance of fraternity life.  Our founders wanted to give students a chance to have a significant presence on campus without being in a fraternity.  It was a gathering place for students to meet and make new friends.

It was really cool how most organizations after Phi Beta Kappa became centrally located to a region.  The Miami Triad that grew into huge amounts of Greek organizations for that area is fascinating to me.  Also the Virginia Circle was another example of this regional founding.

Eventually the organizations opposed to Greek Life took letters and became Greek Organizations.  This shows that even without Phi Beta Kappa fraternities would still exist today.

I also liked how some sororities and fraternities were formed as literary societies.  While these transformed into some of today’s social organizations.  I believe this idea helped to create Professional Greek Letter Organizations.

This assignment was really cool for me.  I thought I knew the basics of Greek Life’s organizations from my associate process and the paper I wrote over the summer.  Really, I had just barely scratched the surface.  This reading was very informative and helped me see how much history that we truly have as Greek organizations. 

IDEAS FOR PROJECT

Post your ideas :)

Let There Be Strenghts

Strengths 

I would like to think that I'm a stereotypical pisces serendipitously comprised of an overwhelmingly deliberative nature, relator mentality, intellection driven, with an achiever state of mind, and a learner spirt. Although I generally live my life on diametrically opposing ends of the spectrum, I believe that these strengths hold truth regardless of where I am aligned. 
In addition, my strengths coexists in such a way that they build upon and contribute to my other attributes. 


Deliberative...Relator 
I am particularly deliberative. As a result, I rarely regret the decisions that I make. Yet getting to the point where I make a decision is consistently difficult. This plays heavily into my relator mentality. 

As a relator, I love having meaningful and close relationships with the people that I'm close to. However, I've never been the type of person to have a lot of friends. I am much more interested in intimate relationships and connecting with people on an intellectual level. 



Intellection...Learner 
I've always been a very intuitive person and very interested in learner. College has definitely granted my the ability to explore this aspect of myself. Due to the fact that I love learning and analyzing things so much, I now want to work within higher education at some capacity. I think that education is such an overlooked and underestimated facet of our society that I hope to influence!






Achiever
I would like to think that I'm a high achiever. However, I don't attribute most of my success to me being a go-getter. I think that I am incredibly blessed and that I find my way to things or they find their way to me. Yet, it's what I do with my blessing that I think makes me an achiever. I work really hard, I believe in first impressions and the idea that we all are a brand and have one. I think that solely being smart and working hard will not always get the job done. You have to be humble, genuine, sincere, and people have to like you- or more so give you respect in order to be successful. I fervently believe that perspective is key and that everything is within reach if you have an aptitude for whatever you're striving for and you work for it. This is especially salient within my experience as a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. When I entered into Theta Chapter I wanted to be president. Not long after being initiated I did that. Yet, I never thought that AKA would eventually pay for me to travel the world or that I would be a member of an International Committee. It just came to me. But like I previously mentioned, it's about what you do with what you have that counts! 


These things come together to make me the leader that I am and can further become :)

Article Reflection

As I read the article "The Origin and Evolution of college Fraternities and Sororities", I found that it really interested me. Here are a couple things that I found I wanted to reflect on.

The first interesting thing to me, which I found kind of cool, was that before there were sororities, women were joining all-male fraternities. Even though it was debated an not always welcomed, I appreciated the fact that Sigma Alpha Epsilon at the Kentucky Military Institute, Beta Theta Pi, Phi Delta Theta, and Pi Kappa Alpha all accepted women as full members of their fraternities. It showed some gender equality did exist around 1860 :). Eventually creating women's fraternities was a social change for a move towards more inclusiveness towards women.

Another point I wanted to touch on was that as a part of Greek life here at OSU, I love to promote greek unity, cross-council collaboration, and good inter-fraternity relations. Most greek systems I have interacted with promote the same things. So, when I started reading about how and why a lot of greek lettered organizations started, I was surprised to see that some started because they didn't feel included in the college socially, or didn't feel welcomed by an already established fraternity or sorority on campus.

For example, the first black fraternity and sororities were founded because they "found a support system to help them socialize and survive at an institution dominated by white students." Other ethnic organizations formed for a similar reasons were a Chinese fraternity, Rho Psi , a Latin American fraternity, Phi Iota Alpha in 1931. This social change of including racial diversity is something that hits home, due to the fact that I'm a part of a Latino organization. My fraternity as well, gave me a support system which included people who were were culturally similar to me.

Greek Life: An Evolution

Before reading The Origin and Evolution of College Fraternities and Sororities by Craig L. Torbenson, I had no idea how different modern Greek Life was from the first fraternity. According to this article, Phi Beta Kappa, the first fraternity, was a way of escaping and enriching the boring academic life that was the reality on college campuses in the 1700's. Early U.S. colleges seemed to have a "pay, pray, study, and accept" mindset. Though, despite how puritanical early college life was, early fraternity life was described as "drinking, smoking, card playing, singing, and womanizing." Some of these activities plague the fraternity stereotype to this day!

What shocked me about the progression of Greek Life was how quickly it adapted new traditions and practices. Mottoes and exclusivity were taken from literary societies. Sororities began popping up in 1851 and 1852 and BGLO's sprung up in the early 1900's. Multicultural organizations quickly followed. Diversity became as apparent in Greek Life as it was in the overall appearance of American society.

The fascinating thing about reading this article was that as America changed, Greek Life did was well. As women and African Americans began attending American colleges, their presence was mirrored by a presence in Greek Life. Throughout America's history, fraternities and sororities have reflected the progressive and inclusive nature of this country. Because of that, I'm excited to see what the future of Greek Life will look like.

Changing Social Structure - Andy Bodi

The required reading for this week explained how the idea of fraternity was created and how it inspired changes within the system of higher education. Not only did it change the structure of college, it opened up a new world for the men and women of universities all over the country. Since early college life was spent memorizing and translating, the college students did not enjoy what they were doing. They were not given an opportunity to expand their education in what they wanted to go into. Once the ideas of social clubs and fraternities enter college life, it expanded the possibilities for the student body. They were able to meet with people that shared the same ideas as them. They were able to collaborate with these people and find a sense of camaraderie.

Not only did fraternity allow men to get together and be social, it helped men and later women, to make differences on their campuses and break down barriers. This expansion is a great example of social change. To me, social change is when a structured concept in society is acted on by an outside force and changes the standards and structure of that concept. Even the concept of fraternity was changed as more and more people wanted to be apart of this lifestyle. For instance, many of the early fraternities were white, protestant males. However, the creation of sororities, BGLOs, and other multicultural Greek organizations completely changed the view of fraternity. Now religion, race, and gender don't inhibit any person from joining a Greek organizations.

Social change will never stop happening. The reason I say this is because everyone will want to change little things within the structure of fraternity. It is now common to see a social fraternity that has gotten rid of the pledging process, like Zeta Beta Tau. I view this as a big change in the structure of fraternity because pledging is a big tradition in many other organizations. I feel that this social changes draws new members because they see that they will be viewed as equal to the other active brothers within the fraternity.

Social change is the fuel for expansion and change within Greek organizations. It also creates an atmosphere that draws in people that have the same beliefs and ideas. Social change is responsible for the structure of Greek life today and will be what determines the structure of Greek life in the future.
   

Strengths Quest - Billy Steward

Well I have known my Strengths for a while now,  Ive been doing a Leadership camp every summer since before entering college and we work with Strengthsquest quite a bit. My amazing five strengths in order are Adaptability, Futuristic, Woo, Communication, Positivity. Being a fourth year I have had some time to focus on these strengths and heres how I did so far!

Starting with my last, Positivity I would like to say is one of my favorites. Once you get to know me

even if it was for the matter of 30 seconds you would realize I am definitely a realist but a positive realist  if that makes sense it ties in with my Futuristic thinking actually I plan to not have negativity in my life. Bringing me to my next point I am a City Planning Major after all. I love to plan ANYTHING Cities, lists, and events. If someone has ever scene the amount of Planning that goes into my life they know that Im truly OCD organized.

Communication I believe is key to living you can not get by with out it. Most people believe that communication is just about how you speak to others. But Im on the opposite spectrum in two ways. Unlike a lot of people in todays society even with social media being so easily assessable, I like to speak before I talk. Secondly I am a great listener, which has its ups and downs. I like that Im that guy that everyone loves to come to just to talk to and advice but sometimes it can become a hassle with all the people that come to me constantly.

Adaptability is my strongest strength and I couldn't agree more with it. You know that guy that does not get awkward in any situation, well thats me! Its actually gotten so bad that I purposely get bored and try to make the situation awkward. Mostly because I actually enjoy the feeling of awkwardness. I know Im weird

Lastly which this one is my favorite Woo'er. I like to think Im that guy that can work his charm, dazzle people with his personality and smile and well get what he wants but not in the way of being spoiled. I do not have a problem talking to anyone and this ties a lot with adaptability.

Overall all five of my strengths are very much linked to me and I see why I have them.

Blog 2: Leadership Strengths Joe Van Hulle

My father is a Chemical Engineer. In his job with that he does a lot of problem solving. He primarily communicates with his customers to see what they need or what issues they are having. I owe a lot of my "Leadership Strengths" to him.

Strategic, Restorative, and Analytical

Stratego: my all time favorite board game (I'm a nerd)

In my mind these three categorize all work in tandem for a problem solver. When ever I am presented a problem the first thing I do is take a step back from it and I try to get as much information on the problem as possible(Analytical). I want all the facts so I can see if there is any obvious contributor(s) to the problem. After considering why it is a contributor I can move to the next step. Next I come up with a couple different solutions catering to the contributors of the problem(Strategic). I try not to get caught up in a single "Best" solution. Often these solutions will leave out certain angles that still need to be covered in order to solve a problem. While it is tempting to use our past influence how problem solve it is a bad idea. I view every problem as strictly unique and new(Restorative). This approach protects from overlooking contributors.

My Problem Solving Method
1. get the problem's conditions; the facts of the situation
2. find all major causes of the problem
3. consider every solution you can think of

Individualiztion

My belief in unique problems stems from the people (as people often contribute to problems). The greatest thing about people is how different we are. We all have a unique set of DNA that make us up and we all have a unique set of life events that make us up. The more I know what makes a person who they are the better I am able to play their strengths. On top of that I can understand why they act the way they do. This is always fun because often we just act and don't know why.

Sir Buckminster Fuller (Futurist)

Ideation


I love ideas. Ideas are what got us where we are today. Buckminster Fuller in his book, Spaceship Earth, explains the un-quantifiable wealth that is an idea. In response to the terrarium model of the earth he responds with something to the extent of 'nothing in a terrarium ever had an idea'. Ideas more or less allow us to exceed our expectations of ourselves from an individual level to humanity as a whole.



Just as a little side note as to the problem solving I was brought up with I'll tell you a story my dad did that really stuck with me. Back when my dad was in college he had an engineering problem solving class. The first day the teacher presented them with this problem:
"There is a ping pong ball at the bottom of a tube. Tube is connected to the floor and cannot be flipped. you have a water supply but you have no means to transport the water. You also cannot use your hands as the water source is to far."
My dad thought calmly while everyone gave up. The answer he provided? Pee in the tube. It was an odd solution but it fit the problem conditions. This taught me to look at every angle and every solution no matter how odd it seems.