Spring 2023 
Leadership

Ithaca College Men's Crew

This spring, I raced my first season as a coxswain and worked with rowers in the novice, second varsity and first varsity boats. Our team talked during the season about what we wanted our team culture to be. We had groups discussions where I made sure to let my teammates know my thoughts and feelings about how I thought we could best create an inclusive, competitive and fun team to be on. On the water, I developed my racing "voice" when motivating the rowers to give their all and leave it all on the water. The team saw great successes winning multiple races, but we also lost some races and together we worked to bounce back stronger and more resilient from the losses. 

 

Leadership Academy

This semester we learned about leading with encouragement and empathy in Leadership Academy. The academy is for student-athletes and this semester we worked on being there for our teammates. As a coxswain, being able to encourage is super important and during the meeting we talked about people we felt were sources of encouragement in our lives and brainstormed about how we could reflect those characteristics in our own leadership in sports. We also talked about the importance of leading with compassion and understanding. Earning the respect of your teammates is critical and something I work on everyday by showing up to practice, giving it my all, and being a friendly presence on the team. 

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WICB Newscasts and Ithaca Now Podcast

I wrote and delivered the the 3pm noon-hour newscast on WICB and VIC radio every Tuesday and Thursday this semester. I also worked on multiple segments for the Ithaca Now podcast. I am really proud that I made sure to make time this semester to continue contributing to this podcast even when my schedule was extremely busy with my crew racing season. A highlight was working on a two part series about a harmful landfill in Seneca Falls. I worked with another contributor to the show and I improved my collaboration and leadership skills in a small team setting. I made sure I was open to my co-correspondent's ideas and thoughts and we worked together for three weeks on this piece to ensure we had robust, informative reporting. 

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Research Assistant for Professor Allison Frisch

Professor Frisch and I looked into decline of local news and increasing prevalence of news deserts in Central New York. I compiled data about local news outlets, assessed journalistic pieces and worked collaboratively with Professor Frisch in addition to independent work. In this position I made sure to be open with my professor about the progress I was making and about any issues I was running into. The work was largely research based and I made sure to be accurate and precise in my work to ensure the data I collected can be used in my professor's upcoming research paper. I really enjoyed working on something that will increase academic discussion in the field of journalism. 

Letters Against Isolation

I volunteered with the group Letters Against Isolation (LAI) and wrote letters to seniors living at nursing homes and senior living facilities. My grandmother is currently living in a nursing home and I have seen first-hand how isolating and lonely life can be. I resonated with the work of LAI to write cards that will engage residents and bring joy to their lives. I enjoyed being creative when I crafted cards and I made sure my messages were happy and engaging. I asked questions about the senior's lives and shared some experiences from college. I haven't received any responses back, and LAI said not to expect any, which I totally understand, but I am hopeful that my letters were able to brighten someone's day! 

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Leading Others: Leading vs. Managing - What's the Difference? A LOT!

This SLI was lead by a peer leader and we started first with making a list of all the leaders and managers we knew. The list included famous people, political figures, personal heroes and characters from TV and film. After filling up the page and then talking about the differences between leading a managing, we made some changes to how we classified some leaders and managers from the beginning brainstorm. We talked about how managing can often have a negative connotation but that good managers are critical in work environments. I feel that I use aspects of leading and managing in my life when I coordinate and run practices for crew and then work to inspire rowers when we race. 

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Leading in a Diverse World: Intersectionality

This SLI taught participants about intersectionality and how critical it is to understand when working with others. Intersectionality is a framework to that shows "the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.” In the session I learned about  Kimberlé Crenshaw who coined the term and we talked about how different forms of discrimination intersect. For example, when looking at the gender pay gap and in trying to address it, you can't just look at gender but have to account for how race and socioeconomic status effects the situation as well. 

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Leading in a Diverse World: Understanding Implicit Bias

This session was a part of MLK Celebration Week on campus and I learned more about how implicit bias impacts our interactions with others every day. I knew what implicit bias was before attending the session, but we took the Harvard University Implicit Association Test to see if we had implicit bias in our decision making. My takeaway from this session was that everyone has biases based on our cultures, upbringing, and lived experiences so it is critically important to be able to recognize the bias you have and work to unlearn harmful biases and not let them dictate your decisions and interactions. 

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