Spring 2022 
Leadership

Ithaca College Women's Crew

This semester Crew was incredibly challenging both mentally and physically, but I had so much fun creating closer bonds with the rest of the freshmen class in our Freshman Eight boat. The first half of the semester was winter conditioning, then we went on a spring break training trip and then had our spring racing season. Practicing twice a day over spring break and living with rowers all wanting to be in the best boat created a very intense week, but the team had important conversations about our team culture and how we can create an inclusive and positive team for everyone. This conversation with the team helped me grow as a leader and set the tone for how we wanted our spring season to go. My boat had a new coxswain who had to learn on the fly and we had to learn to work together. Not every practice was perfect, but as we took more strokes together we got the cohesion and teamwork down and have had some fast races this semester. I’ve always known that to move a boat of eight vastly different individuals you must work to match and row together as one, but this boat put that to the test and I think we succeeded in working together and had a successful racing season. ​

​

WICB Newscasts and Ithaca Now Podcast

This semester I took on more responsibility with newscasting twice a week instead of once for the first half of the semester and started new jobs with the podcast by occasionally hosting and being a Community Beat reporter for the show by reading quick highlights of the news from the Ithaca area. I really enjoyed the stories I pitched and reported on this semester. My three favorite stories were talking to the incredible women on campus who put on the SLI courses and events for the Women Leaders Series on campus, talking to writer-in-residence at Ithaca City of Asylum Dmitry Bykov, and reporting on the harmful environmental effects of bitcoin mining in the Finger Lakes region. All of the packages I created for the show were about stories I was passionate about and it continues to be so fun to hear my voice on air most Sunday nights at 7 pm on WICB. 

​

The Ithacan News Staff Reporter

This semester the news section had all new editors as the three from the fall semester were studying abroad. It took a few weeks to adjust as a news team, but we settled in and reported really strong stories this semester. The team worked to make sure campus events were covered and we were always willing to help each other out with a story. I had to push myself out of my comfort zone to do live event coverages and talk to leaders on campus for my stories, but I enjoyed writing stories and I improved my time management skills to successfully balance all my extracurriculars. I sometimes would have to tell my editors that I couldn’t pick up a story for a week because I was too busy and while I knew it would make others have to pick it up, I had to make sure that if I took on a story I could do the job well, see it through to the finish, and put out a strong finished product. Time management and knowing my limits were two really important skills I worked on this semester. 

​

​

Leadership Scholar Ambassador for Incoming Student Events

I helped explain what being a Leadership Scholar is like for two prospective student events this semester. I had the opportunity to share my experiences from my first year and answer some questions and concerns of prospective students. I shared my portfolio and explained the time commitment of the program and the positive things I have learned. I have loved the program so far and being able to show new students that being a part of this program is doable, fun, and has been such a  positive addition to my college experience was really cool. I really enjoyed talking to new students and getting them excited to be a part of the program. 

​

Transcriber of Historical Documents for Library of Congress Campaign

The Library of Congress has a project called “By The People” where the goal is to transcribe LOC historical documents to create a database for researchers. I dedicated five hours over the last few weeks of the semester to transcribing documents and reviewing documents to help the project. I mostly worked on documents written to Teddy Roosevelt in 1911 and 1912, but also worked on transcribing and reviewing documents from materials in Walt Whitman's papers and documents from the Clara Barton collection. I loved working on these documents as I got to decipher handwriting and document correspondences. I was transported through history reading and writing and I hope that the papers I worked on will help a researcher or student in the future.

​

Leading in a Diverse World: IC Day of Learning: Grappling With Antisemitism Kick-Off 

In the winter two swastikas were found drawn on Ithaca College's campus and the school had a swift response and condemnation and the paper wrote articles about the events, but then it seemed the campus settled down again and while an investigation was underway it looked like it was going to be impossible to find who drew the hateful symbols. Two weeks later the “IC Day of Learning” was presented and offered an entire day to learn about antisemitism, race, hate, and how we can move forward as a campus community to be tolerant and inclusive of everyone. I had planned to go to one of the sessions since the others conflicted with some of my classes, but my editor reached out to me saying the Ithacan wanted this event covered as the front-page story and asked if I would write it. I immediately said yes and attended 4 of the 5 sessions. I learned so much and talking to speakers and attendees helped me understand how antisemitism affects people and communities. 

​

Leading in a Diverse World: IC Day of Learning on Antisemitism: Let's Talk About the Whoopi Goldberg Thing - Race, Jews, and the Holocaust

This session was about the comments Whoopi Goldberg said on a TV show saying that the Holocaust wasn’t about race and was just a conflict between two groups of white people. The audience discussed the idea of race as a social construction and how even if constructed, affects people’s lives. The session was interactive and hearing student and faculty perspectives were really interesting. I am not Jewish but hearing about what swastikas mean to people who are Jewish and how antisemitism affects people’s daily lives was immensely important to hear and learn about. 

​

Leading in a Diverse World: IC Day of Learning: Intergenerational Holocaust Trauma

This presentation was from Dr. Annette Levine, a professor at the college, and she gave an incredible presentation. She talked about her research on second-generation Holocaust survivors in Argentina and Brazil and her research on her own family since her grandmother and parents were Holocaust survivors. She talked about how these fractured lives and stories of survival are inherited by the children of Holocaust survivors and how the trauma persists through generations. I was moved to tears by her presentation as she had clips of people speaking to her about their experiences and how she detailed her search to find what happened to her family. 

​

Leading in a Diverse World: IC Day of Learning on Antisemitism: How Does the Israel/Palestine Conflict Interact with Antisemitism? 

This presentation was from Dr. Uriel Abulof, a visiting professor from Cornell, and was about the Israel and Palestine conflict. I had heard some about this conflict in the news but didn’t really understand it all. Through my time at college, I started learning more about the details of the issue starting with the SLI from last semester where Ashager Araro spoke about her identity as a Black Jewish Israeli woman and activist. Dr. Abulof talked about how to understand how antisemitism started and talked about the words and concepts of four words: dread, doubt, defiance, and demonization. The presentation ended with a Q&A and I really liked hearing Dr. Aboluf answer audience members' questions to further explain his presentation which was very good but covered complex topics. 

​

Leading in a Diverse World: IC Day of Learning on Antisemitism Keynote Speaker: On White Supremacy, Hate Speech, and Neo-Nazis

The event culminated with a keynote presentation from Erin Schrode, an activist and social entrepreneur, who talked about her experience with hate directed toward her as a Jewish woman. I had the opportunity to interview her after her address for the article I wrote and she said she was so impressed with the speed at which the college moved to create this day to educate its student body about antisemitism. Schrode was incredibly kind and her talk was really powerful. One quote I thought was especially impactful was:

“How many Swastikas is too many? How many tropes? How many slurs? Why is it that people don’t respond when one crime is committed? Because I am not happy to be here. … Trust me, I wish that no symposium like this was ever needed, but the fact is … this is a slippery slope. Rhetoric, actions, and symbols lead to violence and danger and division.”

This day was a huge day of learning for me and working to take what I learned and synthesize it into an article for the campus community to read was challenging, but it was an important experience for me to work through. 

​

Leading Self: Women Leaders Series: I Hate Networking 

I went into this SLI not knowing what to expect since I had never gone to a networking event before. The term "networking" just seemed like an ominous thing I would have to deal with in the future. After a brief presentation talking about what networking is we spent the rest of the hour talking in small groups answering questions about ourselves. I had a really nice time talking to peers about things I was passionate about— the first job I ever had, how I chose Ithaca College, a time something really embarrassing or funny happened to me, and my goals for the future just to name a few questions. After we finished talking and de-briefed, Mish told us that what we just did was networking! Practicing how to talk about myself and my experiences, strengths, weaknesses, and goals was really helpful for me to learn how to package myself as an individual, and I had fun practicing. ​

​

Leading Self: How To Make Stress Your Friend

This talk was part of the TED Talk series of SLI courses and I learned about how stress only has negative effects when you believe it is inherently bad. Dr. Kelly McGonigal said that the increased heart rate when you are stressed prepares your body for action and is only negative when people associate it with preparing for failure. She also said oxytocin is created when someone is stressed which makes them want to be more social and share what is stressing them out with others. Dr. McGonigal asserted that sharing out experiences is a useful coping mechanism to reduce stress. After this TED Talk, the group of us shared things that make us stressed, talked about how our thoughts changed about stress, and whom we talk to or might want to talk to in the future when we are stressed. We created an action plan to help us look at stress in a more positive light which was a helpful exercise.

​

Leading Self: The Power of Vulnerability  

This was the first TED Talk SLI in the series and I loved the presentation from Brené Brown. I still have the notes I took while watching the video in my binder and refer back to them sometimes. The talk was about how being vulnerable is crucial to letting ourselves be seen by others and when we numb our vulnerabilities like fear and sadness we also numb positive emotions like joy and happiness. Lines from my notes that stick with me are

“love with your whole hearts with no guarantees,” “believe that you are enough,” “need to stop controlling and predicting,” and “whole-hearted people have the courage to be imperfect.” I feel that I am a pretty introverted person who keeps my cards close to my chest, so I think this TED Talk was and still is a good reminder to let people into my life and be more open in forming relationships with others.