LDRS 2014

Taking LDRS 2014 course and working with the supervisor

What?

During one of the semesters of my junior year, I took Principles of Peer Leadership (LDRS 2014) course that required me to work with the supervisor. The supervisor supposed to help me with leadership experience that I was engaged in throughout the whole semester. As a captain of Virginia Tech Swimming and Diving team, I had a chance to work with the Assistant Athletics Director of Student-Athlete Development Danny White to become a better and sensible leader for my team. LDRS 2014 course focused on the practical aspects and assignments that I had to do with the members of my team, which supposed to help me understand the idea of leadership. At the beginning of the class, I had to take The Student Leadership Practice Inventory test that showed me what I was doing right and how I could improve my skills to be a better captain. “The Student Leadership Practices Inventory (Student LPI) instrument is an essential tool to help you gain perspective into how you see yourself behaving as a leader and what actions you can take to improve your use of The Five Practices.”

So What?

The LPI test helped me understand what I was doing right and what I could do better in order to become a better leader. It also helped me realize what leaders should focus on in their relations with others and how I can do my job better to make my team closer and more efficient. Assignments for LDRS 2014 course were practical and made me use the knowledge and skills which I have learned in class. By applying concepts and information that I learned during the course, I realized that all of Five Leadership Practices are equally important. The course challenged me as a leader and made me think more creative and more practical about my leadership. It also made me realize how important leaders are and how much our behaviors affect people around us. I saw how significant setting personal example is and how it could help me to become a successful leader.

Now What?

I have been a captain of the VT Swimming and Diving Team since the beginning of my junior year but the LDRS 2014 course and work that I did with Danny White helped me understand what type of leader I am. I know that knowledge and skills I gained throughout the whole semester will be helpful in my future life and professional career. Modeling the way, inspiring the shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart will stay in my head and will be a great model for my future leadership challenges.

VT Swimming and Diving Team

Being a captain of the Virginia Tech Swimming and Diving Team

What?

At the end of my sophomore year, I have been chosen to be a captain of Virginia Tech Swimming and Diving team for the next season (the academic year 2014-15). It was a great honor and distinction for me not only as an athlete but also as a person. I wanted to do everything I could to make my team as good as it could possibly be. Swimming might be considered an individual sport but only being a part of the team and doing something for a greater good can actually make every single individual within the team great and unstoppable. Three more girls and I were picked by the coaching staff to lead our team in the following semester, and to establish goals and standards for all of us for the upcoming season.

So What?

Before the fall semester started four of us met and tried to come up with standards, rules and goals that will lead our team during the next season. We came up with five categories that included swimming practices, other practices like dry-lands and weights, interpersonal relations, outside activities and motivation. We all decided that every single part of our guidebook was equally important and we included rules, expectations, and goals under each category. At the beginning of the season, we met with our team and presented our ideas. We added some points after listening to the people from our team and established the guidelines and ways that should help us achieve our goals. Throughout the whole season, I tried to stay focused on our plan and helped my teammates to stay motivated and dedicated to our common goals. With some ups and downs, laughs and tears, fights and great moments, we succeed and achieved our main goal- to finish ACC’s Championship as one of the top 3 teams.

Now What?

After the successful season coaches decided that the same captains will also guide the team during the next season. With new goals, experience from the previous year, and desire to achieve more we started the season of 2015-16 with motivation and craving to be better. The experience from the previous year helped me to understand how the team works and how much a good plan, ‘baby steps’ and short-term goals are important in order to achieve the long-term goals. Throughout the whole season, I had good and bad ideas, I failed and succeed more times than I can remember, but I have always tried to learn my lessons. I know that now I can a better leader, but more importantly, I can be a great teammate. This experience helped me understand that sometimes, being a good leader is the ability to let others lead us. That was the lesson that will affect my leadership experience more than anything else. Now, as a captain of the team and a senior, I am trying to not repeat my mistakes and make my team as good as we can be together. This experience also helped me to understand what type of leader I want to be, and what type of person I am. It also helped me developed my strengths and made me work on my weakness.

Internship

Internship in Polish edition of the Runner’s World Magazine

What?

During the summer of my sophomore year, I had an internship in my home city in Poland in the Polish version of the Runner’s World Magazine. Runner’s World Magazine is ‘the world’s leading running magazine, informs, advises, and motivates runners of all ages and abilities.’ During my internship, I was responsible for doing research for journalists, translating articles from British or American editions of the Runner’s World Magazine, writing and pre-writing the articles, contacting experts in the field.

So what?

Even if my internship had nothing to do with leadership practice, it gave me a better understanding of the leadership in today’s world. I was just the intern there but I was never treated wrongly and I had a lot of freedom in everything I did. My experience in the magazine showed me a different approach of the leadership. I saw that some people only had to report to the person above them or the leader of the firm. On lower levels of the company, we were all equal. People that were leaders not only told me what to do but also guided me and let me make me my own decisions. At the end of my internship, I wrote my own article from the beginning to the end. I started with research, then, I interviewed a few experts and wrote the whole material by myself. I ended with graphic design and editing the article. I was led by one of the journalist that helped me develop my skills and used my strengths in order to create a good article.

Now what?

This experience really helped me realize how many different approaches of leadership people can practice and how important good and efficient leadership is, even within a smaller company. I learned what type of leader I want to be, and I realize which skills I need to work on in order to be a great leader. I realized that in order to be a good leader I need to find a way to guide people without telling them what to do or what’s right or wrong. I know that I will use my knowledge and examples from this workplace to be a good, helpful and inspirational leader in my future life and professional career.

Coursework

Leadership and Social Change minor requires 3 courses that focus on leadership and 3 courses that focus on social change. Minor is described by College of Agriculture and Life Science as:

“The Leadership and Social Change Minor (ILRM) offers students a theoretical foundation combined with the practical knowledge and skills necessary to lead in a complex global work environment. ILRM will be of interest to students planning to pursue a career in non-profit organizations, including governmental and non-governmental agencies with an agenda for social justice. The Leadership and Social Change minor embraces a commitment to diversity and an agenda for social change that crosses multiple program areas.”

LDRS 1015: Exploring Citizen Leadership

Course description: “This interdisciplinary course offers an introduction to citizen leadership. It explores traditional and contemporary leadership theory and competencies by comparing cultural contexts of leadership.”

This course helped me to become more familiar with leadership theories presented by different people from different time frames. It made me realize what type of leader I am and what I believe in, which helped me become a better leader. Materials from this class presented a lot of different points of views, which helped me to widen my knowledge and open my mind.

Artifact:style and influence notes

LDRS 2014: Principles of Peer Leadership

Course description: “Students become peer leaders in a university environment, across all disciplines. Examine theories and basic principles associated with being a positive influence on fellow students and develop skills utilized to motivate peers in teamwork-based scenarios. Concurrent experience required serving as a peer leader.”

This course was really interesting and it really broaden my knowledge of leadership practices. I became familiar with Five Leadership Practices, which helped me understand my team better and made me realize how important the leader’s role in the team is. The course required working with a supervisor who was helping me throughout the whole semester and taught me a lot about being a great leader I always wanted to be. I realized that all of Five Leadership Practices: Model the Way, Inspire the Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Other to Act and Encourage the Heart are really important in the leadership experience. This course made me reflect on what I was doing as a leader and helped me realize what are my strengths and weaknesses.

Artifact: Paluszek_Final_Reflection

MGT 3304: Management Theory and Leadership Practice

Course description: “This survey course introduces the student to a broad range of concepts, theories and practices important for a basic understanding of management. Topics also focus on the environment in which today’s managers must effectively operate.”

The material for this class was really interesting and it helped me increase my managing skills. It introduced the basic business vocabulary and theories, which I think everyone should know in today’s capitalist world. The course overall helped me understand the difference between being a good manager and good leader, and it also helped me understand the basic rules of the business world. The course was really clear in explaining how organizations work in today’s world and what traits and practices are necessary to become a great leader.

Artifact: discussion forums

SOC 2004: Social Organization and Social Problems

Course description: “Examines the nature, extent, and causes of social problems in the United States and around the globe from multiple perspectives. Emphasizes the role of conflicting economics, racial, ethnic, national, and gender interests in the creation and perpetuation of social problems. Problems of particular note to be covered by this specific course include terrorism, crime, alcohol and drugs, inequality, sexism, racism, education, and health.”

As a social part of my minor, I took SOC 2004 online. This course made me realize how big the social problems are, and also presented some interesting facts about them. We are all aware of problems such as terrorism, sexism or inequality, but we don’t think about these issues every day. This course brought me to reflect on them and helped me understand them deeper. The course brought to my attention new perspectives and a better understanding of today’s world. Material presented some statistics and numbers that I will never forget and it also explained why all people around the world have to deal with similar issues.

Artifact:assignment 1

COMM 3204: Multicultural Communication

Course description: “This course introduces students to conceptually rich framework for understanding culture, culture-bound communicative practices, and the contemporary field of multicultural interactions that increasingly require people to understand and engage foreign systems of expression. It offers students sociolinguistic concepts that cross boundaries between different discourse systems, and engages them in interactive learning exercises that heighten their sensitivity to the various ways that people convey thoughts and feelings across a range of settings.”

As an international student, I found this course really interesting and helpful. After taking this course, I had a deeper understanding of the multicultural and interpersonal interactions between people. It was a challenging course that required thinking outside the boxes and some philosophy. This course helped me understand the rules of communication processes and cultural differences. It explained in the simple words the schemes of interactions between people and people’s behaviors in certain situations.

Artifact: paper midterm

WGS 1824: Introduction to Women’s Studies

Course description: “Course is structured in order to raise a series of questions about gender and society, with particular attention to women’s lives, and to introduce students to Women’s and Gender Studies as a discipline. Through reading, exercises, writing, and discussion, we will examine how we all learn and experience gender, the diverse ways in which women experience marginalization in the context of the intersections of class, gender, race, and sexuality, and the historical development of feminism and Women’s Studies.”

This was probably one of the most interesting course I have taken during my time at Virginia Tech. The ideas and concepts about the world presented in this course were different and really objective. This course has broadened my perspective on some issues from the very first lecture and opened my mind to different ways of thinking. This course presents feminist points of view, but at the same time, it didn’t force students to think the same way. It showed different ideas about the world, as well as the women’s role and position in it. The material and ideas were always supported by facts and thoughtful arguments, which forced me to deeper and creative thinking.

Artifact:Journal week 3

Introduction

I am Weronika Paluszek, a senior majoring in Public Relation at Virginia Tech. This ePorfolio is made to show my academic studies and personal experience in leadership and it is dedicated to my Leadership and Social Change minor. I am originally from the beautiful city in Poland – Wroclaw, where I spent my whole life before I came to the United States. Since I was a kid, my whole free time I spent at the pool, and I have been swimming since I was three years old. After high school I decided to move to the Blacksburg and become a part of Virginia Tech Swimming and Diving team. Throughout my swimming career here in VT I had ups and down, but I have learned a lot about myself and people around me. I hold the captain position in my team since 2014, and the knowledge that I have gained because of my leadership classes helped me understand my team and the social interactions better, and helped me to become a better leader.

At the beginning I had troubles with deciding what I would want to do in my life, but I knew that I want to get a degree from College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. After majoring one year in Multimedia Journalism I switched to Public Relations, and now I am also minoring both in Leadership and Social Change, and International Studies. I am planning to graduate Virginia Tech in December 2016 and now it is a good time for me to look back into my college experience, reflect and take lessons from it.

Leadership for me is setting up a positive example for people around me, encouraging and motivating them to achieve the common goals. Leaders should know when to step up and when to let others lead. They should try to recognize the problems and work on solutions that are the best for everyone. Leadership is not about telling people what to do, but making them want to do something in order to make a group better and achieve common goals.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more – You are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality” – Warren Bennis

 

 

1. f your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, YOU ARE A LEADER.– John Quincy Adams “ ”
2. 5. A LEADER IS A DEALER IN HOPE- Napoleon Bonaparte
3. 6. “A LEADER…IS LIKE A SHEPHERD. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.” – Nelson Mandela
4. 7. “HE WHO HAS NEVER LEARNED TO OBEY CANNOT BE A GOOD COMMANDER.” A R I S T O T L E
5. 8. LEADERSHIP IS THE ART Of Getting Someone Else To Do Something YOU WANT DONE Because He Wants To Do It. – Dwight D. Eisenhower
6. 9. As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. BILLGATES
7. 10. “A GOOD LEADER is a person who takes a little more Than His Share Of The Blame and a little less than his share of the credit.” – John Maxwell
8. 11. BECOME THE KIND OF LEADER that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no TITLE or POSITION. – Brian Tracy
9. 12. The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic. “ ” – George Orwell
10. 13. “I Start Each Day By Telling Myself What A +POSITIVE Influence I Am On This World.” – Peter Daisyme
11. 14. “EARNYOUR LEADERSHIP EVERY DAY.” – Michael Jordan
12. 15. “BEFORE YOU ARE A LEADER, WHEN YOU BECOME A LEADER, Success Is All About Growing Yourself. Success Is All About Growing Others.” – Jack Welch
13. 16. LEADERSHIP IS LIFTING A PERSON’S VISION to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. “ ” – Peter Drucker
14. 17. “MY JOB IS NOT TO BE EASY ON PEOPLE. My job is to take these great people we have and to PUSH them and make them even BETTER.” STEVE JOBS
15. 18. “The led must not be compelled. They must be able to choose their own leader.” – Albert Einstein
16. 19. “GREAT LEADERSfind ways to connect with their people and help them fulfill their potential.” – Steven J. Stowell
17. 20. “To have LONG-TERM success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way.” – Pat Riley
18. 21. “IF YOU THINK YOU ARE LEADING AND TURN AROUND TO SEE NO ONE FOLLOWING, THEN YOU ARE JUST TAKING A WALK.” – Benjamin Hooks
19. 22. THE CHALLENGE OF LEADERSHIP is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly. – Jim Rohn “ ”
20. 23. “You&have&to&be&honest&with& people.&You&have&to&have&great& respect&for&yourself.&If& you&see&something&that&is&not&right,&you& must&do&something& about&it.”& !”Annie”Wauneka”
21. 24. “TO DO GREAT THINGS IS DIFFICULT; BUT TO COMMAND GREAT THINGS IS MORE DIFFICULT.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
22. 25. It is absolutely necessary for me to have persons that can think for me, AS WELL AS EXECUTE ORDERS. – George Washington
23. 26. LEADERS AREN’T BORN, THEY ARE MADE. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. – Vince Lombardi
24. 27. A COWARDLY LEADER is the most dangerous of men. – Stephen King
25. 28. Progress comes from caring more about what needs to be done than about who gets the credit 1″Dorothy”Height”
26. 29. Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, LEADS THE FLOCK TO FLY AND FOLLOW. – Chinese Proverb
27. 30. THE ULTIMATE MEASURE of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
28. 31. “The beauty of empowering others is that your own power is NOT diminished in the process.” “1”Andrew”Carnegie”
29. 32. AVERAGE LEADERS raise the bar on themselves; GOOD LEADERS raise the bar for others; GREAT LEADERS inspire others to raise their own bar. – Orrin Woodward
30. 33. Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the MOB. – Oscar Wilde
31. 34. Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish. “ ” – Sam Walton
32. 35. “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. IT IS THE ONLY THING.” – Albert Schweitzer
33. 36. If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to DREAM MORE, LEARN MORE, DO MORE & BECOME MORE, then, you are an excellent leader. – Dolly Parton
34. 37. I am reminded how hollow THE LABEL OF LEADERSHIP sometimes is and how heroic followership can be. – Warren Bennis
35. 38. call%forth% GREAT%LEADERS% >%Abigail%Adams% GREAT%NECESSITIES%
36. 39. A true leader is hated by most, and respected by all. A follower is liked by all, and respected by none. >%ScoT%Smigler%
37. 40. INTEGRITY&is&the&most&valuable&and& respected&quality&of&LEADERSHIP& ALWAYS!KEEP!YOUR!WORD! 1″”Brian”Tracy”
38. 41. “A Ruler Should Be Slow To PUNISH And Swift To REWARD.” – Ovid
39. 42. You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a LEADER – Henry Ford
40. 43. Rely on your own strength of body and soul. Take for your star self-reliance, faith, honesty, and industry. Don’t take too much advice — keep at the helm and steer your own ship, and remember that the great art of commanding is to take a fair share of the work. Fire above the mark you intend to hit. Energy, invincible determination with the right motive, are the levers that move the world. “ – Noah Porter
41. 44. “Don’t blow off another’s candle for it won’t make yours shine BRIGHTER.” – Jaachynma N.E. Agu
42. 45. I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, WHICH IS: TRY TO PLEASE EVERYBODY. – Herbert Swope
43. 46. “He who has learned how to OBEY will know how to COMMAND.” – Solon
44. 47. If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform ONE MILLION REALITIES. M A Y A A N G E L O U
45. 48. The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. “ ”-Theodore Roosevelt

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