“Individual Oral Community”-Community Committee

This semester, I am completing my teacher education program with my student teaching experience. For the first half of the semester, I was placed at Heritage High School in a 12th grade English classroom. The school was working to implement the IB “Individual Oral Community” for IB Language and Literature program. Basically, the committee has to organize and implement this program into the English classes in the school and plan this entire curriculum and have the students execute it during this certain week at school. My host teacher serves as one of the leaders on this committee so it was a great way for me to get involved with planning and executing this program to make it successful. For more information on what exactly the students have to do in this program, click here.

This experience of serving on a committee in a school setting helped me get experience working with professionals and developing skills as a teacher. I had to attend meetings related to the implementation. I also got the opportunity to be in the room when students were taking the oral exam!

BBBS-Community Service

My mother has been an inspiration to me with her involvement in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program in the Saginaw, MI area. I have watched her become to close with her “little sister” and it inspired me to want to become more involved. Although I was not technically the “Big Sister” on paper, I still was volunteering my time with Samaya, the little girl, with BBBS aims and purposes.

I have learned so much from becoming involved with BBBS. Mostly, I have a clearer understanding of the importance that having a positive role model in your life makes. The young girl that my mom and I mentor comes from a very poor family. They are not very privileged, and as a result, she does not get as many opportunities that other kids her age does. Fortunately, my mom and I are able to provide for her some positivity and love in her life. We have been able to take her to the movie theater, something she had never done before. I feel grateful that we are able to provide this little girl with experiences that she will hopefully never forget.

Going forward, I would love to continue being involved and volunteering time for BBBS!

Woman’s Aid Shelter-Community Service

1 in 3 women, and 1 in 4 men, have been victims of intimate partner violence at some point in their lives.

On a typical day, more than 20,000 calls are placed to domestic violence hotlines.

1 in 15 children are exposed to domestic violence, and 90% of those children are eyewitnesses.

1 in 5 women, and 1 in 71 men, experience sexual violence in their lifetime.

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2018

During my junior year in my sorority, we decided to get more involved in the local Woman’s Aid Shelter in the Mount Pleasant area. As a group, we collected essential supplies, such as soap, shampoo, and other toiletries. We put these items together and sent them to the shelter as care packages. I assisted with collecting the supplies and putting the packages together for the women. Another thing we did during the holiday’s was send gifts to the children of the women in the shelter. We reached out to the local community for help with collecting gifts for the children. The shelter sent in requests and we tried as hard as we could to fulfill their wishes and make it a great Christmas for those families in need.

This was the first time that I had volunteered for a Woman’s Aid Shelter. I found it to be extriemly rewarding and heartwarming. I think volunteering for these types of things opens your eyes and gives you a kind of reality check. It makes you remember how lucky you must be for your possessions and the things you have. It was a great experience and I hope to continue being involved!

Want to get involved? Click here.

 

NCTE @ CMU Senior Leadership Role

This year, being my senior year, I had the opportunity to serve as the secretary for the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) RSO on CMU’s campus. Having this position has required me to keep very organized and on top of things. I was responsible to be in attendance at all meetings, to take the notes for the agenda, and send out announcements.

One of the best experiences I had was having the opportunity to visit a CMU chartered school in Dearborn, MI along with some other CMU students who are leaders in other education related groups on campus. I was able to represent the NCTE group at this visit. We learned more about how Charter schools work and what their goals are. We were even able to sit in on some classes and observe students in the classroom! It was a great experience.

Another thing we did in the NCTE group this year that I enjoyed was start a book club. Each month we picked a new book for the whole group to read. Each week at our meetings, we would discuss the book. It was fun to read some books that I have not read before!

Overall, I have truly enjoyed my experience with holding this leadership role this year. From the charter school visit, I learned that charter schools are not always a negative thing, like they sometimes get the reputation of. From the book club, I was able to figure out some books that I could use to teach in my own classroom someday. Holding this secretary position has also taught me the importance of keeping organized and communication with others.

 

Alpha Sigma Tau-Year 4

It is hard to believe that my final year of being involved in my sorority has arrived. Since I am officially an alumna of my chapter, I am taking this time to reflect on all that Alpha Sigma Tau has given me.

My sorority has given me some of the greatest friendships. I know this may sound cliche, but I honestly have meet some of the kindest, most genuine people that will be forever friends. 

Alpha Sigma Tau has taught me the importance of being a strong and confident woman. With our involvement with our philanthropy, “Women’s Wellness Initiative”, we have worked with the local Woman’s aid shelter sending them Valentine’s Day cards and care packages. We have strived as a group to lift each other up and focus more on each other’s well being and mental health. I have learned that I have this group of woman to lean on in my times of need and support. 

I will be the first to admit that this sorority was not always bright and happy. I had struggles and low points where I did not even want to be involved in the chapter anymore. Even so, my senior year was absolutely unforgettable and I made even more friendships my last semester active in the chapter!

Overall, I will miss this chapter dearly. I am forever grateful for all that these woman and the sorority as a whole has helped me grow and become who I am.

Alpha Sigma Tau-Year 3

My third year of being involved in my sorority, Alpha Sigma Tau, is yet again coming to an end. I have grown so much over the last 3 years of being in this sorority.

One of my biggest memories I am taking from this year was that I was able to take a  Glittle this semester. This year, we did some new things during our Philanthropy week. Instead of just doing our Grilled Cheese fundraiser, we added some events throughout the whole week-my favorite being our “Anchorman Pageant” where fraternity men did their best anchorman impression. We also added a new Philanthropy this year. Pine Mountain Settlement School is no longer our national philanthropy, but we still choose to raise money for it since we have had such a strong connection with them for so long. The new philanthropy this year is the “Women’s Wellness Initiative.” Click the link for more information on this amazing philanthropy!

Overall, this year was full of great times. My biggest highlight was becoming a GBig. This experience prepared me by enhancing my mentoring capabilities. My understanding of just how much of a positive impact the Greek community can make grew. This year was definitely one for the books!

 

LEAD Team 2018

For my LEAD team this year, I was involved with the Competition Day lead team. We met a couple of times during the course of this semester. I was put in charge of the Tour Guides. My job was to grab a student to take people on tours when they arrived at the Leadership Institute on competition day.

During the day of competition day, I got a list of the tour guides names. When a group of competitors would arrive, I said hello and sent them with a tour guide.

Now that I have had the experience of serving on this LEAD team, I realize that I probably would not want to be involved on this LEAD team again in the future. I feel that my leadership skills could’ve been used in a better way than just directing people. It would’ve been a great experience if I was able to be an interviewer instead so I could really use my people-person skills to the benefit of the LI.

NCTE @ CMU Involvement/Leadership Role

This year, I joined a new RSO on campus called the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). This is a Nationally recognized group that focuses on preparing future English teachers. While being a part of this RSO, I was also elected to be on the e-board as the Secretary of the organization. With this new position, I took minutes during meetings, organized speakers to come to meetings, etc.

I feel very lucky to have been elected as an e-board member even though it was my first year in the organization! It boosted my confidence and made me realize that I can step up and be a leader for a group of people. One of the biggest things we did this year was write a grant for a teacher in Mt. Pleasant High School. We learned the amount of work that it takes to try and get money for a local teacher.

With being involved in this RSO, I will be able to continue professional development opportunities. As secretary, I will keep organizing special events and keeping agendas for the whole group.

 

Community Service Experience

This year I partook in a couple of different community service events, but one stuck out to me the most that inspired me to write for this particular blog post. One of my sorority’s philanthropies is the “Women’s Wellness Initiative.” This semester around Valentine’s Day, we decided to pair up with another sorority on campus and made Valentine’s Day cards for the local Women’s Aid Shelter.

Being a woman has made me more passionate about helping other women in as many ways as I can. I was excited about this opportunity to benefit women in the Mt. Pleasant and surrounding communities. As a whole, we made over 500 valentine’s over the course of a couple hours to send to the shelter. I can imagine that they were excited to receive the valentine’s and letters.

Doing this community service project opened my eyes to how little things can make a big impact. Knowing that I brightened someone’s day that may be going through a tough time right now is such an amazing feeling. I would like to get more involved in the local Women’s Aid Shelter since I have come to realize how much they do for the community.

Being a Mentor

It is hard to believe that I have been a mentor for almost an entire school year! I remember being in LDR 200 last year at this time as a freshman and wondering what it would be like to finally be a mentor to a new student at CMU. After much Facebook creeping, I knew that there was only one mentee for me, her name is Ellen. Revealing to Ellen that I was her mentor is a memory that I will not forget- click here to see my video I created for her!

Serving as a mentor has been so much fun. I have to admit, I was nervous about officially meeting Ellen. Would we have things in common? Would we actually hang out and develop our relationship? All of these fears and worries quickly went away and I can honestly say that Ellen is a true friend of mine. We have so much in common, but we are also so different which gives us a lot to learn and talk about. Ellen even joined the same sorority as me and we ended up becoming Big and Little. Our relationship has developed so much and we have a tradition of getting lunch every Tuesday. I can honestly say that my dream of getting an amazing Mentee came true.

Being a mentor this year has taught me to be a better role model. I have learned how to hold the responsibility of being the person that someone can look up to and come to for guidance. I loved being able to show Ellen how awesome of a school CMU is and help make her freshman year as much fun and as smooth of a transition that it can be. I hope so much that Ellen will have the same great experience of being a Mentor when she herself gets a mentee within the next couple of weeks!