The first class that I took within the Leadership and Social Change minor was Women and Gender Studies. It was the first class that really got me thinking about getting a minor, because it was one of the first classes to really get me excited. “The ultimate goal of this course is to provide students with concepts, tools, and methods to understand and analyze the various forces that shape us as gendered individuals and that influence our very notion of what gender means.”
I think that the key leadership concepts of the class were especially insightful as a woman. It gave me an idea of the history of women in leadership positions and especially how that works in America even today. I think one of the most important things that I learned about was intersectionality. Every person in the world has their own identity in intersectionality, and it speaks a lot to the different walks of life that we all encounter. It accounts for things like race, ability, gender, and social standing. I think that the impact this class had on me was that it really inspired me as a young woman. It made me want to just bring women up to the level of men in many parts of the world. It made me aware of all the differences and biases that majorly influence the world. For example, at the end of the class everyone had to present on an influential woman of our generation. But we also had to present on the negatives and the biases of that woman, as well. I think this class helped me want to impact change on others and understand how important it is to collaborate with diverse people.
The course that developed my understanding of leadership the most was Principles of Peer Leadership (also known as, Rho Gamma class). It was the second class I took in the leadership realm, and it was completely on accident. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a member of Zeta Tau Alpha- a sorority on campus. I was really interested in making a difference in the lives of PNMs, or Potential New Members. PNMs are the freshman/sophomore girls that go through the formal recruitment process at Tech, and Rho Gammas are their guides. It’s kind of like being a camp counselor, but with a lot more emotions. Recruitment can be a really difficult time for girls, because they have to face rejection based on relatively shallow conversations. It’s long hours on top of that, so RG’s have to take a class to practice helping the younger girls.
We took a lot of leadership inventories throughout the semester. We had many group discussions where we explored our values and how to help our peers understand values. It gave us the skill sets to share our own story with others and to practice coaching one another. We talked about inclusion, building community, and our different leadership styles. I loved this class. It was an extremely inclusive and open environment. Our teachers encouraged speaking freely, as you can see by how casual my video reflection is, and I got to know the other Rho Gammas extremely well. The class prepared me extremely well for recruitment and I made deep connections with many of my girls. Some of them I still talk to today. I think that this class did a great job of teaching the students about every level of the Social Change model. I would say that most specifically, it drove home about values and making sure that our girls were looking at sororities from a values-based perspective.
The third class I’ve chosen to highlight is LDRS 1015: Exploring Citizen Leadership. This class was kind of interesting, because it was an intro to leadership class, but I had already taken most of my classes in leadership. It was a lot of intro to the basics of leadership.
Some of the things we talked about were trait-based leadership, leadership styles, and we took a lot of inventories to learn more about ourselves. Another thing that was really interesting, was learning about the different leaders throughout history and their approaches to power, leadership, and their relationships with followers. I think this class had less of an impact on me, because most of the information that I learned I kind of already knew. But, it touched on all of the aspects of the social change model in a introductory type way.
For my last course description, I’ve decided to pull from two classes. I wanted to talk more about my Morality and Justice class, but I only did one real assignment for the class. I’m also currently in Global Ethics, so I’ve done one major assignment for that class at this point in the semester. Both classes are really interesting, because it ties philosophy in with major issues and events in today’s society.
I think the key leadership concepts in these classes were expressed through the lenses like utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, and Libertarianism. It just shows the different perspectives that people can have and can easily be applied to leadership. Both classes also talk a lot about diversity and the different walks of life that people come from. Both of my teachers spent a lot of time making sure that everyone understood equality and equity in our society. There was discussion about marginalized groups and what we can do to help raise up those members of society. I think these classes taught me a lot about leadership in a way I never thought about. Philosophy and the idea of leadership being a process was extremely prevalent to me.
LDRS 4044- Cara's Capstone 