Lead Team: LAS in The D

 

A sign inside CASS Community Services, where LAS students volunteer during the trip.

This year I had the opportunity to serve on the LAS in The D Lead Team. This lead team, a committee of upperclassmen-Leader Advancement Scholars, is responsible for planning the annual service trip in Detroit that LAS Freshmen attend each year. The LAS Freshmen attend this trip as part of their LDR 200 course to learn about the city of Detroit and to put leadership practices, like servant leadership, to action.

Unfortunately, the due to an impending snowstorm, the trip was canceled this year. However, being on this lead team and planning this trip for the freshmen was a very growing experience. For the past 3 years, I have been involved with the LAS in The D Service Trip. My freshman year I was a participant, and my sophomore and junior years I was on the lead team.

What I learned most from this experience was the importance of synergy when working together in a group setting to plan an event like the LAS in The D Trip. Each member of the lead team brought with them different experiences they had on their trip or experiences they had previously as facilitators. While we each had our own experiences with the trip in the past, we were able to come together and compile a list of strong aspects of the trip as well as aspects that could be improved on in order for the freshmen to get as much out of the trip as possible.

Additionally, our lead team worked together to have one overarching goal for the 2018 trip. Many lead team members brought up that it would be beneficial to make the discussions and the reflection guides more intentional. During our meetings, we sat down and looked through each reflection question and found ways to make those questions more introspective and thought-provoking. Having intentionality as our overall goal allowed our team to brainstorm many ways to make this trip more intentional for the freshmen.

Overall, the LAS in The D Lead Team was a growing experience and allowed us to come together and work toward putting an impactful service trip together for this year’s freshmen.

 

RSO Involvement-SMEA

As a freshman, I knew that I wanted to get involved with a student organization devoted to future educators. In my EDU 107 (Introduction to Teaching) course, my professor gave us a list of student organizations that she recommended teacher education students join. On that list was SMEA or Student Michigan Education Association.

SMEA is a student organization devoted to helping pre-service teachers develop into the best educators they can possibly be. To do that, SMEA brings in professionals from the field to talk with us, puts on conferences for future educators, and creates community service opportunities for us to volunteer in the school district.

I’ve really loved being part of SMEA. Not only has it allowed me to make more connections with students and faculty in the Education Department at CMU, but it has taught me about the true in’s and out’s of becoming a teacher.