Over the past year, Mount Leadership Society scholars gave me my collegiate start to recognizing issues facing the Columbus community and tools to evaluate, organize, and lead on Ohio State’s campus. Transitioning into Ohio State, Mount provided me a safe space to culminate my ideas and find friendships with my newfound community. From engineering work sessions to late night volleyball games, my time living in Bowen House was always felt like home. Thus, heading into second semester with an academic major change and heightened responsibilities within Mount propelled me into a world of busyness, but great reward.
- The Seminar class was a happy escape on Tuesday afternoons to a world of learning self-awareness, purpose in action, and how social change intersects with higher education. I often recount times in-class because the lessons taught were not academic-based but experiential-based that showcased how leadership is multi-faceted and not a singular definition, especially within the Social Change model.
- Through the Leadership Training Committee, I explored many routes to not only designing and implementing educational and enrichment programming, but also learned how to foster a friendly and productive team culture. Knowing I contributed to teaching 100+ scholars leadership material and designing programming for a collective 300+ attendants is thought-provoking. I remember attending three LeaderMeals put on from LTC meeting with Kellie Ulrig (Student Life), Dr. Qiana Smith (Residence Life), and Dr. Amy Barnes (High Education & Student Affairs), three powerful leaders who not only showcased how the university supports student success, but also how innovation and inclusion are necessary components for expanding higher education and beyond.
- I loved Mount Legacy Week because it was a chance to critically think through a project focused on my favorite subject: education. Being a lead builder for Team Education, I learned ways to manage a team while keeping accountable the impact we were committing. Ultimately, going into Broadleigh Elementary School working with 60+ kids from K-5th grade about leadership development was insightful because it marked how college students can create real change in the community and the lessons all, not just young, can learn further about.
- Now, ending the year off with the Mount Washington D.C. trip to explore public policy and meet public servants was a wonderful capstone experience of my year in Mount. I share many wonderful memories with my fellow Mounties for I was entering into a world quite foreign to me. To highlight one memory specifically was meeting Congressman Steve Stivers and his entire D.C. office staff. Learning the different roles that each member contributes the overall mission of supporting constituents was heart-warming because I understood how I could communicate, develop, and advocate for policy that supports the student success and development.
Mount gave me many opportunities to learn leadership and apply it in dialogues and programming, but what does my 2nd-year look like? I am proud to serve as one of the first Leadership and Social Change Committee (LSCC) chairs in 2020-2021 school year. Through this position, I am excited to promote the cross-collaboration between social justice and leadership with the Mount community and continue to support student success as a mentor to first year students. In addition, I am excited to take ESHESA 2571S and serve my community in during the “Year of Service”, hopefully in the world of youth development. I am very fortunate to be a scholar student and Mount has provided the gateway to exemplify the core values of scholars in myself and on the Ohio State University campus.