Event 4 *** College Leadership RI November

November CLRI

Exploring Public Sector and Personal Branding

Date: 11-2-2018

(No Picture because we were not allowed to take pictures of the people from the government who were in attendance)

My branding inspired by the workshop though!

Breakdown of The Day

This session was the craziest day ever. The first thing we did was have a breakfast meeting with state leaders. Some leaders we met with asked us for our view on new DOT projects, we met with the head of Capital TV, the CFO of DOT,  the head of the Public Admin Office. We then heard from from the head of the union for RI, and then we had a lesson on etiquette from JWU and a workshop of personal branding.

How Does This Relate to YDEV

One YDEV anchor that I really saw rise out of my this LRI session was purposeful play. Even in a room full of college students, it is important to plan some fun games or activities to get the deeper point across. We sat for a workshop learning about which fork to use first at the dinner table, and how to set up for a dinner party. It would of been better if they gave us silverware and let us try to set it up first, then have us do it correctly after. One thing that was really good though was the personal branding workshop. I think that relates to YDEV because we have to tell people what our degree is and we can do that through self branding!

Event 3 *** Sanctuary Conf

Sanctuary Conf

LGBTQ+ Church Leader Conversation

Date: 09/22/2018

What It Was

My church is in the heart of PVD and we have noticed the abuse that LGBTQ+ Christians go through. We as a church leadership decided to sit down with other church leaders, leaders in our church community, and people that are apart of the LGBTQ+ community in Providence. The goal was to bridge the gap that had been created by previous church trauma, and the part of the event that had this conversation was lead by Pastor Andrew Mook who is the pastor of Sanctuary Church, we also had leaders from Gordon Conwell Seminary. I was invited because I work with Mook on academic research of LGBTQ folks and my significant other and I have been through church trauma so we can relate more to people who have experienced trauma.

How Does This Relate to YDEV

This was by far one of the best social justice events that I have ever been apart of. I have never heard people who do not identify as LGBTQ+ stand up and speak to others about why they should not be oppressed. I also have never heard another religious figure stand in the gap for a community they do not identify with, and it was AWESOME. It was awesome to see all of the research P. Andrew had worked on for years, but to also have people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community affirm what we are doing, and start to heal from the trauma they have faced. It really taught me to stand up for injustices even if it does not affect me directly.

Event 2 *** College Leadership RI October Session

Breakdown of the Day

College Leadership RI session 2 took place at Save the Bay on JWU’s Harborside Campus. This session was all about exploring the non profit leadership employment sector in RI. We heard from leaders from Edesia, House of Hope, Leadership RI, Dorcas International, and Year One! We then had a “Jeffersonian Lunch” and talked about political polarization in our areas of expertise. We ended the day with a 2 hour workshop from Providence College on resumes and cover letters and how they relate to branding.

How it Stretched Me To Be A Better YDEV Leader

One thing that made me a better YDEV educator from this session was the Jeffersonian Lunch. At first, I could not believe that our table made of a group of diverse people could not realize why political polarization effects our way we see our government. For a while I sat there quiet, then I asked them how they would feel if someone said they were okay with deporting people. After a brief moment of thought, people started telling their story. We realized there was political polarization in our group, which is why we couldn’t “see it”. It was just a very long, intense conversation. I think I said 5 words, but contributed so much. I really embodied the YDEV anchor of leading with, I had to really take the lead because I could see the issue, but I wanted to be apart of the conversation as well. I felt like I was leading with everyone and just creating a safe space to share.

Event 1 *** College Leadership RI September

College Leadership RI Event

Gabrielle Elkas

How I Got Involved

In the 2018 graduating class of College Leadership Rhode Island there were no graduates of this state wide college leadership program that were studying any aspect of working with children. In many other years there were very few people who were aspiring to be leaders in the education sector. I decided that it was time to change that, if they say this program is where community leaders are risen out of, someone should be representing the future of our world… the children. I applied for the program in May, had an interview in July, and received noticed I would be accepted into the class at the end of September. Later after being accepted it was released that I was the only member of the program that had the strength of Intelluction in the cohort. I am there basically for my way I interpret data and make plans to change what is going on in our world.

During our first session we played games to  team build, analyzed our strengths, and talked to the founder of Waterfire about the community of PVD. We started at 8am and ended at 7pm including the after party. One of the games we played was like an escape room. They had us partnered in groups based on our results from the Gallup Strengthsfinder Assessment. We then all solved the puzzle that was suppose to take one hour in less than 20 minutes. We then talked in small groups and as a whole group about why this activity went so quick for us, and so long for groups full of executives. We decided as a group it was because not everyone was trying to be the leader of the group, and that we were all leaders of the problem, but we all knew our areas we were good at. This to me modeled the factor of leading with. We learned to lead with one another except overpowering one another and we succeeded quickly. One of our sessions was with the founder of Waterfire  we talked about how WaterFire became a model for other cities around the world and how its art takes on cultural meanings and makes spaces for young people to creatively present their culture to the city with their platform. We then participated in telling our stories to one another about why we were present there. Person after person got up and spoke about our stories and we laughed and cried together for hours. We finished the day with a lecture from 2 professors about Strength Finding and how to use people’s strengths to build a working team.