The BLF Blog + Prompt #1

Welcome to the BLF blog!

We will use this blog throughout the following quarter to establish a space for you to creatively share your thoughts on the program, your progress thus far, reflections on the week's activities, etc.  And for those of you keeping track at home, the blog will work on some of our Core Competencies: Creativity, Technology Skills, Time Management, Oral & Written Communication, Dependability, and Organizational Skills :)

Okay, so here are the Rules o' the Blog:

1. You have a post due each week on Tuesday at 11:59pm - I will post the prompt each week by Wednesday at 5:00pm.  It's your job to check the blog and create your response by the deadline.  

We're not going to do any more hand-holding by sending you reminder emails - sorry.  This is a great way for you to work on your time management skills!  And if you don't, well, Chuck Norris and his dog may come after you...

2. You need to read and leave a comment on at least two Fellows' posts by Thursday at 11:59pm each week.  This is also up to you to do on time.. k-great :)

3. Stream of Consciousness. (for future reference, blue text = videos) Blogs are boring when you try to be formal and perfect.  This doesn't mean you should use some adapted form of the English Language.. nope - grammar, spelling, capitalization are still welcomed (and expected).  But if you're like me and have 1,000 thoughts flying through your head at the same time, it's okay to write them all down.  Ya never know what will stick.

4. Clearly, your responses are now public.  But what better way to process your innermost thoughts than an online forum, right? (video) Whoops, that video really wasn't of people babbling their internal thoughts, now was it..

5. Be creative!  Insert pictures, YouTube links, meaningful websites, etc into your posts.  These will only help us get to know more about you and what you're thinking :)

In all, we hope this will be a fun and creative way to record your thoughts on the Buckeye Leadership Fellows Program!

-----

So, without further ado here's prompt #1:

After a whirlwind trip to the city and the conclusion of the first Buckeye Leadership Fellows Challenge, you have been through a lot.  (But that's a good thing!)  Throughout the challenge, Eddie and I observed a few trends common among each group's dynamic:

• Communication Breakdown: somehow, somewhere, Fellows were slow/unresponsive with emails, texts, etc.
  
  
• Disengaged Teammates: some teams completely lost a teammate, others just had some teammates not follow through with their assigned work, and some groups had inconsistent participation from various members.
  
  
• Failure to Meet Goals: I think it's safe to say that each group failed to meet its initial goals.  But that's OKAY.  It's just important to think about why that happened -- were the goals too large? was the effort lacking? or did you not have a 'plan B' for when things went crazy?
  
  
• Lack of Feedback: you all had a lot you wanted to say to one another, but I'm not sure anyone actually provided constructive feedback to anyone else..

However, you all did some pretty cool things in the end of it all.  In total, you raised $34,268 for UNICEF, the Comprehensive Cancer Centers at The Ohio State University and the University of Michigan, I Know I Can, and the Veteran House on Ohio State's campus. (really, $36,768 when you include Dave's gift to the winning team's charity).

BUT, what do those gifts really mean?  Take a minute and think about who is receiving the money or services you supported:

(children in Afghanistan impacted by UNICEF)

(a patient at OSU 's Comprehensive Cancer Center)

(Blueprint College - a collaborative with I Know I Can)

(the completed OSU Veteran's House)

...sometimes, it's good to take time and reflect on the impact you're making on others.  Maybe you didn't really focus on the 'why' of the challenge as much as you would have liked because you were wrapped up with classes, research, student org work, etc.  Would your gift have been different if you had focused more on the 'why'?

As a cohort, you all have received some pretty awesome gifts yourselves throughout the past quarter.  I mean, you:

• got an iPad2 for FREE(!!)
• had 1:1 meetings with an organizational psychologist to process your personality and interest assessments
• received speech coaching from a professional consultant who consults for places like Limited Brands
• had a swanky networking and etiquette lesson and reception in Miranova with campus and community leaders from across Columbus
• traveled to New York City and gave professional presentations to summarize your work on the quarter-long challenge, met and received feedback from top Executives from NYC and DC, and had great meals!

...that's quite the list of gifts.

Something we're going to focus more on for the remainder of the program is looking at the greater picture: aka, how have you used the things you've received to impact more lives than just your own?  Your cohort is a group of some of the most talented, capable, and ambitious juniors Ohio State has to offer.  However, you are only 19 of the nearly 7,000 students in your class.

Paying it Forward (website) is something pretty heavily discussed here at Ohio State - we even have an initiative dedicated to it.  So perhaps you can begin to consider how you can use what you're experiencing in this program to benefit others and pay forward to others.  

Okay, has all of that given you enough to think about for this prompt? :)

Here's what we need you to do:

(1) Talk about how your group experienced one of the four trends listed and how you personally reacted to that situation/felt about what was going on

(2) Share some thoughts about the biggest things you learned/experienced from the Promoting the Rivalry Challenge

(3) Create 3 goals for your continued progress throughout the program (these goals can be for working in groups/teams, based on developing soft skills, or other things you've noticed through the program) and give some ways you can tangibly work on achieving those goals

And if you have anything else you'd like to add, you're more than welcome to do so!

WOAH - that was a long post.  I promise that future posts won't be this long!  As a reminder, your response is due Tuesday, January 3.  And your comments will be due Thursday, January 5.

You all are so darn photogenic :)

Happy Holidays (funny video), and we look forward to starting quarter #2 of the program!