CSU/UADY Leadership Exchange – Reflections of Leadership

I just had the opportunity to read Regan Brown’s reflections from the Fall 2011 trip to Merida, Mexico. Want to get involved and take a trip to Mexico next fall? check out what Regan has to say about her experience and go here for your application.

“This fall I had the opportunity to participate in the CSU/UADY Leadership Exchange Program. We traveled to Merida, Mexico and had my favorite experience so far as a student at CSU. This trip focuses on what it means to be a student leader at a university, both in Mexico and the United States. While we were touring their different campuses around the city we engaged in conversations about Mexico’s education system, resources, service, and leadership practices in comparison to those in the United States. We then got to participate in one of their service opportunities that connect students to the surrounding Mayan villages of the city and the different needs that these communities are facing. This trip is intentional of every activity and conversation that takes place. I have gained a new perspective on service, leadership and education because of the incredible students I got to meet in Mexico. This spring we will be hosting the students here at CSU so they will be able to witness what it means to be a student leader on CSU’s campus and continue the conversations we started this fall.”

Campus Step Back: day 2′s issue – NAFTA and U.S. Hazardous Waste in Mexico

Admittedly, this was a hard topic to really sink my teeth into. I think this is mostly because there is a large lack of personal connection, and I haven’t really thought about this before. Right here I am more aware of my privilege. I do know that a lot of the luxuries I enjoy are directly detrimental to other’s basic human rights, but I usually think of sweat shops and the like. This issue has a lot to do with big business, politics, and international trade, effectively adding to my confusion and inability to identify exactly how this issue fits into my life. Nonetheless, it’s shocking (though not surprising) how easily businesses from the U.S. value profit and business fluidity over environmental and human well-being, which are really the same thing.

For me, I find most of my frustration comes from a feeling of helplessness. How can I really make change with big businesses from the U.S. that operate in Mexico? I guess the most I can do is pass along information and hope others do the same. I got my information from a 2002 article in the Global Policy Forum. Certainly this is a rather outdated source, and it is certainly not written objectively despite the credibility of the author and site. However, this gives a great summation of the issue in rather plain language. I’ve copied some particularly telling statements from the article linked to above to give an idea of what this is all about. So please, check it out, let us know what you think, and spread the word.

“Under the 1983 La Paz Agreement on US-Mexico Environmental Co-operation, and under Mexico’s 1988 General Law for Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection, wastes generated in[...]foreign-owned firms must be returned for disposal in the country where the raw materials originated, typically the US. But in actual practice, less than three percent of firms bound by the La Paz Agreement actually returned their wastes to the US before the mid- 1990s” 

“According to Mexican government estimates, only about 12 percent of the hazardous waste generated in Mexico is properly managed[...]Recent figures indicate that around 25-30 percent of maquiladoras now return their toxic waste to the US,[...]but this is still far below what is necessary to ensure proper management of hazardous wastes generated in Mexico.” 

End of the Semester Motivation – Another Reason to Get Involved!

Well, another semester is almost in the books, and I am feeling pretty stressed! With papers piling up and tests looming closer and closer with each passing day I have to say that I’ve begun to question why I am putting myself through all this…torture. So with motivation flagging, I find that recalling what’s meant a lot to me during this school year as a whole gives me the energy to sprint down the homestretch, and co-curricular involvement has provided the most inspiring memories I have to fall back on.

During my first year at CSU I got involved right away. Starting with Cans Around I was able to see what a group of dedicated people can do, we raised an amazing amount of money and food for the Larimer County Food Bank. Knowing that I played a small part in making a pretty sizable difference in Fort Collins feels pretty good.
I also participated in Campus Step Up. Getting the opportunity to talk to others about identity dynamics, and how I can be an ally for people identifying within subordinated identity groups totally changed my perception. I think the most poignant moment that made me reevaluate my views came during an identity circles activity. People with subordinated identities were given the chance to communicate what they needed from allies and talk about the myths and prejudices surrounding their specific identities. The most memorable example came from a person identifying as a woman, she said something to the effect of, “sexual violence against women isn’t a woman’s issue, it is a men’s issue. You need to work with your brothers to end it.” While I know victim blaming and misappropriation of guilt are horrible, I hadn’t thought about sexual assault in this light before, which raises my biggest take away from this event. The point of dominant identities and why they are so powerful lies in the fact that their members don’t have to be conscious of their difference. The privileges and power that come with dominant identities are considered normal and right, whereas the attributes associated with subordinated identities are considered against the norm and to a certain extent wrong. So by simply being more aware of the power and privilege I enjoy–power and privilege I haven’t necessarily earned–I can use it to the benefit of those in subjugated groups.

Probably the most memorable and impactful event I have participated in since I got to CSU would be the 2011 Alternative Spring Break to Tucson, Arizona. I could write a book about this experience. I experienced firsthand a small part of what immigrants have to conquer while crossing the Sonoran desert. I was well fed, had plenty of water, slept in sleeping bags with multiple pads on the ground, and had good clothing and equipment but was still exhausted after every day and barely got any sleep at night. I can’t imagine having to cross with limited supplies and marginal-at-best equipment. There are no walls along this section of the border, all that separates Mexico and the United States in places is a hip high, rusted barbed wire fence. Clearly our intention is not to keep people from crossing at places like this, but to use the harshness of the terrain as a deterrent, and if enough people die the hope is that people will stop crossing. This has not been the case in the past 20 years as people continue to cross. As I said, I could continue about this experience for a while, and I’ll post more about it in the future.

So with all this to remember, I have a hard time getting discouraged. All I can think of is what I can get involved with next semester, and how I can continue to use the knowledge I’ve gained to make this world a better place.

Why You Need to Go On an Alt Break: Volume 6 – Seattle, WA

I must say I am pretty excited about this year’s trip to Seattle. The agencies Chantal and her two other co-leaders are working with sound amazing, and I could probably write about them at length, but I’ll let her tell you what’s up:

“This year, three fantastic women will lead a group of students to magical Seattle, WA to work with 3 amazing agencies. We will split our time between the Somali Refugee Coalition, the original Dream Project and the Post-Prison Education Program. All three focus on helping those who are about to fall through the cracks of society, or who already have. It will be a great way to help at risk youth who need positive role models in their lives.  We will do plenty of sight-seeing, coffee drinking and all-around bonding as well! Come have the week of your life, in Seattle, with us!”

Why You Need to Go On an Alt Break: Volume 4 – Eustis, FL

Well, our 4th installment of this series is a pretty great one. 2011-2012 marks the first year SLiCE is sponsoring an all Greek ASB! The trip is in Eustis, FL and…well…I’ll just let Caiti, one of the trip’s co-leaders, tell you more:

“This year is the first year that there is a Greek specific trip. This trip is going to Eustis, Florida to work at Camp Boggy Creek, a camp for terminally ill kids. Beau and I are both Greek, and are extremely excited to lead the first all Greek trip. We are hoping that this trip will strengthen the Greek community. This trip will be a week of fun in the Florida sun. There will be hard work, but plenty of time to have fun as well.”

And here is a bit about Camp Boggy Creek from their site:

“Camp Boggy Creek is specifically designed for children with chronic or life threatening illnesses and allows them to safely enjoy the activities of a ‘traditional’ camp. Between early morning swims and evening campfires, children whose lives have been a series of medical procedures and hospital stays are transformed into just ‘kids.’ They have a chance to be with others coping with the same illness or condition and realize that they are not alone.”

Welcome Back SLiCErs!

Ah, senior year is almost officially upon me, and I’m curiously calmer than I thought I’d be. Probably because I haven’t started researching grad programs, Planning the Alt Spring Break I am co-leading…I haven’t even started classes yet. Great, now I am starting to get a bit nervous…more than a bit really. But these are all problems of luxury, I mean I am really excited to find the answers to these questions, and while taking the GRE falls just above pounding nails into my fingers on my wants list, the sheer amount of awesomeness this year promises makes everything totally worth it.

To begin, I am so stoked to co-lead an Alt Break trip to Chicago! I’ve never been to the windy city and am very interested in having a real Chi Town hot dog ala Hot Doug’s. Culinary intrigue aside, we’ll be working with subordinated populations and learning more about social justice issues. Check out the Alt Break SLiCE page for a full rundown of the agencies we’ll be working with, as well as a list of all the trips happening this spring. I can’t wait to be challenged and see my fellow leaders and participants step up, grow, and become even more amazing people.

This year’s Involvement Expolooks like it’s going to be pretty amazing as well. We had to extend it over two days, criminey! This is the place to find out everything about student organizations and find other services the greater Fort Collins and Larimer County communities.

With much more to look forward to, I’ll be posting a lot more information about this year’s programming and events. Visit the SLiCE website for more stuff happening this year, keep up to date with our Facebook page, or follow @slice_csu on Twitter . Stay tuned Rams, much more to come!

A Cure for End of the Semester Apathy

                Well, another year is almost in the books, and I am feeling pretty stressed! I have to say that I’ve begun to question why I am putting myself through all this…torture. So with motivation flagging, I find that recalling what’s meant a lot to me during this school year as a whole gives me the energy to sprint down the homestretch, and co-curricular involvement has provided the most inspiring memories I have to fall back on.

This has been my first year at CSU, and I am proud to say I got involved right away. Starting with Cans Around the Oval I was able to see what a group of dedicated people can do, we raised $37,000 and over 60,000 pounds of food for the Larimer County Food Bank. Knowing that I played a small part in making a pretty sizable difference in Fort Collins feels pretty good.

I also participated in Campus Step Up this year. Getting the opportunity to talk to others about identity dynamics, and how I can be an ally for people identifying within subordinated identity groups totally changed my perception. I think the most poignant moment that made me reevaluate my views came during an ally circle activity. People with subordinated identities on the outer circle were given the chance to communicate what they needed from allies who were seated in the middle of the circle. The most memorable example came from a person identifying as a woman. She said something to the effect of, “sexual violence against women isn’t a woman’s issue, it is a men’s issue. You need to work with your brothers to end it.” While I know victim blaming and misappropriation of guilt are horrible, I hadn’t thought about sexual assault in this light before, which brings me to my biggest take away from this event. The point of dominant identities and why they are so powerful lies in the fact that their members don’t have to be conscious of their difference. The privilege and power that comes with a dominant identity are considered normal and right, whereas attributes associated with subordinated groups are considered “against the norm” and to a certain extent wrong. So by simply being more aware of the power and privilege I enjoy–power and privilege I haven’t necessarily earned–I can use it to the benefit of those in subjugated groups. I am continuing to learn more about how these things play out in my everyday life, and jump at any chance to learn more about myself and how I can help others do the same.

Probably the most memorable and impactful event of this year would be my Alternative Spring Break to Tucson, Arizona working with No More Deaths. I could write a book about this experience, but suffice it to say that I was made aware of how ruthless American policy can be. I was able to experience firsthand a small part of what immigrants have to conquer while crossing the Sonoran desert. I was well fed, had plenty of water, slept in sleeping bags with multiple pads on the ground, and had good clothing and equipment but was still exhausted after every day and barely got any sleep at night. I can’t imagine having to cross with limited supplies and marginal-at-best equipment. I learned that’s the point though. There are no walls along this section of the border, all that separates Mexico and the United States is a hip high, rusted barbed wire property fence. Clearly our intention is not to keep people from crossing at places like this, our intent is that they should die a slow and painful death while crossing, and if enough people die the hope is that people will stop crossing, which has been proven false over the past 10 years. As I said, I could continue on about this experience for a while, and I’ll post more about it in the future, but I think my biggest take away from this experience was found in how our guides led through their actions. They were volunteers and to the untrained eye we would have looked like a big group on vacation camping, that’s how much our guides enjoyed what they were doing. I got to see firsthand the impact a few passionate and dedicated individuals can have. They helped solidify my drive to make something real happen in our community too.

So with all this to remember, I have a hard time getting discouraged. All I can think of is what I can get involved with next semester, and how I can continue to use the knowledge I’ve gained to make this world a better place to live.

Teaching a REAL Workshop!

They asked, I said sure….  I mean why not teach a REAL workshop right? 

Then I thought to myself after I agreed, that I didn’t know what students would want to hear, let alone from me.  I am a grad student here at CSU in the Journalism school and although I was a teaching assistant and felt comfortable in front of students, what was I supposed to say?

REAL stands for Rams Engaging in Active Leadership and although I have been in leadership positions in the past, I didn’t know what juicy morsel of information I could possibly have trapped inside my thick head that would push students to either becoming better leaders or encourage them to find avenues to lead.  But that was all moot since I had already agreed, so I figured I would just search my mental database and find something.  The days went on, and on, and nothing came to me, could I teach about having ethics?  Morals?  Civic Duty?  Education?  Strong conviction and passion?  Passion, that’s it!  Ya, I mean I could have done some research and connected the dots and came up with a workshop on all of those topics, but my brain kept putting that carrot in front of my face, passion!  I realized to lead you need to be passionate, about something, otherwise why or how would you lead?  There I was though, stuck again, what am I passionate about that has any weight?  I am getting a master’s degree, I am into health and fitness, I work at SLiCE, but my real passion I starting realizing was playing, I love to play!  How could that be a REAL workshop? I figured I could talk about being an outdoor leader, I had guided people throughout the outdoors hundreds of times, but that still didn’t seem to do it, who cares right?  How does that make someone a better leader?  Then it hit me, I could talk about outdoor ethics, something easy to grasp and easy to teach others, that has issues of morals, and civic duty, and education connected to it. Something I am passionate about for sure!  That’s it, I would teach students about how to “leave no trace,” how to have outdoor ethics and proper wilderness etiquette, ya that should do I thought!

Well I taught my workshop and had something like 14 or 15 students show up.  We talked about what leave no trace means, and how to ensure that you do no harm to the environment as you play outside.  It was perfectly timed, spring was here and students were getting excited about camping and spending their weekends enjoying the mountains.  We discussed various techniques and theories, we talked about gear, and even laughed a bit, but what amazed me was the transformation of the conversation near the end of our time together.  Students started thinking about leave no trace as a “front country” term as well, detaching it from the literal backcountry connotation that everyone attaches to it.  Why just focus on having these morals and ethics while out in nature, why not walk through all life leaving no trace, no garbage or negative wake left behind.  Students liked this idea and I finally saw how this could lead students to becoming stronger people and leaders.  They were going to take new ideas away from my workshop that even I found intriguing, ideas as simple as doing their dishes after they used them to leave no trace in their kitchen and avoid mad roomies, or complicated ones attached to emotional wake.  It was more profound than I could have imagined; something people were going to think about later that night, yet simple enough in context that at the moment it was brought up everyone could grasp. 

Anyway, in the end I felt it was a success, I felt like students enjoyed my workshop, and maybe got something out of it, and all because I got an opportunity to talk about something I am passionate about….  So thanks SLiCE, and REAL for that opportunity!  I hope some of you that read this get a chance to teach a REAL workshop, and discover something new and exciting about one of your passions!

Come together with CSUnity

There is something inspiring about a huge group of students walking up to an office’s front desk and saying “put me to work, doesn’t matter what it is, I’ll do it for free.” That’s exactly what hundreds of students have done for the last 16 years during CSUnity, SLiCE’s annual service smorgasbord. This will be my first opportunity to get involved with CSUnity, and I’m pretty excited. I’ve had fun in the past serving food, Hanging out with some elderly folks, building compost bins and helping with other short-term commitments, but I haven’t ever had the chance to work with hundreds of students at the same time. It’s pretty inspiring to know that I’ll be part of the service deluge hitting Fort Collins on April 16^th. On average, over two thousand students sign up as individuals or as a group, taking to the streets, making Fort Collins and the surrounding areas better places to live.

This year we’ll be helping a lot of different agencies and community organizations, and to give you an idea of what to expect, I’ve looked into a few of the organizations we’ll be working with this time around.

One of the groups I’m personally excited about helping is CARE Housing. As their site states, CARE is a non-profit that “provides affordable rental housing and supporting services to working families.” This is a great organization addressing a real issue in our community, giving our younger citizens the opportunity to learn and grow in safe, supportive environments. To this end, we’ll be helping prepare their community gardens for this spring’s planting season as part of CARE Communities’ new healthy living initiative.
Another agency that sounds pretty awesome is the Wolves Offered Life and Friendship (WOLF) Sanctuary. WOLF aims to improve the quality of life for all wolves and wolf-dogs through rescue, providing sanctuary, and education for the public about wolves and their value in the wild. CSUnity will be helping them perform fire mitigation, forest thinning and other enclosure maintenance.

CSUnity participants will also work with the Environmental Learning Center here at CSU. The ELC provides programs for students of all ages and community members of all abilities. They offer family programs, service learning opportunities, and so much more. The week of CSUnity coincides with the ELC’s annual “Carpe Diem” volunteer day; Groups of students, community members, and individual volunteers will help complete service and experiential learning projects such as trail construction/maintenance, invasive species management, planting native species, protected area restoration, preparing their organic garden for Summer, and various other programs and projects.

This is a very small sample of all the different opportunities SLiCE is offering for this year’s CSUnity serivce plunge. If you want to get involved visit the CSUnity page to sign up as an individual or as part of a group. And if you happen to be part of an agency that could use a few college students for a day, visit the agency and group project registration site.

Involvement Expo

Well, that was certainly interesting. This being my first semester at CSU, I wasn’t prepaired for the deluge of students and organizations that flooded the LSC plaza yesterday for the Involvement Expo. I got to meet a lot of awesome people while staffing the SLiCE tent, and I was impressed by the gumnastics club’s mad trampoline skills. I had no idea that we had a water polo team (those helmets are awesome!), and although I don’t know how smart it was to be walking around in a duck suit in 90+ degree weather, I certainly got a kick out of that too!

But what really stuck out to me was the ammout of community organizations that showed up to simply tell students they were there to help. United Way, for example, had a lot of different opportunities to get engaged with our community, and also had a huge list of services students can take advantage of.

All in all it was a great first event for me as a part of the SLiCE team. I got to see first hand how involved Rams really are in our community and how much our community is willing to support us. It feels good to be a part of such a large community with the power to make real, effective change happen.