Seeing others grow has by far been the biggest reward throughout my experience in college so far. I have been lucky enough to have many opportunities to contribute to the growth of others this past year. Two years ago, I joined a club called Chase Dreams Not Boys. It is a female empowerment group geared towards bringing women on campus together and building a bond through community service and “girl talks”. I decided to take a leap of faith and run to be the organization’s Outreach Chairperson and I am happy to say that I got the position. With this position I have had to find and coordinate locations for Chase Dreams Not Boys to hold their “outreach program” which is basically a mentoring program for girls between the ages of 12-17. I was able to set up the program at a high school and a community center in DC. It has been amazing to watch the girls that are in the program grow over the past few months. I remember the first day, they were all shy and nervous and unwilling to open themselves up to each other and the mentors. Now looking at them today, they have bloomed. We have been able to tackle discussions about women’s health, boys, friends, family, and more. Throughout the conversations and activities we have done with the girls, they have opened up more and more every time. We were able to provide them with a safe space to talk about the things they may not feel comfortable talking about at school or at home. We have watched them form healthy friendships with each other over the past few months. I am really happy and proud of the growth that I have seen from the girls in the outreach program and it seems unreal to me that I was able to contribute a great deal to that growth.
Another area that I feel I’ve seen people grow is within the L-Team. This year, the LEAD Office has taken a larger role in involvement with Hampton Middle School. Aside from the Incredible conference that is held in the spring semester, we have been doing workshops with the middle schoolers about once a month. Our interaction with the kids through these different programs has been life changing. It can be hard to teach a group of middle school aged kids about leadership and make it fun for them, but I feel that the LCs along with the help of the L-Team have been able to create the perfect balance of learning and fun for the kids. The L-Team has taken on a larger role in the planning of Godwin this year. They have given their time and ideas during the planning of activities, recruiting volunteers, and the fine details of the conference. Over the past year, I have watched people from the L-Team step up and take on leadership roles with Hampton Middle. They have also helped lead facilitations, ran kiosks, and helped with the advertisement of the many different activities of the office. I am very happy with the team we have this year and proud of all the hard work they put into planning Hampton!