Saturday, October 29, 2011

Leadership Quote

Absolute identity with one's cause is the first and great condition of successful leadership.
-Woodrow Wilson

Will Stone

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Leadership Quote

"Be the change you want to see in the world"

                                                           - Mahatma Gandhi



Pedro Rivera

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Leadership Quote

"A leader's responsibility to his team is paramount. It overshadows even his own personal feelings at any given time."

Mike Krzyzewski

Jordan Mason

Leadership Quote

Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve.
-Tom Landry

Ryan Coleman

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

First Impressions

     On Saturday, October 1st, our group met with the Community Coordinator from Boys and Girls Town.  We spent about thirty minutes or so going over some of the formalities and taking pictures for our identification cards that we will be using while on the Boys and Girls Town campus.  Judy, the coordinator, explained to us that one of the houses on campus currently had no organizations or sponsors working with them.  The house in question is the Jones Cottage, composed primarily of boys age 13 to 16.
     One week after orientation we spent our first day with the boys that we would be spending the rest of the year with.  While there were some minor behavioral problems, it was nothing out of the ordinary for  even exceptionally well-behaved adolescents on an off day.  We enjoyed an afternoon of two-hand-touch football with the cottage supervisor and the Jones boys. I'm afraid to say that my team lost, but I look forward to a rematch in the near future.

-Ryan Coleman

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Orientation

Last Saturday our group was finally able to start and went through orientation to prepare us to work with the kids at Boys and Girls Town. We changed our cottage to Jones Cottage which has boys aged around 13-15 years old. We changed because a business had adopted the cottage we were going to work with over the summer and rather than them have two sponsor groups we decided to change to cottage that didn't have one. An interesting point that came out during the orientation was when Judy, the Boys and Girls Town Community Coordinator, talked to us about the importance of groups like ours volunteering there. She had mentioned the grants that she had recently written and how important it is, when requesting for federal aid, to show that the community cares about your organization. So in a way, even though us by ourselves are simply offering our time and efforts, we can become apart of something that can lead to the Boys and Girls Town receiving more money that can help them long after we are gone. It just served to remind me how important it is that everyone in the community take at least some time to devote to the non-profit organizations in our area because not only do they need our help but they also need the help of the government. And sometimes we are the best way for them to get it.

Jordan Mason

Monday, October 3, 2011

Looking like a Great Start

The Semester is flying by with so many fun opportunities to participate in here at Drury.  Summit is going well, and our project is off to a respectable start.  We have finished our background checks and other paperwork necessary for us to begin working. Now that the hard part is over, is all fun from here on out! We are planning on meeting the kids at Boys and Girls town this weekend, which will be exciting.  As of now, we are scheduled to work with the 13-16 year olds in Jones cottage. This weekend will be more of a "get to know you" session where we can interact with the kids that we will be spending the rest of the school year with.  I am glad that I have the opportunity through the Summit Leadership program to give back to my community, which is precisely why I chose to apply for the program. Looking forward to this weekend!

-Will Stone

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Off to a good start!

Last week all four of us met with a representative from Boys and Girls Town, and we expect to receive the "all clear" from them sometime later this week. The meeting went very well, as we discussed some very exciting opportunities. Important to mention would be that though we have been thinking and preparing to mostly interact with the the kids in the 8-12 year old group, or Musgrove Cottage, we will probably be switching to the 13-16 year old group, or Jones Cottage, at the suggestion of the representative. This is not set in stone, but it was mentioned that the kids in Jones Cottage do not normally receive as much attention as the younger kids in Musgrove Cottage, which does make us lean towards wanting to work with Jones Cottage kids. An exciting opportunity that was mentioned in the meeting was to bring the kids on a field trip to Drury and attend a regular season Basketball Game! We will definitely be in contact with the O'Reilly Family Event Center in the near future to discuss the possibility of getting some tickets for the children. Getting pretty excited about receiving the green light to begin working with the kids! I expect to continue gaining experience in activities relating to community service, which I enjoy doing back home in Guatemala, but have never done abroad. My sister lived in Summit Park last year and seeing how nice each house is and hearing about the service-learning projects, I felt as if this was an experience that I would like to have in my second year at Drury. 

- Pedro Rivera