Week 5 Journal:

September 17th:

On Thursday after the quiz today, we were able to have a classroom discussion about the question; “What are the groups and communities where you could be showing more/better leadership skills”? Some of the answers that came up were family, friend groups, coworkers, teams, clubs, community service groups, and classes. The two that I could relate to most where I can show better leadership skills were in clubs and community service groups. In high school, I was able to start the club called SOCA which stood for Students of Color Affinity Group. This club is a safe space for students of color to talk about different experiences in and out of school. These experiences can be good or bad, but most of the time that they are brought up in discussion it’s a bad situation. My leadership skills were tested last year while leading this club because I had to be able to put other people’s feelings and needs before mine. I needed to make sure to comfort the person in a way where my emotions were not taking over the situation just like Binti had to suppress her emotions when the time is right. As for community service, SOCA has hosted many community service opportunities and fundraisers that I have had to plan. I never knew how much planning went into an event, and how you have to make sure everything is running smoothly. Planning the fundraiser events for SOCA truly helped me develop my leadership skills.

After talking about the communities that we were able to show leadership skills, we were broken up into breakout rooms to create a hypothetical school for Lysistrata. I was paired into a group with Alexa, Alexia, and Miles and we answered question five which was; “At this school how would students become good at figuring out who will be responsible for/in charge of which aspects of the organization”? At first, looking at the question, we were a little confused but we were able to come up with a hypothetical school, and we think we could persuade someone to join. The subject matter would most likely be leadership or psychology and it would be taught by a teacher who would be able to provide a good example of leadership for their students. As an example, we would have teachers who pride themselves on showing not telling, vs teachers who think that they are entitled to boss students around and not execute the same energy back. The kinds of assignments that would be assigned would display leadership by helping educate and organize the children. We believed that students especially on the younger side have a hard time working together and following orders, so these types of assignments would help develop each student’s leadership skills where it’s harder to utilize these skills. Being a leader within your group, helps a group come together and lead all together instead of separately. As for a final project, we feel as if a simulation of what someone who works in Human Resources would be most beneficial for the school because it’ll help stimulate the differences in everyone and how we cannot compare everyone’s growth at the same rate. The methods of grading that would be most beneficial are monitoring changes through personality-based tests, and aptitude tests. It’s hard to give grades when everyone is working on a different scale of producing their leadership skills, so everyone has their personalized grading system.

It was interesting to see everyone’s approach to creating a school and how they would structure the school to persuade people to join. During the discussion after making our different schools, some points were brought up about developing leadership skills. One point that stuck out to me was emulating a person and stopping division. Emulation is extremely important while thinking about leadership skills because you’re able to put that drive in yourself to work harder. Once you see someone who has the success that you want, you want to emulate them so you can also have the same success and even more. Sometimes people feel like there needs to be division within leadership, but it’s all about working together. There does not always have to be one designated leader at the end of the day; everyone can input their ideas and make it a collective leadership. Another point that was made during class was finding the root of the problem. Even in my own life, I find that problems are resurfaced time and time again, because the root of the problem was never solved. Taking initiative to find the root of the problem will lead everyone better off in the situation.

At the end of class, Prof. Sandbridge read us a beautiful memoir for his deceased father. I thought that the piece was amazing because I could also relate to losing someone extremely important. 2 years ago, my grandfather passed away and I looked up so much to him as a leader. He was a writer and dedicated the later stages of his life to writing. If you would like to look at some of his work, his name is Clement B.G London. Learning leadership skills from the deceased can be one of the most powerful relationships just because you can live up to their legacy. Although death is a very sad subject, it’s the circle of life and it will inevitably happen to everyone at some point. I truly loved the piece that was dedicated to your father because it touched me differently from everyone else. It hit home in a sense where I know that I will always miss my grandpa, I want to keep moving forward and making him proud. I know that he would never want to see me stop living my dream, so I work hard every single day for him.

September 20th Homework:

The main point to take out of the story that we read for homework was dehumanization within someone’s agency and or experience. Some of the ways that we increase or tendency to dehumanize another person or group are:

1. When we have power over them
2. When we have harmed them
3. Hen we have witnessed them being harmed
4. When we regard them as a member of an outsider (in the out-group)
5. When we regard them as physically disgusting

As for a short summary of the story, mentorship vs. dehumanization is a huge point of what the characters in the story went through. Odysseus wants Neoptolemus to perform a shameful act so he’s able to gain future glory. Neoptolemus is looked at as the high and mighty boy who always follows the rules, so it takes a long time to persuade him. At the end of the story Neoptolemus takes Philoctetes back to Greece. There were some main points that I took away from each of the paragraphs that were highlighted on Kallion.

Paragraph 1: Lines 26–47

1. Seeing someone as not very resourceful (trashy and ghetto)- or that is how they are being seen by everyone even if they aren’t that
2. Getting by in a world that isn’t on their side
3. Under his command (regards as disgusting)
4. Posing as a mentor, and using him as an instrument

Passage 2: Lines 54–85

1. Manipulation
2. Casting a sense of shame
3. Having cold empathy (psychopathic tendencies: only seeing a benefit for themself and not a mutual benefit)
4. Sensitive to sense of ambition
5. Shameless=invent reputation of rightness
6. Does he deserve mistreatments
7. Humans aren’t looked @ as humans
8. Winners or losers
9. Victory is a a sweet price to gain
10. Getting the better of someone else

Passage 3: Lines 86–122

1. Psychopathic manipulation
2. Referring to his own childhood
3. Noble deeds
4. It’s okay to lie as long as you win
5. Noble: descendants from someone with great reputation; worthy of lineage
6. Reputation
7. Acting of generosity or compassion
8. Go through with the plan
9. Sofas: philosophy (meaning clever, resourceful)

Passage 4: Lines 219–254

1. He’s been injured and wronged already
2. Regarded as a member on the “out group”
3. Having authority over someone
4. Going through the rituals of xenia
5. Core piece of humanity
6. Welcoming into the group
7. Apart of the connection through tradition

Passage 5: Lines 468–506

1. Uses same moral language
2. Activating desire for good reputation
3. Known for his noble mind
4. Not winning but helping
5. Stain on your honor
6. What does noble really mean?
7. Trouble will not last
8. Escort and messenger
9. It could happen to anyone
10. Prosperity followed by its opposite
11. Losing everything

Passage 6: Lines 1408–1444

1. He doesn’t want to go to Troy
2. Makes vague vision more clear
3. Lesson of dignity
4. Feeling inferior, being there was humiliating

I have noticed that sometimes joining new people into a friend group, or separating ties with someone in a friend group can lead to sometimes dehumanization within that person. I feel as if sometimes joining a new friend group can be hard, and making that person feel welcomes relieves a sense of isolation.

Thursday, September 22nd 2020

To start the class, we checked in on our different study habits. I think it’s important to check up on how much you are studying a week because it shows within your grades. The work that you put in, will reflect the grades that you receive. If you are not putting in enough work, you will not get an A. An important question that was apart of the study check-in was: “What are you doing to take time to cultivate a personal relationship with the material, e.g., talking to others about the course material setting aside time for reflection, applying the readings to your life?” I think it’s important to reflect on my everyday behaviors and be able to use some of the leadership development traits that we learn in class and my everyday life. Being able to apply these different development skills into my own life will leave me better off because I will be growing every single day as a leader. Another interesting question was, “What do you do to stay engaged during the discussion?” I think it’s really important for me to come to class before with different passages and questions to pose to the class because it helps me stay engaged with the conversation. Having my camera on is also a big factor because it forces me to stay focused on what’s going on in class and not have distractions like my phone.

After the study check-in, we talked about some of the key points of Philoctetes. Although the play was a little confusing, it was helpful to go through some of the key points which highlighted the factor of dehumanization vs. mentorship. Seeking validation was also a huge point that was brought up because dehumanization leaves a lot of people searching for validation in away. When someone tells you that you can’t do something or that you aren’t capable of doing it, they are searching for that validation in themself within you.