Week 4:

What went well? 

As this was the final week before stepping into our mentor roles for the high school program, finalizing logistics and ensuring that all of the necessary measures had been established and taken felt good this week. I really enjoyed discussion about how we can encourage our high schoolers to enter reflective spaces throughout this week.

What could have been done differently?

I think that we still struggled to finalize a couple logistics that felt quite last minute this week, but overall things felt pretty good. I did wish that we took more time to reflect on our personal roles as mentors for those who are very new to social justice issues, just to ensure that we as a team were all on the same page on how to approach being in that role.

What did I learn about myself while working with others?

I learned that I definitely need to feel like I am on the same page with my team about how to approach certain scenarios. While I sincerely value hearing different opinions and gathering perspectives on certain issues and situations, I do feel like before entering a space in which I am a leader and a teacher for others in a team, I definitely appreciate going through how we all feel about certain things and coming to an agreement on how to approach things together.

What did I learn about leadership?

I learned that reflection is a key aspect of ensuring that I as a leader am prepared for what is ahead of me. Especially in work that ties so directly to my social identities and issues that directly affect people, I need to ensure that I am in a reflective space constantly to be at my best for others as a leader.

What do I want to develop or focus on next?

This week I planned to just focus on how to be at my best in a mentor and leadership role for the high school students as they came in. My own personal work on my Canvas site took a slight pause as this was happening, but I feel like that was best to ensure I was feeling good entering the next week.