Giving Back: Citizen's Day of Service

"And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."- JFK

In Social Outreach we aim to empower students by giving them practical advice on how to achieve a tangible change within their communities. The projects are coming along well and the students are begin to draft their actions proposals for the upcoming weeks. For their presentations the students will prepare speeches to the invited faculty and other students. The Social Outreach team invites you to visit us on May 6th 5pm in Ticknor Lounge for the WOW! Presentations. The groups all demonstrate an ability to engage with their administrators and community to change any discrepancies they may see in their schools.

This week in school we discussed the issues relating with conflict resolution. Some students also asked whether it was permissible to use violence as a reaction to any conflict. While John Kennedy remains us of the importance of giving back, I think Martin Luther King does an excellent job of summarizing the points about compassion and conflict:

"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend."

http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/%A5Artist%20GIF%20Images/Martin-Luther-King-700.jpg

These words are powerful. Short and sweet, but seemingly paradoxical: how can one lovingly transform the actions of another when they have already acted on you? What do you do when actions are irreversible? The problem in this thinking is that these acts of violence, of hurt, are not irreversible, but manifest themselves in numerous ways throughout history. Yet, we do not fight back. We do not fight back to demonstrate our strength in trying times. We do not fight back to prevent our future generations from feeling the same hurt we feel. These acts of violence, be them small, should not ring our fighting bells because leading through example is a sacrifice of the self for the well-being of others; namely, we stay strong to show our resilience and the oppressor's futile attempts to destroy that foundation.

-FDM

Your Social Outreach Committee

The Crossover

28 March 2010, 12am EST.
I turned 21. The Crossover.
Many people in the US celebrate their 21st birthday because from that day on, they don't have to worry about being drinking as underage consumers. Unfortunately for my excited underage friends (LOL!), my 21st birthday had a different meaning to me. In my home country, Zimbabwe, when people turn 21, they are given a key which is engraved onto a wooden plaque. This key signifies passage into adulthood: the person now has they key to unlock many of the adult world's doors for themselves and discover for themselves what the real world has to offer. And that's how I viewed my 21st birthday: some sort of transition into a more responsible and independent way of life (the fact that I live 7,000 miles away from home makes that transition a lot easier!).

When I though of this transition, I probably thought that at 11:59pm of my birthday I would have suddenly become more responsible, more certain of my goals in life, better organized -- all those fun resolutions people make week after week. As the day progressed, I figured that it wouldn't be so. My growth into adulthood wouldn't be a one-off event; indeed, my 21st birthday was only one point point in my continual development. That realization made me view leadership in a different light.

In itself, the 21st birthday has no real importance, it's just another birthday. But society has laden meaning on it and as such, as individuals we hope, like I did in the early hours of my birthday, that I would undergo a sudden transition. In a sense, I feel the same about positional authority. Many times I have felt when I suddenly gained positional authority that I would change overnight: I would be able to organize people better, obsessively attuned to the mission of my work or generally more assertive in my treatment of people. Of course, all of these transformations I may have desired did not happen overnight. And I may have been disappointed about it. However, as I think of my own natural growth and maturity, I see an interesting parallel with leadership. As we assume positional authority, or take part in training programs, we can hardly expect to change overnight. Growth and maturity are, to me, incremental processes that we need to absorb ourselves in. We need to accept our limitations and allow ourselves to grow to be the leaders we hope to become. The benefits of growth, slow and painful as it may be, are astounding. The experiences that we gain in the process serve to consolidate our growth and make us the effective, strong leaders we wish to be.

Leadership Through Service

Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.


In today’s society, there exists an unfortunate misconception about the nature of leadership. So many have adopted the idea that leadership is simply a matter of position, a matter of “being in charge.” But if one were to look deeper, to critically consider the function of leadership and how that function has been realized in the past, it would become clear that there is more to a great leader than his or her title.

Consider Martin Luther King, Jr., a man who dedicated his life to changing a flawed society. He saw the plight of his fellow Americans, and his ardent efforts to achieve social change ultimately cost him his life. King’s life is a portrait of leadership not because he was a man lauded by many. On the contrary, his admiration followed the beginnings of his hard work. King’s claim to leadership is the result of commitment to serving his community and his nation.

As citizens of the world in which we live, the most fundamental of our responsibilities (and privileges I might add) is to devote ourselves to selfless action. We all have the power to identify the capacity for change within our communities and work towards improvement. For most, this does not mean action on the scale of what King accomplished. It could easily mean volunteering at the local homeless shelter. Or standing up for another student when he or she is being ridiculed. And like King says, “you don’t have to have a college degree to serve.” You only need to care about the world around you. Service is open to all. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the world absolutely needs more people who are passionate in service. And because service is accessible, leadership is too. Embrace this as an opportunity to be a leader.

Sincerely,

The Social Outreach Team


[Posted by Ujunwa Anakwenze]

Youth Leadership and Haiti

I had the opportunity today to attend a luncheon with former prime minister of Haiti, Michele Pierre-Louis, who was prime minister until November of last year. Being interested in children and education, I looked into the fate of schools in Haiti in the aftermath of the January 12th earthquake and came across two interesting articles:

Haiti's School Problem

Raising Money for Haiti is Child's Play

What struck me about the video was how some of the youth interviewed felt as though their dreams too had been toppled by the earthquake. A young man spoke of having a dream to be an engineer, but now he feels as though that dream is over. As Madame Prime Minister Pierre-Louis spoke about Haiti and the persistent issue of its "brain drain", his words came to mind, and I got to ask her about whether she currently sees or foresees any youth initiatives for rebuilding and restructuring Haiti so that Haiti's youth can feel as though there is a place for them and their dreams in Haiti. She answered that previously the Knowledge and Freedom Foundation (FOKAL), of which she is Executive Director, had partnered with the the Canadian organization Rights & Democracy, to create a Youth Leadership program that worked to increase environmental awareness in young children. She added that now such initiatives would have to be reworked and refocused on rebuilding Haiti.

Not only will Haiti's youth be given the opportunity to participate in reshaping their communities, but as seen in "Raising Money for Haiti is Child's Play", children in the U.S. are even playing their way to contributing to the relief effort in Haiti. Reading this article sparked a vision of many Yes We Can Lead! apprentices from several schools working together to organize an event for a larger cause such as the playathon in New York . As we expand to different age groups and different areas, such a project could be realized and would connect students from different parts of the city. Though this vision is grand and inspiring, we will have to keep in mind that we need to help the students achieve the visions they have for change. I was troubled by the fact that many of the children participating in the playathon did not understand the purpose of the playathon, which reinforces my belief that we need to help students realize which changes in their communities matter most to them and which they are most passionate about pursuing. Despite this fact, the playathon shows how even child's play can make a difference.

I'll leave you with this quote from Michele Pierre-Louis, "From my experience, the youth in Haiti are the ones with the most energy and the most will to contribute to the relief efforts. Unlike the civil servants, who are say, depressed, the youth have the drive".

All the best,

The Social Outreach Team

[posted by Sheba Mathew]

Technique in Speeches

Consider the actor: she plays a role foriegn to her, digesting lines from Shakespeare, Williams, or Albe, all the while demonstrating the nuanced emotions of her character. As American began to suburbanize in the 1950s, a new style of acting, as it were, emerged on stages across the country. Instead of "feelers," namely people who would present the characteristics of the perons primarily through emotions and general pathos, "technique-supporters" began to dominate the state. These technique invested actors used dramatic theory to protray their character: they would break down the chunks of dialogue into groups of function. This means, they aimed to delinated where the character wanted to sound pround, sad, or paranoid. The age of function challenged the "feelers" for the best method of presenting a character: one side aimed to capture the emotion while the other attempted to capture the motive. The battle between "feelers" and "techies" continued for years.


And the "techies" won. I use this ancedote to preface a large question of presenting in more natural settings. Surely, we are not usually asked to sit on stage underneath blinding lights and become someone else, instead we are asked to present in a slightly less daunting fashion-- daily communication. As a speaker, it is important to remember that most of the gitters we get can be controlled from the "outside-in", which means that the technique we use helps guide our emotional responses to public speaking.

Four key areas:
-Breath
-Resonance
-Support (Planting)
-Articulation

To control our breath, and our gitters, we must expand our rib cages and feel that nice deep and low breath come into our bodies. For example, cover your nose and mouth, then expand your stomach as wide as possible. Now release. We feel a surge of air just flow into our bodies without our necks tensing or our shoulders reaching new heights. This is just a step towards becoming more natural speakers and finding our unquivered voice. Here's an article that greatly expands on breathing and the other four key areas of delivering a speech:

http://speakingcenter.uncg.edu/resources/tipsheets/speakinganxiety/techniquesformanagingpublicspeaking.pdf

These tools will hopefully drive you into an uncomfortable area of "conscious incompetance" which then becomes "conscious competance" then "unconcious competance." Delivering speeches with technique amplifies our voice and gives us a more refined method of communication.

Yes We Can Pitch It...Getting the Message Out

Why me? Why us? Why now?

These formed the central questions of today's lesson as we transitioned from plan to action. We continued work in our WOW! groups and have really begun to chisel out the details.

• We started our day off with a game. We told each other where we come from as we tossed a yeast-filled bag around the circle. This activity made us think about the major influences in our life. Most of us named Boston (local pride!), our myriad of cultural heritages and our parents as the factors that have shaped who we are.
• Next, we broke out into our WOW! groups. We still have a campaign going for soap in the bathrooms and a plan to implement a study hall, but this week, three students broke off to brainstorm on school uniforms. We continued our work from last week and completed our action plans. It was wonderful to see every one so involved in drafting these plans, building off last week's ideas to solidify our vision for the rest of the semester.
• The main part of the day, though, was formulating our pitches. We have been excited about our WOW! projects for quite some time now, so our job today was to get everyone else excited, too. We worked on answering "Why me? Why us? Why now?" Emma, our guest for the day, filmed some of us as we presented these pitches. Our major take-away: make it personal and be creative!
• We ended the day with a brief discussion on feedback. As we work on these projects, we must learn to give and respond to constructive criticism. We will work more on applying this lesson in the weeks to come.

All in all, we are having a great time. We are feeling inspired and ready to inspire!

Catch you soon!
~Your Social Outreach Team

Great Expectations

Today, as I was stalking one of my Facebook friend (why else do I have them if I won't stalk them... hehe!), I came across a status that really got me thinking. It said, "In life never have expectations; you won't be disappointed." My gut reaction was to write a long comment in response to what I thought was not a very well-thought status update. But I reserved my thoughts for this lovely blog!! Of course what I will share is my opinion, but I believe it to be well-founded and, at the least, worth thinking about.

First, I think that expectations play an integral part in shaping our lives -- our personal intellectual growth and outward success. Personally, if I had no expectations for myself from a tender age, I would not be writing on this blog. If my father had no expectations for himself, he would not have worked hard at school and earned the education he has today. And, obviously, my life story would be different; I may be, today, some obscure unicellular amoeba with the least complex thoughts. I may be stretching it, but my point is, self-imposed expectations serve us well many of the times. They help us set our own standards; they help us stretch ourselves and reach our limits, and even exceed them. Without them, I really feel many of us would be aimless.

Second, I feel that the expectations we have of other people are crucial in shaping our relationships with others. If I did not expect to be loved and cared for by my friends, I wouldn't know who my friends are. If I did not have expectations for how to be treated by, for example, my wife (just an example, not to panic!) I would never know (and maybe, would never care) if she was still committed or not. Having expectations for others in the context of our relationships with them, to me, helps us to identify those relationships that result in mutual growth and development.

Finally, I would like to suggest that being disappointed is not always a bad thing. Many times, we feel comfortable in feelings that deaden or keep anxiety at bay. Disappointment heightens anxiety and, in some way, uncertainty. I believe that being able to manage anxiety very well, and indeed disappointment, is one sure way to grow emotionally. Emotional maturity is essential to each leader because as we go in the business of leadership, there are several moments of disappointment and anxiety we will have to deal with personally and as teams. Unless we are ready to face disappointment and anxiety head-on, we may never take risks and never grow from, possibly, mediocre performance levels.

Essentially, if I were to edit my friend's status, it would read, "In life value your expectations; you won't be disappointed -- in the long-run." Great expectations for yourself may cause you to grow in so many ways. Great expectations for others may attract healthy, beneficial relationships for yourself. And great expectations may result in tremendous success -- punctuated with brief, worthwhile disappointment.

Leadership and Civil Society

Over the Spring Break, I traveled to the birthplace of democracy and dramatic theatre, Athens. The "white city" buzzes with activity in the midst of the financial afflictions facing the country of Greece. Tangerine trees line the streets, and the hills surrounding the city loom in the background. White buildings, white houses, and white trees comfortably compliment each other in the foreground-- these sites were an endless supple of breathtaking pictures. Then there is the graffiti. Graffiti on offices, shops, churches, retired olympic stadiums, and any traffic sign you could see on the roads. After the financial breakdown, the adolescents took to the streets and began a massive campaign to invigorate the economy, a noble goal, but they didn't apply the principles of civil disobedience and civil participation to fix what they perceived to be an insurmountable problem.

In our classrooms we discuss leadership: how to engage each other through decision making, communication, and participation in our communities. I would like to shift our focus for a second to the situation on the ground in Athens. We see graffiti, we see everyday citizens stealing for stores, and evading taxes. In Greece, the average doctor and lawyer declare to make less money than a public school teacher-- an indication that these professionals are lying on their tax forms. We see a general decline of civil society in Athens in the wake of financial insolvency and a negation of leadership from numerous people. As we teach and learn, I believe it is important to remember the implications of leadership. Ideally, we all can relay the troops and begin a wave towards a peaceful world. While this goal is worth the effort, realistically, it would suffice to have involved citizens who lead on a daily basis. By teaching students how to communicate and how to become personal leaders, we provide a great service to the civil society in the United States. We foster leadership, and by extension, we empower students to immerse themselves in the active change of society; we try to demonstrate to students that they have the ability, and the obligation, to correct any harm they may see in society.

Using the principles of leadership I believe our curriculum provides, students can better understand why it may not always be justified to take to the streets before looking into what they can do now. While I like to see a little rioting every now and then, I love to see everyday leaders placing the burden of civic engagement on their shoulders. I love seeing a group of kids with sponges and water buckets cleaning off the graffiti and beautifying their city. I hope to see everyone lead their own way through the difficult times we face; I hope to see us never forget that a democracy depends on involved citizen leaders.

-Social Outreach

[post by Frank Maldonado

Inspiration

To start the weekend off, here are a few quotations about different types of leadership

• "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader"

• "Leadership is action, not position"

• "Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination"

• "Don't tell people how to do things; tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results" -George S. Patton
  

• "The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet." -Theodore M. Hesburgh

Week Five Update

Here is what we have been up to...enjoy!

Yes We Can Plan It...How NOT to Procrastinate

Greetings from the Edwards Middle School!

We have hit the half-way mark in our apprenticeship this week and are now moving from learning leadership skills to applying them with our WOW! projects.

• We started our day outside (what a beautiful day!) with a partner game. We stood back-to-back as one person drew some sort of figure on a piece of paper. That person then had to describe what he just drew to his partner without peeking. Success all around! Some found it easy, and some found it hard, but it definitely connected the ideas of communication (last week) to reliability (this week) for all!
• Coming back inside and leaving the sun behind was difficult, but we all enjoyed the pickle jar theory too much to regret the transition. We worked in our WOW! groups to put sugar, marbles and pretzel bites into a container. We were all amazed that only the reverse order would allow us to close the lid. With the teachers, we discussed how these materials represent the different priorities in our lives - homework, chores, talking to friends, shopping, and watching television. We talked about wanting to do everything and being able to when we did the most important tasks (the pretzel bites) first.
• Next we came together as a group to add another word to our vocabulary list - procrastination. We recognized that we all do it and then came up with solutions to fight it. This was perhaps the hardest part of the lesson, but if we wanted to be able to prioritize efficiently, we knew this was necessary.
• Now we were ready to apply all this to our WOW! projects. We broke out into our groups to assemble an action plan. We brainstormed the "what," the "who" and the "time" of each small part of our larger mission so that we can prioritize and accomplish our goals on time. It was amazing to see just how much work goes into these projects! And we were all impressed with each other's ideas. We are feeling organized and dressed for success!

We are looking forward to the exciting weeks ahead as we continue to plan, create and finally present our WOW! projects. Everything is starting to take shape, and it all looks mighty impressive!

Week 4 at Edwards: Communication

Clarity, Confidence, and Persuasion.

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These are the three elements that the kids at Edwards Middle School learned about this week with the Social Outreach Team. We had a great time delving into what makes a good communicator, and putting that knowledge into practice through a couple of hands-on activities:

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· After our opening rituals, we kicked off the day by playing the “lava pit” game in the great outdoors (check out the pictures below!). We taped pieces of paper on the ground, and the kids made it their mission to get from one end of the path to the other. Half were blindfolded while the other half used words to communicate to their blindfolded counterparts. It was a great game, and the kids definitely enjoyed being outside. And to make things even better, they had some pretty insightful things to say in our discussion about what they learned from the game.

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· Next, the kids worked on infomercials – an exciting and entertaining activity. Their goal was to present a pitch for their WOW! projects to an audience (American Idol-style judges) in a way that reflected effective communication and creativity. This is where clarity, confidence, and persuasion came in. The first group performed a skit endorsing the opportunity to have a study hall while the second promoted healthier conditions at school by making soap and hand sanitizer more available.

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All in all, this week was a fantastic success. The kids have never had more energy or shown as much enthusiasm for anything that we have learned. They are growing right before our eyes.

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All the best,

The Social Outreach Team

[Posted by Ujunwa Anakwenze]

Yes We Can Sell It...Informercial-ing 101

Blindfolds and lava pits and D as Simon Cowell! Oh my! Enjoy this pictorial narrative of Week 4, and get excited (ahem, more excited) about our upcoming WOW! projects. What a ride! (Certainly beats a monkey and munchkin-lined yellow brick road)

On this beautiful day:

Back in the classroom:

Group Huddle Before Heading Home!

Week 3 Update

After the kids took a week off for a February break, we were back at Edwards Middle School for the Week 3 curriculum. The children are really starting to get excited about their WOW! Projects and started brainstorming different ideas this week. Here are a few more updates:

Week 3: Vision, Mission, and Goal Setting

• Emily helped start up class with a game that had each of the kids tell what they did that week. Relationship building is a huge part of our curriculum.
• Ujunwa and Melanie led the kids in watching short clips about different companies (Google, and Pepsi) who have visions, missions, and goals. The kids broke into small groups where they discussed the difference between these and why each is important in having effective planning and leadership.
• Dalumuzi had the kids watch a clip of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. He discussed how people can have visions, missions, and goals as well. The kids brainstormed what their goals were for the future.
• Reid took the kids through a game that focused on careers. The kids had to come up with missions and goals for each career that was a part of the game.
• Sheba closed class by presenting a short slide presentation about last year’s WOW! Projects. She then led a discussion on Edwards Middle School with the kids about how they could improve their school.
• Some of their ideas included getting more soap into the bathrooms, to stop bullying from older children, and providing cheaper school supplies. They also dreamed big with ideas of shortening the school day and eliminating school uniforms.
  
  
  

Week 3 was a huge success, because of all of the hard work that the members of the Social Outreach Team put into it’s preparation. The kids are really starting to enjoy the program and are catching the “Yes We Can” attitude.

Sincerely, The Social Outreach Team

YES WE CAN LEAD

Today at Citizen Schools: