Semester Wrap-Up

Although I took this class just as an elective I feel like it was a really worth while. Small group communication is something a person in every profession will have to use. I know that many of my classes, in both engineering and technology, have included small group project. Personally I wish that I had taken this class a lot earlier in my college career. All the topics discussed in that class I can relate to. Also after going through many job interviews I realized that topics in this class are very important to employers. In fact, many of the interviews for engineering internships I have applied for focused more on my communication skills and teamwork than my technical knowledge. Things we have learned in this class such as group dynamics, leadership, setting goals, and creativity are skills that I will use for the rest of my life. Being able to apply these skills in this class has been a great learning experience. The service learning project was a great experience, not only in group work but working with a professional organization. Overall this class is teaching topics useful to everyone in every discipline, I am really glad I chose to take it.

-George Vauter

Almost Done

It seems crazy to think that the semester is almost over, but it is. As the last couple weeks are coming up, it's going to be busy. I'm just glad that the group project in this class is just about done. I wish it were the same for my other classes. It's been really nice working with this group. Thanks every body for not waiting until the last second to work on it.

-David Hoff

Another Look at Our Mission Statement

I was thinking about how well our group did this semester and how much fun we had at the Boys and Girls Club. Then I started to think about what we originally intended to do with this project, so I look at our mission statement.

Our Mission Statement

As a team we strive to efficiently and effectively complete our goal of service to the community while completing all class requirements. Our first responsibility is to uphold the standards of the team to achieve our goal. As a working group we will support our organization and team members with integrity and a willingness to do our part.

Looking back at this statement, I think we did a great job of fulfilling each part of our mission statement. We always stay on task at our meeting and use our time wisely. We were very efficient with our work and utilized everyone's skills and abilities effectively. I think we have completely all the class objective for our group. We received high grades on all our assignements and put forth a lot of effort on all our projects.
I think our team was held to very high standards and acted accordingly. We treated our service project with a strong attitude and acted professional with the Boys and Girls Club. We took advantage of the grant opportunity and put that money to good use. We upheld the standards of the team in all situations and achieved our goals. We came together as a group to support our organization and all member took responsibility for their parts. We kept to our mission statement to make our group successful in all our goals and conducted a great service learning project.

-By: Geroge Vauter

Accomplished Semester

After more than 10 weeks completed in the semester, it seems to have gone by very quickly. Because of this, it seems like we have not done much, but working on the final presentation for our group service project I have seen how much we have actually done. Jasmine told us our presentation had to be 40 minutes and this is the longest presentation I have ever had to do. Now that our group had rounded up the information we will need to cover, that will not be a problem.

Going back to the beginning of the project, we had an in depth proposal to our project. Then we had to make quite a few changes to get the project to be beneficial to all parties involved. Then when the day came, we ran into some challenges with the weather and time change at the last second. This has been a lot to do and will give us a lot of material for our presentation. While things have not been perfect for our group, it has gone well and we have managed to work our way through the challenges.

By: Ben Schnepp

Evolution of a Team

In reflecting on how our team has evolved I am very proud of us. We started out not know what to do or how our group should function, but we work together very well. In the begining we did often conform to group think in the essence of time. We have become much better at stating what we really think and how we feel. This was evident when we were working on our final presentation for our project. I remember when we put together our first presentation and it took quite awhile. That is because we didn't want to step on any one's toes so no one would make a decision or take charge.

Now we have fit into our leadership roles and people understand what is needed from them. We are a more efficient team and our work is higher quality. We see a challenge (like putting together a presentation) form a plan to get it done, and then go to work. We still don't do a lot of brainstorming but our ideas are still creative and sharp. Our group has worked well since the beginning and while we occasionally lose participation we work together even better. Our creativity comes from talking and joking until someone throughs out an idea, often as a joke but the whole group likes it and runs with it.

-Christy Penner

Leading by Example

"The best example of leadership, is leadership by example."
- Jerry McClain of Seattle, WA

I found this quote online are really liked it. I think it is a very true statement about leadership. When I thought about all the major leaders in my life I realized that many of the things they through me where through example. A really good example that supports this quote is professional athletes. Almost everyone I know, including myself, looks up to many professional athletes. People look at Tiger Woods and study his golf swing because they want to be able to hit the ball like him. Bret Farve is a leader for quarterbacks everywhere because he has set an incredible example of what is possible and many people strive to become as good as he is. Michael Jordan was a huge influence in professional basketball and became a leader to all his fans, teammates, and basketball players of all levels. People pay a lot of money to go see these athletes play and buy their jerseys or use the same brands of athletic equipment as they do. These athletic leaders make millions of dollars endorsing products because companies know people look up to these athletes and will follow the example they set. Many of these athletes associate with charity groups, and some pro's like Phil Mickelson, even start their own charity foundations. I think it is pretty interesting how much we can look up to someone we have never even met. Professional athletes will always be leaders in our society and there will always be fans that idolize these athletes.

By George Vauter

Why Learn About Leadership?

In class this past week, we learned about leadership and what it takes to be a leader. We learned how being a leader meant that you had to be able to assign tasks as well as get feedback from those you lead. This is very important because many times the people doing the work may know, or notice something that you do not. The leader must also be strong in front of the workers but not scare them.

The most important thing to do is to choose a leadership style that suites you best. In class we did several activities that allowed us as a group to evaluate each other. This is very important since we have been in our groups for two months now and have experience working with each other.

Finally, many ask why it is so important to be a good leader and the answer is simple. We are in school to get a higher education, and this education will put us into leadership positions. Every place we work will have a hierarchy of command and no one will want to be on the bottom of that, so we will need to lead at least some people. Class has but given us some tools to be leaders, when we get the chance to, we just need to use them.

By:Ben Schnepp