Diversity Event: Religious Freedom for All

     Last night, I attended the Veritas Forum event Religious Freedom for All: Living Together with our Deepest Differences led by Os Guinness. Os Guinness is a world renown author and lecturer as he was born in China, studied in England, and now travels the world speaking about religious freedom. Although parts of the lecture were kind of confusing and a little bit over my head, I enjoyed the parts that I did understand and agreed with what he said about having tolerance and caring for all people despite what their religious beliefs are.
      Os started the lecture out by talking about how diversity is everywhere these days due to the accessibility and ease of travel, media, and mass communication. This is a good thing, but it does cause some problems in terms of religious freedom. A second issue is that people aren't willing to change some of the old time traditions that may be outdated. In this area, he specifically pointed out the separation of church and state. In the older days, a public square was defined as an area where everyone would gather to discuss issues of common public life. Some examples of public squares around the world include Capitol Hill in America and Buckingham Palace in England. Public squares have since turned from these set places to newspapers and radio shows and today, they are now viral because of social media. That sets up the third issue of today's world where people are now degrading others more easily because of the ability to remain anonymous whereas in past times, you had to brave enough to say something yourself in front of hundreds of people and not behind a computer screen.
       Os then shifted and discussed the differences between religious freedom, freedom of worship, and freedom of conscience. Basically, he said religious freedom isn't the same as freedom of worship and everyone has freedom of conscience because there are no mind readers. Finally, he started to discuss some of the solutions to this big problem. The first solution was to have a civil public square where everyone can talk about their religion. He defined civility as a virtue and duty of all citizens to care for others and tolerate indifference.
        This lecture was a great extension to what I read in chapter 3 in our book and what we discussed a couple of weeks ago in lecture. I do not expect to have students in my group next fall that will all be of the same religion. In fact, some may not be religious at all and that's okay. This lecture helped me remember that my religion, beliefs, and values are mine and no one else's and that there is no need for me to push them onto someone else who has their own. It also helped me learn that my generation, or what Os called the "Crunch Generation" is going to have the most impact on how religious freedom grows through the next few years.
        Overall, it was an interesting lecture that challenged me to think about my own religious beliefs and how different they are from all people across the world and how it is possible to all live together in peace if we can open up a few more minds.

Interpersonal Communication

             Last Thursday in lecture, we talked about interpersonal communication and the many ways that it differs from advice giving. Although there will be times when advice giving is important, like when a clear answer is known, developing strong interpersonal communication skills will be even more crucial while we are peer mentors. Personally, my number one goal as a peer mentor is to create an open environment for my mentees so that I can really get to  know them and help them through their transition into being an independent college student. This goal is going to take a lot of interpersonal communication skills like listening and asking questions to get accomplished.

          I think that I already possess some interpersonal skills already, particularly good listening. However, the skill that I am most worried about and know that I need to develop is to not jump the gun and just give them advice. After reading this chapter and discussing in class, I now know how critical that skill will be to help the freshmen learn about themselves and allow them to become more independent. I loved when Chelsee said that the freshmen need to start figuring things out on their own. I remember how lost I felt first semester last year, but now I pretty much feel like I have everything figured out; I know I wouldn't be like that if I had been spoon fed all the answers freshman year. I think the same thing can be said about being a peer mentor as well. I'm still a little lost when it comes to knowing exactly what to expect and I don't expect to know everything until I've gone through the experience. This uncertainty will allow us to grow. Fortunately,  we have this whole semester to get us a little prepared. I particularly like when we have the chance to practice different situations with each other in class to start creating an inventory of ideas about different common issues.

        Finally,  I think the importance of referrals needs to be stressed. I think a lot of us feel like we absolutely need to help our students no matter what and although that's a great attitude to have, we should not be afraid to send them to someone else if we know that they would be served better elsewhere. Some of the situations that the book brought up were when the complexity of the problem is over your head or when your own personal problems and biases may interfere. I believe that the having the knowledge of knowing when to help and when to step back and let someone else help is another aspect of interpersonal communication that should be respected as much as the others. 

   

No Two the Same

            Being from a small town in eastern Iowa, I wasn't able to experience cultural diversity until I came to Iowa State. However with that being said, I never had a problem with the adaptation. In fact, I thought that some of the sections on Chelsee's worksheet were difficult. I honestly had no preconceived prejudices or stereotypes for people in my country or international people. I've always felt strongly about treating everyone equal and that you should never make assumptions about a person because of what they look like, what they believe in, or what they value most. This is exceptionally important to remember because next year we will have mentees that may seem a lot alike because they are all from Iowa. However, it's crucial that we, as peer mentors, recognize that each mentee is different and will need different things from us.
            The section of the chapter that had the most effect on me was about 'colorblindness'. I have been in many situations where leaders would say something like "we are all the same, it doesn't matter if you're white, black, pink, or purple" and it never really made me think that that could offend or irritate others, but it makes sense to me now. It is totally okay to acknowledge that we aren't all the same and that we can learn a lot about others if we don't try to pretend that the diversity doesn't exist. 
            My favorite part of lecture this week was Josh's activity based around the idea of thinking outside of the box. Like I previously mentioned, each one of our mentees is going to need us in various unique ways. Some of the issues may be easy for us to deal with, but others may test us. Thinking outside of the box is going to be necessary and will not only benefit our mentees, but will help develop our leadership and problem solving skills as well.
           Finally, on another note, I thought that the Coca-Cola commercial was beautiful and incredibly meaningful. Thursday was the first time that I had seen the commercial, but I had seen negative tweets about it. I wish I had known what the commercial was about when my friends were tweeting about it so I could have reminded them that America is made up of so many cultures and that we technically have no national language. Sometimes I think people are entirely to quick to make remarks and not really think about what they are saying and who they could be offending. It is important that we look at things more big picture and remember that we are all different, which is perfectly fine!

Iowa State Leadership Experience

                The ISLE conference was unlike most leadership conferences that I have attended in the past. It was much more interactive and upbeat. I thought this was a great approach to leadership as these are two characteristics that we need to have when we are leading our mentees.
              The first session that I attended was the keynote speaker, Delatorro McNeal II, and he was awesome! I could tell that he was happy to be there and wanted us to have fun too. He used popular movies, like Pitch Perfect and Gridiron Gang, to relate back to how to be successful leaders and college students. He had so much useful information to tell us that I'm sure he could have gone on for hours. My favorite things that he said include, "mentors love you too much to leave you the way that you are" and "you need diversity to have harmony because if two people are the same, one is unnecessary". I love the first one because it inspired me to loudly push people instead of quietly leading by example. This is going to be crucial with the freshmen Hixson next fall; I'm going to have to tell them and push them to keep doing better whether it be with academics or their personal life. Delatorro also mentioned how creating challenges was a way to be leader and I can see myself using that as a way to help freshmen solve problems. For example, if they are having a tough time with homesickness, I could challenge them to attending one club meeting that week of their choice and try to get them more involved and meet new people. Secondly, I liked the other quote because although all of our students will come from the same Iowa background, they will all be unique and it is critical that we embrace that.
              The second session that I attended was called "U ZOO". It was lead by an Iowa State senior which I enjoyed because she is more of a peer to me. As we walked in, we were given a worksheet to complete similar to the MTBI online assessment where we had to rank how certain characteristics described us. This resulted in seeing what "animal" we were. I was a strong koala. From there, we were asked to create an event with our fellow strong animals. The task was very vague so really we could take it in any direction we wanted. Meanwhile, she went back to the audience and told them exactly what we would do based on our animals and prepped them to ask us questions about our event; we didn't know she was doing this! In the end, according to the audience, she was spot on with each one. For the koalas, she said we would be very kind and want to include everyone while keeping them comfortable. We had many plan B's! It was a very interactive session and flew by. As we left, we were given a follow-up packet to read that described how each animal most often behaved, what we are motivated by, and how we could improve on our leadership skills. I can see this a fun activity to use in our lesson plans as a way to supplement MBTI in the fall!
            Overall, I had a fun time at ISLE. It was a great way to hang out with some of the other Hixson peer mentors and get to know them more over the lunch break.
          

Forever an ESFJ

          Step 2 of the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator revealed that like Step 1, I am still an extraversion, sensing, feeling, and judging person. Surprisingly, this was the same type as four other peer mentors! I may have been skeptical of this personality test before, but now that I have gone through the evaluation twice and read through the facets, I'm a believer. This personality type seems to fit me well and will be incredibly beneficial in getting to know more about the ways that interact with others and learn.
           The first facet of this interpretive report breaks down why I am a clear extravert. Four of my five facets were in preference while just one, active-reflection, was midzone. I can see where I am both an active and reflective person. I am comfortable with participating in an activity, but if I'm needed to sit back and observe, that's fine too. When it comes to my learning, I'm more of a person that just needs to sit down alone and study. Interactive activities don't particularly help me like others. My strongest area of extraversion was being initiating; I know I use this a lot when I am around old and new friends. I try to introduce everyone and help the group mesh!
          The distinction between sensing and intuition was a little less clear for me as I was just in the moderate category. To be honest, I thought I would have been very clear in this category because I hate abstract ideas. Memorizing facts and concepts is how I do well in school so I was surprised when I wasn't a 5 under the concrete facet. Additionally, in this section I had one area where I was out of preference; I was more conceptual than practical. After reading some of the descriptions under that set, I'm not sure how I feel about it. For example, it says that I probably would rather have an academic career in my profession instead of being a practitioner. I can tell you right now that I will most definitely be out practicing dietetics in healthcare settings and not researching or teaching about it!
          I felt no surprise when I was a feeling person yet again. I've always been the more caring, make sure no one gets left out kind of person. I'm a listener as well and will always try to empathize and accept everyone. Although I came from a small town with almost no cultural diversity, I've always been accepting of everyone and have never questioned it. Finally, I thought it was interesting that I was midzone for tough and tender, but again, that describes me perfectly. For example, I had a friend in high school that I worked with that started to hang out with the wrong crowd. Initially, I was kind of mean about and basically told him, with authority that I didn't have, that he couldn't hang out with them anymore. But then, realizing that I shouldn't have been so tough, I took the nicer route and told him that he should come hang out with my friends and I instead sometime. I'm definitely a pusher when I think people aren't living up to their fullest potential, but I'm working on being nicer about it.
          Lastly, I am judging person, but not a judgmental person! I like having a routine and being organized. Shockingly, I'm not a planner person though; I just have a giant calendar on my computer that I use for things for writing down quizzes and exams. I rely on my memory for every day assignments. I'm definitely not the most spontaneous person and waiting until the last minute to do things makes me anxious. On the other hand though, I will say that I am an expert procrastinator and almost always regret all the time that I waste, another thing I'm working on and getting better at.
           In conclusion, I liked what Debra said in class when she said everything is situational and how she used the bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom analogy to describe how we will have to be different almost all the time in order to get things done. However, in a perfect world, I think it is accurate to say that I would be most successful when I am able to be a sensing, feeling, and judging extravert!