Whether or not people are willing to admit it, we all hold biases or personal perceptions about other cultures/people based on our environment. Things like racism, classism, and ableism are learned behaviors. Since coming to Mason through the Student Transition Empowerment Program (STEP), I’ve been developing my cultural competency by interacting with very diverse groups of students and I’ve learned a lot about my own identity and privileges. In STEP, I discovered by Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which was extremely useful for my self-development because it helped me understand my decision-making process and why it is I do what I do. With this newfound knowledge of the MBTI, I was able to better communicate with people and understand where they were coming from when I learned their MBTI.
Because I had such a great experience in the STEP program, I decided to apply to work at the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Multicultural Education (ODIME) as an office assistant. One of my roles as an office assistant was to open the office and find local, national, and international news articles to display on the television. This exercise pushed me to become a more informed citizen and exposed me to the issues different communities were encountering around the state, US, and world, which I thought was fascinating. Searching for the daily news articles became one of my favorite parts of working in the morning, and now I listen to NPR every morning on my drive to Mason.
It was through ODIME that I was introduced to the LEAD Office. After my first year of working there, I was asked by Teejay Brown whether I’d be interested in attending LeaderShape (now The Institute). LeaderShape was another amazing experience where I met so students leaders people that I never would have interacted with otherwise. During the program, I didn’t really have a specific “purpose” so it was hard to do all the workshops on developing my vision, but I realized the important of having one and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
My cluster facilitator Avery inspired me to be vulnerable and open when forming relationships because she was so open with us. Towards the end of the week, my cluster was challenged to talk to more people. Avery encouraged us to reach out to more people and stop being afraid of people not reciprocating kindness, because most people generally want to make connections. Throughout the program, I was constantly challenged by my peers and my cluster family to stretch outside my comfort zone. Because I had grown so closely with my cluster family, I was super comfortable and learned how to be confident in myself. The whole experience allowed me to gain a lot of confidence, and I never would have imagined that I would have been the protagonist in our skit on the last day.
“You get what you give” is one of the biggest lessons that I gained from attending LeaderShape. It’s okay to look stupid, it’s okay to put yourself out there. This is still something that I need to be constantly reminded of and to continue working on in my role as a Mason student leader. After LeaderShape, I continued signing up for LEAD programs because I knew that I could gain a lot from them (i.e. Active Leaders, President’s Leadership Seminar, Ethics and Leadership), and that’s how I’m here now as an LC.
