Yesterday
Ms. Almandrez informed us class was going to start at 9:30 AM instead of 9:00
AM. In my head I was excited to sleep in an extra 30 minutes and get ready
after everyone had because their classes were not pushed back. I did forget
that my roommate still had to wake up at 6:00 AM to get ready so I was woken up
by her alarm. Although I missed out on the extra sleep time I still felt well
rested.
When we
arrived to class we began discussing the issues around intersectionality. Which
boils down to having characterizations that overlap or intersect that lead to
discriminations. Before class we watched a Ted Talk video on the subject that
gave us an example of an African American woman who was applying to a job. Now
the company had hired African American males and Caucasian women, but never an
African American woman. Due to the fact
the judge never had the notion being both African American and a women doubled
the ways to be discriminated by.
Left to right: Thea, Ashley, Me, and Kelsey (My Group) |
After that
she had us make a list of three things from the list of Big 7. Now the Big 7
are class, gender, sexuality, race, religion, ability, and age. We picked 3
that we believed impacted us the most. After being split into our groups we
began explaining how they affected us. After explaining with in groups Ms.
Almandrez asked us to switch papers and cross out something on someone else
list. After handing the papers back to the original owner we discussed how it
would be different if what had been crossed off wasn’t a factor.
This exercise
was eye opening because taking out something that made me the way I am most
likely left me a completely different person.
And hearing how it affected everyone else’s life just showed who we are
because of our challenged not specifically our successes even though they do play
a role. As well as this showed how comfortable the class was with each other.
After we
finished our discussion we walked to the Congdon Street Baptist Church. In 1986
the African American Pembroke students walked out of class to the Congdon
Street Baptist Church. The intent for the walk was to bring attention to the
Pembroke admissions attitude. The walk out lead to the school to create 12
points which includes: hiring three more African American administrators, a
wavier for the application fee, and not forcing interviews.
After
heading to grab lunch we went to the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center. We went in and
the center is located in a house giving off a home feeling right when one walks
in. The center is home to many books on the issues of being a woman which I found
so amazing. The space is a safe space where they can be themselves. We held a
small group discussion on how it made us feel which was nice because I saw that
many thought the same way I did.
After that
we headed to an activity called Listening Skills. The lecture was led by Robin
Rose who started the Leadership Institute for high schoolers. During the
lecture we learned about the important of listening and how to become good
listeners. We practiced listening while asking open ended questions, being
aware of hand gestures, as well as summarizing. When I was the talker and the
listener did the three things I felt like they were interested in what I was
talking about and that they were actually following along. This felt like what
I was saying mattered
Next we had our first LI Workshop on NSEW: Leadership Styles. During this time we were told about four different leaders North, South, East, and West.
Kelsey, Esmeralda, Robin and Zunarah |
Next we had our first LI Workshop on NSEW: Leadership Styles. During this time we were told about four different leaders North, South, East, and West.
- North was more of an assertive leader
- South was an emotion leader who took everyone’s opinion into consideration
- East were the big dreamers who visualize the big picture
- West is seen as being practical and dependable
They then
asked us questions and asked us what type of leader we would be in that
situation. I always ended up being in West. Personally I would like to be in
situations that I am all of them (it wasn’t an option to stand in the middle, I
tried) but I always found myself being dependable. Later they asked which one
we thought we connected to the most and for me I thought I belonged in the
South. Not necessarily the emotional aspect but being a type of leader that
takes every ones opinion and trying to find a compromise.
The thing I found
the coolest is that in the end each of us(ILCers) found ourselves at a different
point on the compass. This how’s that we are different but complement each
other’s weaknesses which I found very eye opening.
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