"I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people." - Mohandas Gandhi 

I chose this quote because I feel it is so true in any situation, and particularly in Summit. We definitely all get along, but it's important to remember that relationships of any sort require compromise, and to be a leader in a Summit project requires the ability to get along with your roommates and work together as a unit.
In my Music Therapy in Developmental Disabilities course, our professor made the comment that the most significant problems in life are not academic, but social. In leadership, having social skills is vital to being effective.
In our project, we visited Ravenwood last Saturday, and those social skills did come in handy! Some of our main topics of conversation were the resident's former careers and how they met their husband. I'm a complete sap, so it was fun to hear some of their love stories. I throughly enjoyed getting to know a few of them, and looking forward to going back!

Leading by example

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” -John C. Maxwell

This quote is one that describes my leadership style quite well because I do my best to lead by example whenever possible. People are oftentimes not receptive to receiving overwhelming instructions and I think leaders lose their validity when they are simply giving instructions and not completing the tasks themselves as well. Another way of explaining my leadership style that goes nicely with Maxwell's quote is, "You must be the change you want to see in the world. -Mahatma Gandhi" I believe in order to be a great leader one must be passionate about the topic and go above and beyond however possible so that the followers will be more inclined to listen and respect their leader. My leadership style is to lead by example.
In other news, our Ravenwood project is going swimmingly! I enjoyed myself very much when we volunteered by painting pumpkins with the residents next Saturday. We had another Drury student join us as well, which is exciting since part of our mission is to recruit more Drury volunteers. I loved socializing with the residents and am looking forward to our future visits and building relationships with these phenomenal ladies.

Leadership

"This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized Everybody wouldn't do it. So Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done."

Our assignment was to pick a quote that best described our leadership style or our approach to leadership. I picked this quote/poem because it seems like this scenario happens a lot in groups, nobody wants to accept the leadership role and coordinate who does what and when. Therefore, at the end nothing gets done. So, when I'm in a group or working on a project I try to make a conscience effort to know who in the project is doing what and when the deadlines are. Which speaking of deadlines, that is what my biggest problem has been so far, I can see Christmas break sneaking up on us! The whole planning aspect in this project is what is giving me the most stress. I'm the calendar coordinator, so trying to find a date when everyone is available to volunteer is a little difficult when you are dealing with three involved college students. The most stressful part about the planning is that any event date is subject to change, so it is hard to plan too far in advanced. However, if we don't have potential weekends marked on the calendar then something will be planned on every weekend. It's an endless cycle!

While planning the event dates are a little bit of a stressor, we did have our first event last weekend! We all went to Ravenwood and painted pumpkins with the residents. I had a great time and really enjoyed getting to meet all the residents for the first time. My favorite part of this event was getting to hear all the stories that the residents had to tell us. For example, one woman named Shirley, told us about her life living in the small town of Dearborne. We also got to learn how another woman met her husband at a hoedown. I had a great time and loved decorating the pumpkins to set around the facility! I'm excited to plan another event with Brittany and Candace!

Where it all started...

Hello all! Everything has been going swimmingly in the Ravenwood Assisted living Summit group. I am so excited that our dream has become a reality. The application process was quite a feat and now we are here to help Ravenwood!

I chose to live in Summit because I wanted to be a more active community volunteer and attempt to have a positive impact on people’s lives. I thought it was such a neat opportunity that I jumped at the chance to be a part of it. I enjoyed the thought of being committed to an organization for an entire year so that you could form relationships with those that you are volunteering with. Summit was also appealing because the budget provided to us allows us to go a lot farther in helping Ravenwood than what would have been possible without these funds.

I am so excited to volunteer at Ravenwood! Our on campus event with the viewing of Andrew Jenks, Room 335 was such a smashing success and got everyone pumped to volunteer with us. The documentary gave a look into what we may encounter while working at Ravenwood and what we can look forward to. It was awesome to see so many potential Drury volunteers with us curious about our plans for Ravenwood. It’s going to be a great year getting to know the residents, and I can hardly wait!

--Brittany

Hello faithful blog readers!

So, our group has settled into Summit and we're loving it! As a former Smith Hall resident, I really enjoy having my own room, and a kitchen to cook meals in. But moreover, I'm getting excited for our project!

As a senior in high school looking at Drury, I scoured the website trying to find out all I could about what it was like to be a Drury student. One of the things I stumbled upon was the page about Summit, and I thought it sounded so cool. I loved the idea of living in a community of students who were actively trying to better the Springfield area by partnering with an organization. It's an incredible opportunity for those who put in effort.

When our group was deciding on a project, we decided we wanted it to be centered around people, as opposed to animals or the environment. I am so excited to be working with Ravenwood Assisted Living; I can't wait to build relationships with the residents and do fun activities together. So far, we've held a movie and pizza night to recruit volunteers for the project, and it was a success! We had about 15 people there, and we watched Andrew Jenks, Room 335, a documentary about a 19 year-old guy who lives in an assisted living facility for a month as sort of a social experiment. It was a great movie - heartwarming, thought-provoking, and funny. We had some people who were planning to only stay about 20 minutes, but got so caught up in the film that they stayed the whole time. Watching the movie also got Katie, Brittany and I psyched for our project. We can't wait for our first event, coming up soon, which is a birdhouse painting party! I look forward to a great year of Summit.

- Candace