2015 Year in Review
My second year at UC was packed with experiences, honors-sanctioned and otherwise. Looking back, it’s actually amazing to think of all the opportunities with which I was blessed and how they’ve challenged me to grow.
I completed four Honors experiences in the past year, all of which had their own unique experience(s) attached. Last summer, I took an honors section of intermediate composition that only had five students in it. Last fall, I participated in an honors seminar that allowed me to take my first trip out of the country, to London and Cambridge in December 2014. And in the spring, I took the K-12 education reform seminar “Save Our Schools” while concurrently completing the ROAR Tour Guide pre-approved Accelerated Leadership Development Program.
Aside from my direct honors experiences, I engaged the UC community and other communities in many ways that often were threaded by two of my strongest passions: higher education and development.
I’ve worked regularly in the President’s Office for the whole year, and recently taken on greater responsibility by proposing and working toward the completion of my own, self-directed project in that office designed to improve the experience our student associate program provides.
Further, I joined ROAR Tour Guides, which was a goal that I’ve had since setting foot onto UC’s campus. I love this university a great deal, and am proud to now be able to show it off on tours to prospective guests and their families.
In March, I had an amazing opportunity to travel to the Statehouse in Columbus and meet with state legislators to discuss issues in higher education and lobby on behalf of UC with President Ono and other student representatives. This, coupled with the end-of-semester symposium with state legislators in Save Our Schools, provided me two key experiences in public speaking and government.
I finished my term on the executive board of my fraternity, and have since engaged that community locally and nationally in several ways. I have had the opportunity to facilitate to sessions of EDGE, which is a new member retreat put on by the national fraternity each semester for new brothers to attend. I also traveled to Chicago to attend the Carlson Leadership Academy, the second step along the national leadership continuum. And finally, just this past month, I was blessed to attend the Ruck Leadership Institute at the University of Richmond, the birthplace of Sigma Phi Epsilon, alongside 154 other SigEps from across the nation.
The year didn’t come without its failures as well. And, quite honestly, I experienced more “failure” this year than I have across any other period of time in my life. I ran for two separate positions on the executive board of SigEp, and lost both of those elections. I was unsuccessful in my application for the undergraduate student trustee position on the Board of Trustees at UC. And finally, I was not able to successfully co-op at CincyTech downtown, which is a company that truly interested me because of the work it does and the opportunities I think it would have given me.
That being said, there are several things that I believe I can do from this point moving forward. As I prepare for the remainder of my undergraduate career, I would say that I’ve learned a lot about failure in the past year. And in short, I’ve learned that it isn’t as bad as I might have perceived it to be beforehand.
Mind you, there is a key distinction to be made about the type of failure with which I’ve become more comfortable. This year, I threw my hat into the ring at some pretty lofty ambitions, and I wasn’t successful at all of them. However, what I’ve learned to apply moving forward is that getting a tremendous opportunity one out of 10 times is worth the nine experiences with failure, because they help pave the way for growth and for, ultimately, the one success.
This year, I’ve realized how strongly I feel about the development of college students, and will continue to commit my time and talents moving forward to pursuing that passion academically, professionally, and personally.
Nearly all of my current roles and responsibilities and involvements focus on this area of development. With my fraternity I’ve worked to establish a new program alongside several of my brothers that accomplishes these goals. I’ve also been named a co-director of a new campus leadership program called the Emerging Campus Leaders program that seeks to fill many of these same goals.
As I move into my third year here at UC, I’ve reached a tipping point of sorts. Thus far, I’ve reaped the benefits of many opportunities to grow in all aspects of my life. Now, while I will still partake in a number of those opportunities and seek to continuously improve myself, it is also time for me to focus more fully and more directly on serving the community around me to help others grow and improve in my next few years at UC.
I completed four Honors experiences in the past year, all of which had their own unique experience(s) attached. Last summer, I took an honors section of intermediate composition that only had five students in it. Last fall, I participated in an honors seminar that allowed me to take my first trip out of the country, to London and Cambridge in December 2014. And in the spring, I took the K-12 education reform seminar “Save Our Schools” while concurrently completing the ROAR Tour Guide pre-approved Accelerated Leadership Development Program.
Aside from my direct honors experiences, I engaged the UC community and other communities in many ways that often were threaded by two of my strongest passions: higher education and development.
I’ve worked regularly in the President’s Office for the whole year, and recently taken on greater responsibility by proposing and working toward the completion of my own, self-directed project in that office designed to improve the experience our student associate program provides.
Further, I joined ROAR Tour Guides, which was a goal that I’ve had since setting foot onto UC’s campus. I love this university a great deal, and am proud to now be able to show it off on tours to prospective guests and their families.
In March, I had an amazing opportunity to travel to the Statehouse in Columbus and meet with state legislators to discuss issues in higher education and lobby on behalf of UC with President Ono and other student representatives. This, coupled with the end-of-semester symposium with state legislators in Save Our Schools, provided me two key experiences in public speaking and government.
I finished my term on the executive board of my fraternity, and have since engaged that community locally and nationally in several ways. I have had the opportunity to facilitate to sessions of EDGE, which is a new member retreat put on by the national fraternity each semester for new brothers to attend. I also traveled to Chicago to attend the Carlson Leadership Academy, the second step along the national leadership continuum. And finally, just this past month, I was blessed to attend the Ruck Leadership Institute at the University of Richmond, the birthplace of Sigma Phi Epsilon, alongside 154 other SigEps from across the nation.
The year didn’t come without its failures as well. And, quite honestly, I experienced more “failure” this year than I have across any other period of time in my life. I ran for two separate positions on the executive board of SigEp, and lost both of those elections. I was unsuccessful in my application for the undergraduate student trustee position on the Board of Trustees at UC. And finally, I was not able to successfully co-op at CincyTech downtown, which is a company that truly interested me because of the work it does and the opportunities I think it would have given me.
That being said, there are several things that I believe I can do from this point moving forward. As I prepare for the remainder of my undergraduate career, I would say that I’ve learned a lot about failure in the past year. And in short, I’ve learned that it isn’t as bad as I might have perceived it to be beforehand.
Mind you, there is a key distinction to be made about the type of failure with which I’ve become more comfortable. This year, I threw my hat into the ring at some pretty lofty ambitions, and I wasn’t successful at all of them. However, what I’ve learned to apply moving forward is that getting a tremendous opportunity one out of 10 times is worth the nine experiences with failure, because they help pave the way for growth and for, ultimately, the one success.
This year, I’ve realized how strongly I feel about the development of college students, and will continue to commit my time and talents moving forward to pursuing that passion academically, professionally, and personally.
Nearly all of my current roles and responsibilities and involvements focus on this area of development. With my fraternity I’ve worked to establish a new program alongside several of my brothers that accomplishes these goals. I’ve also been named a co-director of a new campus leadership program called the Emerging Campus Leaders program that seeks to fill many of these same goals.
As I move into my third year here at UC, I’ve reached a tipping point of sorts. Thus far, I’ve reaped the benefits of many opportunities to grow in all aspects of my life. Now, while I will still partake in a number of those opportunities and seek to continuously improve myself, it is also time for me to focus more fully and more directly on serving the community around me to help others grow and improve in my next few years at UC.