Take Action.

"The only sure way to

change the future is

 to do it yourself."

After Friday's meeting, many different thoughts were soaring through my mind. We discussed the topic of educational inequalities across the country and watched a video called Black Males, Black Dreams which focused on the struggles of specifically black males in high schools all throughout America. Prior to watching this video, I was aware of some educational inequalities, but I did not know it was this severe. This situation really needs to change. I feel that school-to-prison pipeline is an extremely unfair system. Not only are the students already living and learning in a poor and unprotected environment, but, here you see schools enforcing policies in which they pretty much push these students more into jails and prisons and less towards motivation and success in academics, and overall, their lives. After reading the article, "Locating the School-To-Prison Pipeline," I was in shock. How could schools be treating these children like that? Not giving them a second chance or even a chance at all? This system is not displaying any servant leadership, let alone ANY leadership, at all. They are not listening, and are not trying to listen, to these students that are struggling. Their sense of empathy seems to be completely absent. Just because a kid is failing in his classes and severely misbehaving in school doesn't mean they have to be escorted out of their school by policemen to go straight to prison. In the "Locating the School-to-Prison Pipeline, I read that, "Even worse, schools may actually encourage dropouts in response to pressures from test-based accountability regimes such as the No Child Left Behind Act, which create incentives to push out low-performing students to boost overall test scores." There is a reason for this rise in failure and fall in motivation in these students. They just need someone to listen, be there, and not give up on them; the school-to-prison pipeline is doing everything besides that. 

I am currently a tutor in an after-school program at Gale Math and Science Academy in Howard, and I am witnessing a lot of similar negative attitudes and unwillingness to try in school, leading to many detentions and suspensions. So, not only as a STARS Leader, but as a tutor and a friend, I plan to raise awareness in the school and community about the educational inequalities taking place in the city of Chicago. I hope to practice servant leadership in a sense that I will trigger the motivation and care in the students at this after-school program. There is no reason for children to believe that they can't succeed in school, they just need to have the right resources and support to help them out and give them that boost. I will also get a chance to be a servant leader while working with the Empowerment Pipeline as one of our projects in the STARS Lead program. I am extremely anxious and excited to meet and talk to the students from Tilden High School next week and with Amundsen High School the following week. We will get a chance to talk to them about these issues, but more importantly we will get the chance to listen to what they have to say about how they feel about these unfair situations. Together, with these students, we will be able to create a great change and  lead suffering students down the right pipeline towards higher education.

So let's get motivated, and instead of waitin' on the world to change...let's do it ourselves.

What is Servant Leadership to you?

“In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice…, the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man.” 
― Franklin D. Roosevelt

In last Friday's LEAD meeting, we attended a Servant Leadership workshop led by Patrick Green.

 It was a great workshop, and I definitely learned a lot about the meaning and qualities of servant leadership.

 Not only that, but we also talked about social justice and how it relates to our roles as leaders.

 The dictionary definition of Social Justice:

 "The distribution of advantages and disadvantages within a society".

My definition of this phrase is a little different from that.

 Solely, the word 'justice' means "the quality of being just, righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness". So with that in mind... to me, social justice is serving and/or being a part of the community with the mindset of having equality and moral rightness towards those around you. I feel that FDR's quote at the top of this entry is a thorough example of what I aim for my leadership path to be. Everyday is a day of difficulty for at least one person around me, and with that, I have to have faith, hope, righteousness, and love in my daily schedule to help those around me.  

In regards to Servant Leadership and the workshop we attended on Friday, we learned that there are 10 characteristics identified with being a servant-leader; Listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. As a whole group, we decided that commitment to the growth of people, empathy, and stewardship were the top three characteristics one must possess in order to be able to carry out the everyday tasks of a servant leader. As a leader, I believe that I have already acquired the characteristics of listening, empathy, healing, stewardship, and the commitment to the growth of people. Throughout my journey of becoming a better servant leader, I hope to obtain the qualities of persuasion, foresight and  

building community. I consider listening and empathy to be one of my strongest points of being a leader. It is important to others to be able to know and trust that you are always there to listen to them when they need someone to talk to. Through listening and being empathetic, a leader gets a better understanding of others and how they are able to help them out. 

I'm not exactly sure what my dream job is, 

but I know that what ever job I end up having, I want to change lives.

 I want to be able to heal the spirit of those that are hurt and give them hope for their future.

 I want to help others become the leaders they can be.

 I guess you can say my dream job is to be a servant leader... 

but on a much greater level than in just my community.  ") 

I'll leave you all with a quote about leadership that I really value as well as an awesome, chill song that I heard in the soundtrack of a movie that I have recently seen (Drive). 

I feel that being a real leader is being a real human being and a real hero. 

 Well, enjoy the rest of your day!

Angee :)

"We must be silent before we can listen. We must listen before we can learn. 

We must learn before we can prepare. We must prepare before we can serve. 

We must serve before we can lead." 

-William Arthur Ward

It doesn't just happen over night.

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality."

-Warren G. Bennis 

I chose to start today's blog with this quote because, on the topic of leadership, this is one thing that I hope to strengthen from this whole STARS LEAD experience. I am a person with so many hopes, dreams, and ambitions, yet it is sometimes difficult for me to take my passions and dreams and turn them into everyday tasks and goals. I have a passion for so many things, it is difficult for me to just choose one. One of my passions is love and happiness. I know that sounds very cliche, but it's true. It is definitely one of the most important things in the world to me; to be happy, to love, and to be loved. And I also feel like it one of the hardest. I try to live my life with the love of others, making everyone happy with their own life. Some of my other passions can connect with this, my passion for animals and people. I believe that everyone deserved to be happy and cared for. As I stated in my previous blog, I hope to gain enough confidence and courage to be able to do this. With project we will be involved with in STARS LEAD, I hope to be able to turn these visions that I have developing in my mind into something great, something real, something where I am able to share the things that I am passionate about with others. 

During Friday's meeting, we attended an E-Portfolio presentation led by Ashley Kehoe, Loyola's ePortfolio Coordinator. It was definitely a well-needed, awesome presentation for all of us STARS Leaders. She taught us the basics of how to start our ePortfolios and what they actually are. The emphasis on the importance of these ePortfolios was huge, and I thought to myself,"Why is NOW the first time that I am hearing about these?!" After the presentation, I feel like there is no other successful way to present yourself to a future employer WITHOUT an ePortfolio. I'm definitely getting started on mine tonight. In it, I really want to highlight the importance of service to me. As a brother in Alpha Phi Omega (National Co-Ed Service Fraternity), I have been exposed to so many different service and leadership projects that I definitely want to include that in my portfolio. I feel like now, I will finally have something to do with my free time, or when I feel like I need a little break from homework and studying. This will give me the extra time to make my ePortfolio define who am I and what I have accomplished. 

I also touched base with this in my last blog. But to answer the question,"Why is it important for a leader to serve other?" some people lack that first boost to get them started. It's important for a leader to put others before themselves. There are people in this world that are missing the motivation to do something great with their lives, and leaders are here to help them make that step. I'm not saying that leaders have to do things they don't like, in order to help others, but if it is a passion of theirs to be of guidance to those around, it is important that they do so selflessly. 

As Martin Luther King Jr. said,

 "Every man must decide whether he will
 walkin the light of creative altruism or in
 the darkness of destructive selfishness." 

Peace and Love,
Angee

The Beginning

Hey everyone! 

I'm Angela Serwin, call me Angee. 

I would just like to start off with the fact that I am so grateful to have been chosen into the STARS LEAD program. Aannnd that this is my first time blogging. Ever.

 So bear with me. 

Being a part of STARS LEAD has given me the opportunity to grow. Obviously I have been growing for the past 18 years of my life, but I don't mean that kind of a grow. I mean to grow as a person, as an individual, as a leader.  I hope that, by the end of this program,  the skills that I  have will improved and the confidence that I have will be taken to the next level. And not only that, but I wish to gain so many valuable skills through my STARS LEAD experience. With these upgraded qualities, I hope to actually act on my dreams and put them into play. Walking out of our first meeting, I was pumped. I was ready for awesome friendships to be made. I was ready to get the program started. But most of all, I was ready to change the world. Maybe not the whole world right away, but eventually.. that will be the case. ;) 

To me, leadership is being able to instill hope and courage into others. With this, the leader is not only being a leader, but is creating leaders out of those around them. And I think that this type of a leader is one of the strongest ones. One shouldn't just show others their destination and the directions to get there. A leader should create a base of hope and strength for others to be able to figure out where they want to go as well as create their own journey to get there. Leadership is having a passion and changing the world with it. 

I'm ending tonight's blog entry with a very tranquil 

and calm state of mind..this song suites the mood well.

 Enjoy and sweet dreams. :)

"Imagine" by Jack Johnson