STARS LEAD #3

STARS COMMUNITY EVENT 

I found the STARS event to be interesting. I don't think I have ever reflected on my identity or even thought of how I would identity myself. I believe we can our identities and others by not being ashamed of our identity and educating others on our identity/situation. After attending the event, I would like to be able to reflect more often on my identity. The STARS LEAD group and support each others identities by being understanding and listening to each others. Identity connects with our work with Family Matter because we are being mentors to the children, and as mentors we are to support their identities and assist in the development in their identities.


FAMILY MATTERS  

I enjoy volunteering at Family Matters. I love working with my mentee/tutoree because she is very independent and seems very mature. I was surprise and the amount of kids that showed up to Family Matteres especially since they have such a limited area. A goal I do plan to achieve by the end of the semester is to develop a strong relationship with my mentee, be a positive role model, and be someone they can contact in the future if they ever need help.


SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE

After reading the article I became more aware of the issue students in public schools are facing. I came from public school in a small town, and even i was able to find similarities in between the article and my high school. When you start to think of your loved ones that do go to public high school you become even more worried and want to take action. As a STAR Leader, I'm not sure we can make drastic change, but we can take small actions which could lead to great impacts in the community. For example, just realizing there is an issue and becoming educated on it is a great start. With this new information we can educate other who might have the authority/power to help us take greater action. I believe being there for other young students is important as well. Some students don't have a support team or someone to encourage them along their way to let them know their options are open. By just volunteering at Family Matter, I believe we are making a difference. I think that by mentoring at Family Matters we are practicing servant leadership. We are also giving ourselves opportunities to develop our servant leadership skills. We will develop our listening skills by interacting and helping our mentees with any issue they may have, in this process we will also be developing the characteristic of empathy. Helping mentees through problems will also assist in developing healing.

MENTOR

The only mentor I have is my STARS mentor. I really like my relationship with her. She is a good listeners and always seems interested. She's encouraging, as well. I think she makes a good mentor because she not judgmental and is really sweet. I haven't reached out to anyone else to be a mentor. I do want to find a professor to be a mentor though. Although, my academic advisor has served as a mentor in the past. I do hope to find a mentor, preferably a professor in my major by the end of my sophomore year.