LEADERSHIP

"I don't go by the rule book. I lead from the heart, not the head." -Princess Diana

In the first 2 semesters, I had the opportunity of working within the school district in Starkville, MS. I am passionate about working with kids that are in primary school because that is a prime time to help facilitate learning and investing time in a child.

I have done 2 different projects for Sudduth Elementary school. I did a sensory path outside of the school on a sidewalk that consisted of colors, shapes, numbers, etc. (which some of those pictures were on the Key Insights tab) in Spring 2019. In the second semester, I assisted my Day One group with painting a mural that had site words, bright colors, and their yellow jacket mascot (pictured below). The purpose of this project was to brighten up the environment of the gym to spark interest and initiative in the younger generations.

These opportunities have allowed me to explore my personality type more, understand what it means to be a mentor/leader, and become more involved into the community. Below is a picture of my Day One kids. We were nominated by Sudduth Elementary and actually ended up winning the award for "Team Contributions to a Day One Community Partner." PROUD MOM MOMENT!!

CAPSTONE PROJECT:

SHINE

In my final semester of MLP, I was given the opportunity to partner with two of my classmates, Fellows Mariah Corbell & Aurora Walsh, to create the organization SHINE (Starkville Honoring Inclusive New Experiences).

Unfortunately, due to the recent COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, our university officially decided to move to online courses for the rest of the academic calendar year.

Our capstone project was originally going to be an in-person talent show highlighting the special needs community. We decided that the health and safety of those specific individuals is the most important thing right now.......so we came up with an idea to still continue our project from afar. A VIRTUAL TALENT SHOW! We sought to promote inclusion and recognition of the special needs community through our SHINE project!

We openly invited any and all members of the special needs community to be able to come to our page and feel welcomed and appreciated! We asked that, if they wanted to be featured, to submit any material including (but not limited to) magic tricks, dancing, singing, modeling their favorite outfit, a picture of their art project, etc. They could also submit a small biography or “message to the world” if they felt called to do so. All submissions could either be emailed to shinestarkville@gmail.com or through messenger on our page.

We did post a disclaimer saying, "Any submission for our virtual talent show means that you or a parent/guardian authorizes the material to be published on our public Facebook page and also authorize it to be shared to the public as well."

These are some of the submissions we received over the past few weeks! We were so excited to highlight these wonderful humans & hope to provide a welcoming environment for everyone who wants to join our page. We ended up creating a following of 200+ on our page, had between 53-256 views per submission, and reached almost 3,000 people across 5 different states! How AMAZING is that?!

You can check more out at: www.facebook.com/shineatmsu

This project was something completely different for me, and it really opened my eyes. Everyone is on their own journey and they express themselves in a way that is completely different from the next. I have learned how to humble myself, be more intent with others, and always lend a helping hand to those who are different than me. It's never to late to make a difference in someone's life, and I am so grateful for this opportunity that MLP brought me!