Service is continual; it is constantly changing in order to meet the needs of the community and can be positive, negative, or neutral. To me, service has always been a tricky subject to discuss because the definition of service has constantly changed through my time here at Mason.
“One of the greatest challenges of leadership is acting consistently, even when no one is looking” –Leadership for a Better World, co-written by Dr. Wendy Wagner.
Professor Wagner was one of the first people to ever challenge my definition and views of what service meant. Before coming to Mason, I thought service meant being as involved as possible, holding official titles in all the organizations I was a part of, and logging in as many hours of community service as possible wherever I could. In Leadership and Community Engagement 295, Wendy showed our class how and why leadership isn’t just about a title. Some of the important lessons I was exposed where along the realms of what service meant within the realms of leadership as well.
What I gained from Leadership and Community Engagement were:
- Listening to the community you want to serve instead of coming with the attitude of a “savior”.
- Service should be continual instead of it being a onetime ordeal.
- Service should be flexible and willing to change along with the needs of the community.
- Service doesn’t always have to be led by someone with the formals position of a “leader”.
- Groups of people across a vast spectrum of identities and histories can come together to work on creating social change.
As a Leadership Consultant (LC), I’ve been able to take what I learned in Wendy’s class and put that teaching into practice not just within LEAD’s initiatives, but through all my involvement in and out of George Mason University. Not everything has always worked out, but through different experience I have been able to be critical of myself and what some of my challenge areas were.
For me, a key component to service is through interpersonal development and understanding what my strengths are as well as what were some of my areas of growth. Being a vocal, in the moment person, I am able to help with the execution of events and keeping my team motivated and using my voice to help bring together the community. My passions around social justice help me critique current culture to bring competency and inclusion to the community.
Input, belief, strategic, communication, and adaptability as my strengths.
These strengths have continued to serve me as a student, LC, and agent of social change.
Some of my challenge areas have included asking for help, which is something that is important when doing work with service. The LEAD team has helped support me throughout the year in times of stress and has helped me up no matter what was going on.
My ideas and passions within the realms of service have changed to these next ideals.
- Service should be inclusive of everyone, allowing for all members of the team to use their strengths to help create social change.
- Social activism is service. Amplifying the voices of marginalized communities raises awareness of social injustices.
- Team efforts help create better outcomes in different initiatives.
- Seeking recognition through service can cause people to lose sight of creating effective social change.
The above, along with ideals of service I have adapted as a freshman, are a few of the pillars the hold together my ideals of what service means to me.