Running head: VALUE Towles 1

VALUE

Kaylie Towles

Fort Hays State University

May 10, 2016

VALUE 2

VALUE Program

The Voss-Advanced Leadership Undergraduate Experience has exceeded my

expectations. When applying for the program, I was under the impression that I would be further

developing my leadership skills with a small cohort of classmates working towards the same

goal. I am satisfied with the outcome of the class and my abilities as a leader entering a new level

of career development. The skills developed during my time in the program came from content

in the book as well as personal experiences.

Summary

There are three tracks to participate in the VALUE program. I chose to participate in the

civic/non-profit track. Within this chosen track, I had the opportunity to find an internship class

and complete a project of my choosing. At first, it was a struggle for me to pick an

internship/project to complete. I remember that I thought about it all summer and the first month

of the fall 2016 semester. One afternoon after class, I remember it just popping in my head! I

wanted to do a body positivity project. In the early stages of my project, TrueSkin, I had the

vision of having a tea party for people to come and feel empowered about loving themselves. I

struggled with the thought of this project for several months, as I could not visualize how the

event would run or be executed and be successful. In addition, I felt as it was geared towards a

more female audience and not capture the attention of men. My project evolved quickly into an

awareness week.

As the school year progressed and met with my mentor, I saw my dream of a more body

positive campus come alive. An interesting fact about my project is that I chose to work solo

with my mentor guiding me and lending a listening ear. She encouraged me to seek out

partnerships on campus. I did this through the Womens Leadership Project and Janas
VALUE 3

Campaign. I also sought out the help of a good friend of mine. I will explain my collaborative

effort in the pages to follow.

Overall, I consider my project a success and impactful on our campus. I have seen the

success through the joy my awareness week participants have shown, encouragement I have

received, as well as people thanking me for bringing this interactive project to life. My vision for

a more body positive campus could not have been possible without the skills and resources the

Department of Leadership Studies has provided me.

Operations

Developing skills to implement, execute, and transform a vision into a reality is no easy

task. I quickly realized how challenging of a task lied before me. I first knew that a strategic plan

would be needed to get my thoughts in order as well as keep organized and achieve my goal in a

timely manner. I first turned in my strategic plan on October 26, 2016. Once my vision changed

in the spring semester, I felt as if I needed to change my strategic plan. I decided to edit my

strategic plan in order to provide a basis for future inspiring leaders. I know the struggles it took

for me to find the best way to execute my plan. I want to give the next challenger the opportunity

to get a head start in taking what I did and making it better. This is my way in committing to

transformational leadership. Leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels to morality

and motivation, is my goal in anything I do. This is my favorite leadership concept because it is

the basis of the relationship between leaders and followers as well as social change because

leadership is change.

My project was mostly a technical issue up until the point of actually executing my

project and working with people to get my point across. Tackling adaptive challenges mean I am

encouraging others to pursue better beliefs about themselves and better ways of living. I strive
VALUE 4

every day to tell someone they are perfect just the way they are. It also helps that I encourage

people to speak about themselves in positive manners. For a hypothetical example, if a young

woman says this is dumb, I cant do this, my response is always you can do it; you just

havent found the right way to do it right. In my eyes, every interaction matters with people and

we learn how to build relationships with others through Dale Carnegie principles.

In speaking in terms of executing my project, I enlisted the help of several people and

making lists & goals. Often times it was my mentor meetings keeping me accountable in moving

forward with my timeline. I also utilized my project timeline submitted to class as well as talking

about my project progress throughout the semester. Those elements lean towards my abilities to

work with other people through collaboration, but my operations are a result of those

collaborations.

Collaboration

There are ten keys to collaboration found in chapter nine of Understanding Leadership

Theories & Concepts on page 114. One of the successful keys identified is to seek out broad-

based involvement. I did this through working with my friend Isaiah Maxi. I knew I wanted to

work with him because he is well liked on campus. I think a lot of people look up to him because

he also strives to make an impact of positivity on our campus through influencing the lives of

young people. My initial purpose for working with Isaiah was to ask him to speak at my event.

After meeting together once a week for 3 weeks, we decided to make a music video. The goal of

making the video is to get the conversation started on our campus about the upcoming awareness

week. The video was successful thanks to the support of my friends willing to be vulnerable

enough to be in the video. Working with Isaiah was a neat experience because I go to learn more

about him as a person and what his passions are in life. I am so grateful for him and his talent.
VALUE 5

I also demonstrated my collaboration skills working with my mentor for an entire school

year. I am grateful for the interactions we shared in getting to know each other and make my

vision come true. Jordyn was a very supportive mentor who also challenged me to make changes

in my project so that we captured a larger audience. She was essentially my community partner

and helped connect me to other individuals who could relate to my cause. I was introduced to

Dawn Prather who then came to speak at my awareness week: day 2. In collaborating with both

of these women, I must build a relationship with them. This was done through asking about the

other person. Part two, principle four says, Be a good listener. Encourage the other person to

talk about themselves. I utilized this leadership principle in gaining confidence and building

trusting relationships with these women. In return, they invested in me to help ensure my project

would be successful.

Another huge collaborative effort would be through various organizations and

departments on campus. I looked to the Womens Leadership Project for some direction in my

project. I knew they had previously done their I Am Enough, campaign promoting self-love.

They provided resources for me to use and in return, I used results of my project at their 2017 I

Am Enough campaign. We shared resources and was able to connect the two projects by

supporting one another. I also looked to Janas Campaign on resources in helping men see that

this is not just a womans issue. They were very cooperative and wanted me to see success. I also

consider my connection to the leadership department was very helpful as well, even though it

was for their project, because I needed to build that relationship. I worked hard to earn trust of

the Department of Leadership Studies. I wanted to put a good name out on campus about the

department and the program.

VALUE 6

The interactions I had with multiple people during this project was successful. I was

careful to maintain high emotional intelligence with not only the people I worked with, but also

the people I did my project for. In addition, I learned that collaboration needs to be utilized at all

times when trying to implement change because a strong stakeholder group, broad-based

involvement, and strong leadership in the process are just a few elements needed for success.

Reflection

Throughout my time as a VALUE scholar, I have learned many leadership lessons and

will continue to further develop those skills. The biggest leadership lesson learned is that

leadership is situational. It depends on the resources, timing, stakeholders, change agent and

temperature of the current environment. Situations can arise at any time, such as if venues are

available at certain dates and times for the project. Money is also a factor contributing to

leadership processes following through on time. Personal lives can also play a role in changing

plans for social change. Nothing in life is certain, especially if we plan for things to go a certain

way. Leadership is about being flexible and adaptable to the current situation. It also matters how

you react. It is a true test of your character and ability to work with people. During the work of

my project, it always evolved to include and element or take something out. I also changed the

date and time of my project at least three times, I then had to be flexible depending on the time

my awareness week to take place.

These leadership lessons are only minimal compared to the confidence I gained through

completing my project. This is the first solo project I did on the larger scale of a university. In

the past, I have been able to collaborate with others to accomplish the same goal. But, this time I

was able to test my skills to visualize a project and follow through by asking others to

collaborate with me with certain elements in the execution process. I practiced effective
VALUE 7

communication, time management, organizational skills, and transformational leadership. I

worked hard to build up others and be vulnerable enough to let my classmates build me up as

well. I believe I was effective in completing my task of my TrueSkin Body Positivity Awareness

Week through operations and collaborations.

I am grateful for the opportunity to grow and develop my skills as a leader through the

VALUE program.
VALUE 8

Reference

Crawford, C. B., Brungardt, Curtis., Maughan, Micol,. Understanding Leadership: Theories &

Concepts. Longmont, Colo.: Rocy Mountain, 2005. Print.