"Isms" in the Media

WHAT?

If I have learned anything since coming to Virginia Tech, it is all the elements that come with leadership and teamwork. Especially being in the Residential Leadership Community (RLC) has provided me with many opportunities to experience it firsthand. One of my favorite memories working with a team was Spring Semester 2010 when I was in a leadership class for Diversity and Social Justice. My group had to host a workshop and we chose to do it on “Isms in the Media”—meaning racism, sexism, ageism, etc. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the topic we presented, but it was a great learning experience. There were different aspects of both my leadership and team member skills that were enhanced, both through the preparation of the workshop and at the workshop itself.

SO WHAT?

I have worked with teams before, but this was probably the longest time-frame that I have worked with any one team. Our project and group were put together about midway through the semester. My group seemed to hit it off from the beginning. We all had pretty relaxed personalities and were open to different ideas brought to the table. We did not really have that initial “lag” that Levi brings up, and it seemed like everyone was on board to do his or her part from the get-go. Our group goals were clear from the beginning, and at one of our early meetings we pretty much assigned roles. In this case, our roles were basically specific parts of the project and we made each member responsible for a different “ism.” My particular topic was racism. Making this decision involved a lot of trust among all of us to do our specific part and do an acceptable job.

 NOW WHAT?

The workshop was a real success and I had no doubt it would be. Everyone was very reliable and that made me want to work that much harder to do my part too. I would say my group demonstrated a lot of cooperation, in a positive way—meaning there was never an issue of groupthink. Everyone presented their own ideas and we all got to be individually creative with our particular portion of the project. We had great communication throughout it, and honestly looking back I cannot recall an area of concern there. I was able to keep in contact with everyone in a timely fashion. I definitely consider myself very lucky to have been put in a group that worked out this way because I know that is not always the case. It was an awesome experience and definitely gave me a good picture of what the basic team process should look like.