1. Susannah Johnson Spring 2016
HDF 415 portfolio
Susannah Johnson
Spring 2016

2. Top Strengths and Values
Top 5 Gallup Strengths
Achiever
Restorative
Responsibility
Focus
Futuristic
Top 5 VIA Values
Honesty
Fairness
Perseverance
Perspective
Teamwork

3. Opening Statement
I chose to be involved in the Leadership Program at the University of Rhode Island because it has help me discover and shape my strengths and values. My top five strengths are achiever, restorative, responsibility, focus, and futuristic and my top five values are honesty, fairness, perseverance, perspective, and teamwork.
As well as learning about my strengths and values, I have learned how to use them successfully to help become the best that I can be, work cohesively with a group, and lead a group of peers. Through the Leadership Program, my views on what it means to be a leader has completely changed how I look at leadership, myself as a leader, and along the way I developed some the closest relationships that I have made during my college experience so far.
I particularly see myself identifying the most with the Servant Leadership model because it is always my initial instinct to want to take care of and help those around me first before helping myself. It is and innate feeling for me to want to give my time to serve others and to learn more about who they are what makes them who they are. I love listening to people's stories and learning about their backgrounds, as well as if they are struggling with something, helping them solve that problem.

4. Self leadership 8.Student will express a personal values statement
Target Class: HDF 190; HDF 415 
Descriptive Notes: In HDF 190, I initially took the VIA Values assessment where my top 5 were honesty, teamwork, gratitude, kindness, and prudence and I retook the assessment before beginning my semester as a peer mentor in HDF 415 where my top 5 values changed around a little bit and got honesty, fairness, perseverance, perspective, and teamwork. I originally found it interesting that my top value strength remained the same, even after taking the assessment twice. After processing my values further and developing my skills as a peer leader, I understand why honesty is so important to me. Not only am I always honest with people, but I also expect that same level of honesty back from other people. I have consistently told those closest to me that I will always be upfront with them, no matter how hard the truth might be for them to hear. Not only is it of the upmost importance to me in my life to be honest with myself and with those who ask me, but I also expect the same respect and decency from people around me to give me that same honesty back. I cannot learn from my mistakes and grow as a person if I never have all of the information that I need in order to make corrections and improve myself. It is also difficult to build trust and a relationship with someone who cannot be completely honest with you.

5. Inclusive Leadership
41. Student will describe personal application of the above theory (Komives et al)
Target Class: HDF 190
Additional Experience: Basic Skills figure skating teaching
Descriptive Notes: I have been a figure skating volunteer instructor and coach since I was ten years old and it has made me appreciate skating so much more seeing young children start and watching their growth over an extended period of time. Being a coach has developed my leadership skills in many different ways because I am solely responsible for a group of children and developing their skating skills. While teaching young children, it is important to use the component of empowering and process-oriented in the Relational Leadership model. Children have very short attention spans and as a coach it is my job to keep them engaged in the class and having fun while disguising figure skating skills in games and activities and outwardly showing my excitement when they complete a skill successfully. I have learned that children respond to encouragement, like “high fives,” during class because it boosts their self-esteem and knowing they are doing well. As a coach, it is also important to use the process-oriented component because there are a set of skills that must be accomplished by every child in your group before the session is done and working towards those goals and asking for help along the way if I get stuck is crucial to the success of the group. Also, it is important that I work with the children in my group to know how they learn the best and what activities they get the most out of. As well as using the empowering and process-oriented components when teaching, the other three components, inclusive, purposeful, and ethical, are just as important. Inclusive leadership is emphasized when teaching young children to make sure they are all benefitting from your coaching and they all feel that they are getting attention during a group class so that they continue to develop their talents and skills. The purposeful component goes hand in hand with working to develop students’ talents. If a student is willing to work hard, they can set short and long term goals to motivate them to continue skating, as well as working to develop a positive attitude that not only motivates the skater, but also my job as a coach to continue to be inspired to help them improve, and the team of coaches to keep doing what we love. As a coach, we use the ethical component is crucial to building and maintaining our credibility by being reliable and responsible with other people’s children and knowing how to make the best decisions for our students. As much as it is important for me to teach them figure skating skills, I can learn equally as much if not more from them about my ability to coach and techniques that work the best when improving my coaching and leadership skills.

6. Critical Thinking
96. Student will describe what it means to analyze, criticize, synthesize and utilize information as a leader
Target Class: HDF 415
Descriptive Notes: As a FLITE mentor, I have learned how crucial it is to learn how each of your students learn, how they received coaching and mentoring, and what their goals are for the semester. This is important because it helps me as a mentor know if they need to be given a correction or help with an assignment how they will best receive and understand the information. The more time that passes in the semester the more I take a step back to watch my group rely more on one another instead of on me for support. By observing my group, I have learned who is more extroverted and introverted, who has a more dominate personality, who is more willing to speak during class, and the qualities that make them who they are. I have found this important when I am reading the outcomes that they turn in to me because it gives me a look into their lives and what is important to them, as well as how much effort and work they are willing to put into this class and shaping themselves as leaders. If they are giving a significant amount of effort into classwork and making corrections, I know that they are genuinely interested in learning something new and improving. Knowing how each of the members of my group receive coaching and mentoring has helped me relate with each of them more, give them corrections that they will understand and be more likely to make, and what they need from me in terms of supporting them through the class. During one-on-ones with each of my students, it was important for me to ask them what their goals for the semester are. For me, it always helps to have my goals planned at the beginning of something so I can remind myself of what I am working towards. Although not all of my students will achieve their exact goals, they know what they can do to still be successful for the semester and have realized other accomplishments that they have made that they would not have otherwise realized if they were not given the time to reflect.

7. Interpersonal and Organizational Concepts and Skills (Part 1)
129. Student will describe personal examples of working in collaboratives/coalitions
Target Class: HPR 202 – Classroom Without Boundaries
Descriptive Notes: I recently had the opportunity to travel to Birmingham, Alabama and work with Habitat for Humanity as a part of the class HPR 202, or Classroom Without Boundaries, during spring break. The class meets regularly one a week to discuss readings and current events about topics based on a variety of topics surrounding poverty, such as family, food and nutrition, race, gender, and employment. However, I can now say that I have some of the closest friends from traveling, living, and working together for a week. Working to build a house and all the necessary steps that it takes is difficult to manage and execute, but as a cohesive unit, I feel that we made an impact on a family’s life by contributing what we could to help complete their house. Working with Habitat for Humanity reinforced the importance of teamwork for me because their organization as a whole depends on volunteers to give their time and work as a group to complete tasks that you would not have normally done in their everyday life, like shingle a roof or put up siding on a house. As a class of 20, we successfully physically and metaphorically helped put a roof over someone’s head and gave them a safe place to call their home. We worked in pairs, small groups, and as a collective class to get jobs done all over the worksite and by working together built strong relationships with one another because we enjoyed what we were doing, who we were doing it with, and had the opportunity to learn more about one another because we were all genuinely interested in learning more about one another. While on the worksite, people rarely were standing around not doing anything and if they were, it was because they were looking around to see who needed help. We all supported one another of our projects and when a group was finishing up their project that they had been working days on, everyone would stop what they were doing to go and cheer on that group when they finished. Not only did we see the worth in what we were doing as individuals, but also in the work that was being done as a collective group.

8. Interpersonal and Organizational concepts and skills (Part 2)
135. Student will describe personal examples of building relationships with members as a leader
Target Class: HDF 415
Descriptive Notes: Being a FLITE mentor has taught me how to separate building personal and professional relationships with people. This has been crucial when getting to know the members in my small group this semester because I am their mentor first and it is my purpose to support them through their journey as a first-year leader and experience their first leadership course, but I also want to be their friend and get to know them more personally. I have found that checking-in with each of my group members individually throughout the semester, as well as a whole group outside of class, that I have been able to learn about their individual needs as students and leaders and what they need from me in order to succeed. It has also been interesting to check-in with my students about once a month to see their progress throughout the class and in their personal lives. It has been so rewarding to watch my group of students benefit from FLITE as well as when they tell me that I have made a difference in their lives through leadership and in general. I feel that I built my relationship with each of them based on my background in my passion for serving others before myself as well as building a mutual trust with each of my students where they trust me to guide them through the semester and support them through their endeavors, but I also trust them to respect me as their mentor and themselves as a leader in academic and social settings. A member of my group recently brought a quote to my attention that says, “If your action inspire other to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” He said to me that I have truly inspired and helped him grow as a leader and person overall, and I think that is one of the biggest compliments I have received. To know that I have made an impact on others by being a leader and genuinely caring about my relationship with each member of my group, reassures to me that I am making a difference in someone else’s life and that I am doing something right.