Samantha Xavier
July 23rd, Day 11
I was not at MedEx today, however, I was at a Leadership Program called "Leadership Converse."I was a little scared at first because when I got out of my car, I didn't see anyone that I knew. I got my room card, and my key and met my room mate. I was amazed because she was from New York. I soon realized that out of the 40 students chosen, I was the only student chosen from Spartanburg. Our students ranged from 7 different states for this program! Later on that day they took us to Climb Upstate, where they taught us about how we can be leaders in the most simplest of ways. We did exercises to express this. As simple as rock climbing is, we learned that even that contains leadership. This was the first day where we were taught that leadership is about behavior and action, not title and role.
July 24th - Day 12
Today we woke up around 7:30 in the morning and headed to breakfast at 8:00. I got to meet many awesome, and different people at breakfast. After breakfast, we headed into another building for a workshop. This workshop was called "Privilege Walk". I wasn't quite sure what to expect. They told us to line up in a straight line and lock hands with the people next to us. They then instructed us to close our eyes. They then proceed to say " take one step forward if you were born in the US. Take one step back if your parents did not attend college. If English is your first language, take one step forward. If you ever were made fun of or bullied beyond your control, take one step back" These questions continued for a few more minutes. As they were being asked, I noticed that it began to grow more difficult to hold on to the hand I first held on to. They started slipping away. They moved to their own direction. I had to let them go. Once they told us to open our eyes and look around, my jaw dropped. I was shocked. I was blessed. I was amazed. Many people with certain privileges never notice them, because they are so woven into the mainstream that those who have them cannot see them. For youth, understanding and acknowledging privileges is key to understanding why and how they react and perceive their surroundings. The capacity for youth to objectively reflect on their interactions with the world will be invaluable. The focus on in this practice will allowed us to understand that having one privilege does not make up for another marginalization and that every privilege or marginalization exists on a different but intersecting plane from another. We are all different, and that makes us remarkable. We all come from different background, but that doesn't stop our success. It was an eye opening activity and i'm so blessed that they brought it to our attention.
July 25th, 2017 -Day 13
Today was my last day of Leadership Converse and it was a day packed of events. Right after breakfast we headed to a workshop about social media. Considering that we were all teenagers, this workshop was very beneficial. They taught us how to use it safely and responsibility. Posting inappropriate content can reflect our image poorly, maybe resulting in our future career.
Later on in the day they told us that we are going to be serving at our local soup kitchen, safe home, and thrift store. This experience was remarkable. I loved and enjoyed helping serve my community in the soup kitchen. It is such a wonderful building that serves so many families every day. They are the reason that most families don't starve. I loved meeting everyone there including the staff. They are so invested in what they do. Each and every day, they serve with a smile and I w find that oh so very kind.
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Next they took us to a rape crisis center and a safe home for those who are assaulted. It was breath taking to walk inside, knowing what they went through. The man in charge told us how they handle situations like that and boy is it amazing. They also have a thrift store right behind the safe homes, where anyone can shop and any time. It comes in handy, especially in emergency situations.
After dinner, we ending the night with a confident booster. They taped each and every one of us's picture on the wall and handed all of us sticky notes. They then said to go around the room and write a nice comment about that person. It was amazing. It was genuine, and it made us all so happy. We were happy to write the comments and we were happy to receive the comments. It was a great way to end our thrilling and empowering journey through Leadership Converse.
July 27th, 2017 - Day 14
I went back to MedEx today!! I missed my MedEx family so much when I was out for three days. The first thing I noticed when I got back was that everyone noticed that I was gone! They treated me with such a warm welcome. Out of the 48 students in my tier, my peers still noticed that I was absent and that meant a lot.
From about 8 to 9:30, a Neuroscience speaker was supposed to come speak to my class, however, since that did not work out to plan, Harrison took over. It was a last minute task, but he did a great job teaching us about neurons, sodium- potassium gates, synaptic knob, and more. Since I took an anatomy class this past year, it was very easy to recall the information and I definitely understood it better. We asked him questions for what we didn’t understand, and he did a stellar job by re-explaining and answering our questions.
Right before lunch, we worked on our “Cradle To Grave” project. My group made the person out of saran wrap and tape. The process was actually very entertaining. We placed saran wrap on Lizzie, starting with her torso, arms, legs, and then thighs. After we put the saran wrap on we had to put the tape over it so it makes the shape of her body. Our process worked really well and it was pretty fun to do as a group.
After lunch, we came back and was sat down. I checked the calendar to see what we were doing next and it said “QPR training”. Before today, I had no clue what “QPR” meant. But after today, I don’t think I could forget. QPR means Question, Persuade, and Refer. Our interns told us that we are going to learn how to tell, by their language, if someone is having suicidal thoughts or actions. They also taught us how to talk and respond to them. Society usually is very afraid to talk about suicide. The topic gets jumped and ignored. But that needs to stop. Suicide needs to be talked about. It shouldn't be a topic that is ignored. People who are suicidal are not different from anyone else, we are all the same. However, somehow they are treated differently because of their mental health. See, I never really thought as strong about this topic as I do now, but just because one is going through a very rough and hard time to where they think they should no longer be alive, doesn’t mean they should be looked at as “selfish”, or “messed up”. We all have different problems in our life and everyone handles them differently and they all affect us in different ways. Suicide should be addressed and i’m very glad that I am now able to see how important of a topic it is.
QPR training was a difficult and emotional time for some of us. We ended the day by comforting and talking to each other. It ended on many and many laughs and hugs.
July 28th, 2017
Day 15
College! College! College!
To start the day off we had a lecture from Al! I always look forward to his presentations because they are so interesting and engaging! Next, Christine and Harrison gave us a presentation on colleges which helped me gain a lot of insight on the application process.
Wow, I can’t believe that I have already began my college application process. Today we spent many hours on lectures about college and careers. It was extremely helpful to know what certain colleges have to offer. These lectures modeled how our college life would be in different settings/universities. Our speakers sold us every school that they told us. Through their enthusiasm, we were engaged in the speech which led us to ask many questions about the colleges of our interest. I cannot express how much these lectures help us find our path. As seniors, we are under the impression of having to know what we want to do and what path we have to follow. However, that is not the case. We have our whole life ahead of us, so taking the time to figure out our true passions and interests are totally worth the time.
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