Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The End of a Wonderful Experience

I awoke at around seven feeling sad. I realized that this was the last day of Symposium and the last day I would be seeing the majority of the Leadership Institute. Trying to push through the emotions, I started packing. It had been made clear to us by our chaperones that we were going to check out of the hotel around nine that morning, so I hurried to make sure I wasn't going to leave anything behind. Due to this, I didn't have breakfast for more than fifteen minutes, but enjoyed the time with my classmates.
At Brown, we went into the art building and were greeted by a student panel. These three students were not Leadership Institute alum, but were current Brown students who were completing Action Plans.

Hans - Senior at Brown. He is working on the Poker Project, which is a study of health care status in Nepal. He has designed a health care system to help some of the homes in Nepal as well.

Austin - Senior at Brown. She helped disabled high school students complete volunteer work. Her program has monthly meetings and she has learned a lot about the disabled community.

Casey - Junior at Brown (science major). She started a non-profit organization called Longitude that builds up community service programs and then sends them on their way.

After the student panel, we split up into several groups, each with a different topic discerning leadership. I chose to be a part of the group discussing ethical leadership. If a person is ethical, they are doing the right/moral thing for others, not just for themselves.

The group discussion was very interesting. We decided that leaders need to have people to talk to and ideas to bounce off of, and that the most ethical thing is to ask for help. It is also good to provoke motivation to those who do not have it.

We were led back into the auditorium, where a selected person told the group what happened during their discussions. We then received a final lecture...and then it was over. Symposium was over. Summer/Symposium@Brown was over. I couldn't believe that everything was over. I didn't want to leave, I wanted to go home to my bed, I didn't want to leave the girls, I wanted to see my friends at home...it was a complete mix of emotions.

Saying goodbye to the girls was incredibly sad. I knew that I was going to miss them, but I am happy we are going to be keeping in touch.
After exploring the campus, Ms. Kronenberg, Josie, Rebecca, and I headed to the airport and took a flight to Chicago. We then took a connecting flight back home to California.
Home. That is a funny word. You can believe home is one place when it can actually be somewhere else. I feel like the East Coast is truly calling me and that it is more of my home than it is in California. On the East Coast, I truly feel welcomed, like I have a purpose there, like all the work I am doing on the West Coast is actually paying off. Everything makes more sense on the East Coast. It is home.
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