College students as catalysts for social change: a case study

Pete - Director of End Results

Organized, like logistic--he will get the things done. He’s kind of the quieter but…he’ll be there and he’ll be excited and he’ll always, always be so encouraging of what you are doing…And he’s fine with being the behind the scenes worker.

Reflecting on influences in high school, Pete states:

So student council really changed the outlook of my life in a lot of ways… When I was in 9^th grade I never would have seen myself as a leader at all. And sometimes I still don’t but…I started, you know, just doing stuff that I wouldn’t typically do, and I got pushed into through relationships and encouragement.

Service played a big role in Pete’s life. “Through LEO Club, Riverwatch, Student Council, and various other programs, I gradually made volunteering a part of my life.” He was awarded the volunteer of the year award from his hometown community.

In my observations of Pete, the word that comes to mind for him is humility. Humility, which Zohar (2005) says is “the sense of being a player in a larger drama, of one’s true place in the world” (p. 49). Pete often credited his friends for the successes that he had in high school and also in college. When asked who had an impact on his leadership, Pete said:

Roy, Nickers and Mackenzie…I work with them everyday, and they shape my way of thinking and who I am like all the time, and I think we all do that to each other.

Pete cites Rudy (Anspaugh, 1993) as his favorite movie. Rudy is a true story about a young man named Rudy who has always been told that he was too small to play college football. But determined to overcome the odds and fulfill his dream of playing for Notre Dame he ends up inspiring the team and finally getting to play in the last game of his senior year. Pete says this:

I’m sure like a billion people around the world say this, but they can see themselves in Rudy a little bit…like he’s not the most athletic; he’s not the most talented. But you know anything can happen if you just keep on going with it, if you’re committed to it.

Pete is from a small community in northern Minnesota and is very proud of his hometown. He has a deep commitment to maintaining relationships with previous high school teachers, advisors and also people he had interned with at the state capital. His current position along with serving as co-executive director is Director of Operations and Finance, which includes logistics for the various trips and camps.

Pete was indeed the “Director of End Results” and he still is. Others may dream, but as one person I interviewed commented, when the housing lists need to be done, Pete is the one who stays up until 5:00 am getting them ready. He is the one who makes sure all of the details are taken care of and done well.

Mackenzie - Director of Lasting Impressions

One student I interviewed had this to say about Mackenzie:

I definitely think her lens that she sees the world with is a little bit different…She understands a lot of the issues about increasing access to all people and she has definitely been a huge advocate of them recently doing multicultural programming…because it was her own way to kind of make a difference back to people…

Mackenzie first came to the University through a summer program that identified students of color with high potential. She is first generation American of Filipino descent and is from California. Commenting about her high school education she says, “I see my formal education as my American parents; they got me to apply to colleges.”

Mackenzie views leadership by using a sports analogy:

I often talk about leadership (as) if I were to choose a sport--I would chose golf or like chess, or something like that, something more planned where sometimes adrenaline in leadership can get you in trouble. Like if you get too excited, I mean, there needs to be a balance between like your adrenaline and your energy and your ability to control that energy. Teaching someone else how to golf is… probably one of the biggest one [examples] of servant leadership you can get because it’s, you have to be insanely patient. You can’t ever be upset with someone.

This analogy is very reflective of how Mackenzie is strategic in thinking out what needs to be done with the group and planning for the future while balancing her energy. Mackenzie describes herself as “Adaptable/Flexible, I believe that…I am cognitively competent. I do think that I am able to comprehend concepts and apply them.”

Following a period of turmoil in her family, Mackenzie shared about the impact an Emmaus retreat that she did in high school had on her: “Everyday is a new day to choose something, which is an ideal that I have kept and I’ve actually translated into SLP.” Emmaus is a Catholic weekend retreat program for people who are seeking to grow in their relationship with Christ. The purpose of the weekend is to give young adults an opportunity to reflect upon themselves and their relationship with God and their community. The retreat theme will come up again in this research and the role that it had on Mackenzie and the subsequent impact on SLP.

Kouzes and Posner (2002) suggest that an effective way for leaders to share their values and beliefs with their followers is by storytelling. They found that people often remember information told to them in a story that they could relate to, and this is one of Mackenzie’s gifts. She often uses stories from her own life to explain a concept, frequently using humor. For example, during the winter retreat she wanted the student leaders to consider what may lie beneath a student’s behaviors or actions by sharing her story of “the shoelace cry”:

Think of when you have a bad day and then you drop a pencil and you are like ‘EHHH, pencil’ you put all your frustration in the pencil. My sisters and I call it the shoelace cry. My parents shaved my head twice when I was little girl. They have this belief that for hair to grow in thicker you have to shave it, so if you can imagine here I am this little chubby, bald, Buddha girl. People would be like, ‘Ok, earrings, she is a girl.’ I looked like a thug and a frikkin’ gangster! We called it the shoelace cry because one day I was frustrated because I couldn’t tie my shoes and I was bawling and it wasn’t really about the shoes but about everything else. So when something happens and we are frustrated we call it the shoelace cry.

Mackenzie’s current role, along with co-director, is Director of Marketing and Human Resources, which includes grant writing, newsletters, planning the retreats and trainings, and overseeing the Celebration City Cores. You only have to meet her once to see why the title, “Director of Lasting Impressions,” befits her. She is memorable in this group for many reasons: being the only female founder, being Filipino, but most importantly the way in which she views the world and frames questions to others.