Journal — 10/15

In class on October 8, 2020 we began class with a quick debrief of the Vice presidential debate. It was very interesting to listen to my classmates perspective on their point of view of the debate. After our mini discussion we got ready to take our weekly quiz. I thought I performed very well on this test because I knew the majority of the answers and seemed fairly easy. Overall, reading The Normal Heart was very interesting because of the topic of AIDS and analyzing the story through the perspective of learning how to advocate others. It was nice reading a play so interesting and more recent and still very much relevant in society. Kramer did an excellent job on exhibiting examples of leadership through the main character Ned weeks whose life is very parallel to Kramer himself. The main assignment for this week was to figure out how others see us and what behaviors and traits of a person who is good at recognizing how others see them. After reflecting I realized that these following statements were all true for me.

• I generally have a better sense of right and wrong than those around me.
• I am generally more willing to stand up and fight for what’s right than those around me.
• I am as critical of others as I am of myself.

Once the class finished our quiz we all had a discussion about names and Dr. Sandridge told us the meaning behind his story and how his name was determined. We learned that his first and middle names were chosen because they were both of the names of his grandfathers. He told us about how his name got him teased when he was young and how he felt about his name. This led into a discussion on how we felt about our names and what a leader’s name looks like. Growing up I never really had an issue with my name because Madison seemed pretty basic to me. However, I did notice it was mainly common with many white girls around my age and not many black girls. I found it scarce to meet black girls with the name Madison so I always wondered if my name white washed. One day I remember asking my mom why she decided to go with the name Madison and it was simply the fact that she liked the name and got the idea from a famous model around the time I was born. I wouldn’t change my name for the world because I’ve grown into it and will forever cherish it. Many nicknames did come about with my name being Madison. Many people named Madison love to go by Maddy/Maddie but I always thought it was too girly for me. I remember the first nickname I loved was from my elementary school P.E. coach. I was always athletic and loved sports so I was a bit of a tomboy growing up and in P.E. class was when I flourished. I had a feisty personality and was highly competitive in all the games. Therefore, he gifted me the nickname “Maddawg”. I loved this name and it was the perfect nickname for me because I truly embodied it. This nickname carried with me all throughout my life especially since I’m a soccer player. Until recently, I began to like another nickname gifted by my friends, knowing I don’t like being called Maddy/Maddie. They began calling me Madz for short and I thought this was extremely fitting rather than just Madison or Maddy/Maddie. Now Madz is what I prefer to go by and it feels very unique to me. When we broke out into small groups to discuss our names and consider and answer these following questions I noticed something.

Do you like your name? Have you always liked your name? Does your name sound to you like the name of someone who shows leadership often and well? What does a leadership name need to sound like? Have you ever gone by a different name, maybe your middle name or a nickname? Did that different name affect your leadership, either how you saw yourself or how you know/imagined how others saw you? Do you enjoy telling people your name? What would you like people to think of when they hear your name? Have you ever felt embarrassed, ashamed, or self-conscious about your name? What is the difference between your first name vs. your full name in terms of leadership? If it were customary for everyone to choose their own name once they turned eighteen, what name would you choose?

I noticed that many of my classmates have unique names that I personally haven’t heard before and all of their stories had lots in common. They typically wanted to change their name because when they were younger they either had it mispronounced or had nicknames that were very mean. It made them not appreciate the beauty of their name because of how it affected their experience particularly in school. I think it was interesting to hear their point of view because I personally never had to experience something like that. But the best part about it is when they got older they learned to appreciate their name and embrace it because it makes them unique and I love that. When it comes to thinking of a name that evokes leadership I think it has more to do with who the person is. Who they are and what leadership they exhibit makes their name powerful and notorious in society. The name Barack Obama whouldn;t be so known if without who he was as a person. Anybody can be a leader regardless of their name.

This upcoming week we will be shifting our focus from advocating for others to deciding whether all leadership comes from loving three things: humanity, learning, and honor. The piece of literature we will be analyzing is another piece from Greek literature examining the life of Cyrus the Second and book one of the Education of Cyrus.

In class on October 13, 2020 we had an interesting start to class. Once I logged on I realized that everyone was super quiet and usually Dr. Sandridge greets people as we enter the zoom call. However, this time he didn’t say anything at all and I was wondering if he was busy working on something or just not in the mood. After about two minutes of wondering why nobody was talking one of my classmates Hilary said hello and we all realized that Dr. Sandridge wanted one of us to take the initiative of greeting the class to show leadership. It all made sense after his explanation and I had a good laugh about it. Once the greeting was over we discussed a lot about the Education of Cyrus and significant passages that we thought were important. After a good, long discussion we were focusing on a particular word, phronēsis, which means wisdom or practical wisdom in Greek. This led into us breaking up into small groups and talking about the character judgement in leadership. My group was assigned the ship’s captain. We answered the following questions:

1. How does someone become a captain of a ship?

Trust, credibility, assertiveness, and years of experience

1. What are the common leadership behaviors of a captain?

Control, Patience, “good” problem solver, Integrity, Sophistication, Awareness, Observant

1. Is it ever possible for a good captain to become a bad captain? If so, how would that happen?

Yes, it depends on personality and how they interact with others, reminds me of the a book about the exposition and the debate on if the captain was right or wrong, It all depends on how they have to sculpt themselves into fulfilling the captain role

We took a very characteristic type of approach and allowed us to think of what is essential for a success in this position. When looking at what the other groups said with this topic I noticed that many of them said similar things to us. Then we also had to think about the question. Do you see yourself as a guide/physician/sea captain in terms of your phronesis? For me I realized that I see myself as a physician because I actually have goals to become a physician assistant in the future.

I had the opportunity to join Dr.Sandridge 9:40 class to hear from a special guest, Malliron Hodge, the creator of Baddies with Business. She created this because she wanted to help black women get out of the infancy stage of starting their business by coaching them through years 0–5. She displayed leadership by creating a network and helping others by coaching them for what they need in order to elevate their business. This connected with the main principle of leadership about addressing the needs of others. She wanted to give them a platform to amplify their voice and create that space for discussion to allow them to elaborate on their challenges and success stories about owning businesses. I feel like this is a powerful movement because it is a community of entrepreneurs and owning a business comes with a lot of responsibility and leadership to begin with. I could tell she has a passion for helping others and support people from the ground up that in my eyes makes her a very strong leader. By allowing her clients to tell their story she helps them connect the dots with their pivots and turning them into opportunities. This seems like a very positive experience and positive stance in leadership that Ms. Malliron Hodge’s is taking. She talked about “design thinking” which helps a lot of her clients getting from what they need to drafting ideas and creating a good model to move forward. Overall, I really enjoyed this talk because it did tie in a lot with what we have been discussing about in class with the terms of leadership and mentorship.