Being a student leader is no easy task. It's easy to look someone in the eye and say let's make this happen. What is not easy is the amount of work that leads to that plan becoming a reality.
When I first joined SGA I did so in the hopes of becoming part of the student life experience that made my high school experience phenomenal. I didn't realize however that the organization I had joined consisted of a lot of meetings and brainstorming...or so I thought. Then, as a member of the Finance Board and let alone a First Year Ambassador I felt disconnected from the rest of the SGA and it took me a while to truly learn what was going on in the internal workings of student government. What people see, if any, of SGA is either the Finance Board for cash or posts on Umbc Underground/Retriever articles; nothing however about what we are doing for students. However as I began to integrate myself into this organization more and more, I realized that there is a lot of behind the scenes work involved in the process. Whether it was Elani working on ProveIt, or Indek working on the Financial system and many other people working on their projects as well, I realized that even though I was involved with SGA, I wasn't really doing my share of the work. There was so much to be done and those who would excel at it the most were too busy doing even more important things. That is why new leaders had to emerge to the scene and take on these responsibilities so that the torch does continue to be passed on. Losing the election was tough, but it offered me the opportunity to see what happens in the SGA executive cabinet. That was and still is one of the coolest experiences ever. I have been working with so many people on coming up with ideas and seeing them slowly evolve into reality, but nothing at the snap of your fingers. Working to change policy with the administration and create new things on campus is not easy. The infamous RED TAPE is something that while provides a safe net that protects the administration and the students, is in many cases detrimental to the progress of student life. Quoting Josh Michael on this one, "Fighting the RED TAPE is what we do at SGA every day." Its not creating projects or working on ideas or anything of that sort; we do that but its not our essential task because honestly anyone can come up with a great idea. It's all about making it happen. That is why I love this campus, because we have traversed through the fields of red tape and have made things happen and change on campus that has affected each and every students’ daily lives. Its tough sometimes to see the fruits of hard work, but when a group of students get together and say "We will do this!" it can make a powerful statement that if left dry will go back into the big book of ideas that no one cares enough to work on. Why? Sometimes being a student leader you forget you are a student. It can be awakening to see yourself say “wow, I want to do this rather than study.” That is where problems begin and when one must reflect and say to themselves that it’s important not to lose sight of your primary goal in search of change and improvement. Sometimes you need to delegate tasks and give projects up to others. What I'm trying to get at here is that even though I may want to see something happen on campus very badly, I can’t necessarily commit to it because of time constraints. But I'm sure there is a student out there who thinks that they want to see that change as well, have the time, and if given the right direction and help can make it happen and leave their mark at UMBC. That is what I would love to see happen: Students who are not elected officials or appointed officers, just walking into the SGA office saying "Hey! I saw you guys have this project and no one is able to work on it, I will! Teach me how I should approach this and help me assemble a team of several people who can work with me to make this happen!" A dream far away this is? I don't think so, so let's make it happen.
Being a student leader is no easy task. It's easy to look someone in the eye and say let's make this happen. What is not easy is the amount of work that leads to that plan becoming a reality.
3 comments:
Interesting post, Fouad. I think your posts touches on a lot of truths.
The first, that "sometimes being a student leader you forget you are a student." I know I definitely felt this way and often felt more motivated to tackle the challenges of improving UMBC than writing a paper. Now being on the other side of things though, I feel that my experiences with student orgs and attempting to improve campus taught me the most important lessons of college. In my daily life now I feel like I use what I learned from these experiences 100 times more than what I learned in the classroom. It's a tough balance to find, I guess, because I think everyone should get involved with something, but you're right, you have to remember to be a student and pass your classes.
RE: new leaders needing to emerge - you touch on something really true. So often the people who are probably best suited to improve UMBC are too busy doing other things. You were a First Year Ambassador, so what do you think the best way is to get younger students involved to carry on the torch and ensure momentum can continue instead of starting and stopping every year?
RE: "I don't think so, so let's make it happen." I think you're onto something - if just a small percentage more of UMBC students said, "I want things to be better and I'm going to do something about it," I think there would be way more potential energy. Question: how do you motivate other students to do this? What's the plan that makes this a reality?
I don't get the point of your post.
So, you joined SGA, figured out that you don't have time to get stuff done.
Now, you want to recruit other people to do stuff.
Why do you consider yourself a leader?
Re: Andrew
Thank you for your comments. I have been working on finding what motivates students, especially freshman, that would help get them involved in fighting the Red Tape, in the hopes that the more students lives at UMBC we affect, the more chance they will think to themselves that being involved can make a difference and ideas do become reality, all it takes is some tools, time and the right people with the right strengths.
Re: Anonymous
I think what I was trying to touch on was the fact that sometimes its important to delegate tasks in order not to become swamped with different projects. My post was an attempt to remind others of the reality that we are all students and that we shouldn't sacrifice our schoolwork but rather work with together with others to help manage our time better for ourselves and the projects we are working on.
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