The Change Agent

When acting as a change agent, I believe the most important "C" to keep in mind is one we talked about quite a bit at our last meeting would be the ability to collaborate with people have people to collaborate with you. This is a very important quality to have to be an effective leader, especially of a bunch of young people who are all at different intellectual capabilities so as you talk with them it almost has to be on a case by case level as each persons needs are specific. Having an ability to collaborate well is something that is learned and practiced upon by years of practice and retaining what you have learned and then apply that.

A challenge that i can see in becoming a change agent is that the people you want to help or the things that you want to change is that no one buys into the fact that you want to change and make a difference. If you pour your heart and soul into helping someone or something change and you follow the the "C's and still nothing solidifies then I can see how that can cause people to be frustrated over it. But you have to become stiff in your stance and learn how to bend and weave with people so you do not get upset and frustrated over little things.

I believe and hope that everyone has the potential to become a change agent and will harness that power and use it for good. People who want to become a change agent have to have the power and determination to make a change or to change somebody for the better. Though it might be tough and it might take a long time, but at the end you can realize that you indeed changed someone. In return  they might be inspired to to make or facilitate a change themselves and harness the power in themselves to make a better place for everyone.

Deployment

Hello,

Well I missed all last week and do not quite know what the topic is so I decided to write my own topic, mine is what I think about my pending deployment to Afghanistan with the 216th Engineer Battalion. After a week of train ups at Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin in which we practiced urban warfare, breaching, IED simulators, live fire lanes, combat stress, and combat trauma among other things it really makes me think of the decision I made to join up. Four years ago I was just graduating high school and now I am preparing to go to war with a primary mission of convoy security and to find and disarm IEDs as a combat engineer. It just rocks my mind, but I definitely would not be preparing to graduate college if it was not for the army or I definitely would not be the man I am today with the morals and values that I strive to hold if it was not for the army. It is at times a love hate relationship and yes I am a little nervous about this being my first deployment to the most hostile spot on earth but I am ready to take that burden and live up to what I signed up for.
A lot of men and women have died in this war on terror that the US has waged in the middle east for the past 10 years and I like to think that they did not die in vain. Ultra liberal media and groups like the Westboro Baptist Church just freaking make me sick. I have no idea how these people call themselves Americans when all they do is down talk a country that has literally gave them everything in the world. I am just not sure how people like that live with themselves. I am proud of what I am about to do, and if means taking a life well its better him then me because I am coming home in 12 months. I love this country, this land, and its people and I will be damned if I let some punks in the mid-east stray us from our day to day living.

Citiizenship

I am a member of many groups that promote being a good citizen and it makes being a good citizen easier when you have many examples around you to look at and model yourself after and go to for advice. I am becoming a more effective citizen in the groups I'm apart of just by being an active participant in the groups activities, I believe just by showing people that you care enough about that organization then makes you a good citizen, because you care enough to participate and have discussion on your groups direction.
No I can not really think of a time that I thought of citizenship differently, I have been instilled on the good way to be a member of society from an early age from my folks.
My current approach to citizenship is a little different I guess with the idea that I want to be a goo citizen by being more involved in all of my organizations that I am involved with by taking a more active role and voicing my opinion. Showing your values and what you stand for are important values to have to show good citizenship and really portray what you believe in.
I believe the members of my chapter think about citizenship in a way similar to me. They are active members in their own family communities and here in the AGR and Ohio State community. They are leaders to others and always rise to the occasion when needed, which I believe is another good aspect of being an citizen. I really cannot provide any concrete examples of how good citizenship is being carried out, I just know that they are not being bad ones, I think that you can tell people who are not being good citizens a lot easier than the ones that are doing what are suppose to do. I think a lot of being a good citizen counts on the small unnoticed acts of kindness that one does and others notice and carry out.

Change.....

"They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." AH

I first want to say that even though Warhol was a little out there, he definitely nailed the meaning of this quote. People are always saying that time heals all wounds or that just give it time and things will change. Well in some cases like high school feuds or your first girl/boyfriend dumping you that might be the truth. But the thing I like to call the, "real world" where there are decisions to be made and tough choices to make, change has to happen now, and waiting for it to happen does not work people have to gut check themselves and go out and do it and make it happen. The only person you can count on to change something is yourself.

By having an individual read this quote and taking the words to heart, they can contribute to a group or community change by taking the fight to the problem. Like Warhol said, "you actually have to change them yourself," and they way I interpreted that at least is that if I want something to change then I have to get off my ass, stop passing the buck, stop expecting someone else to do it, and realize that I am the only one to have to power to change the problem. Now if more people bought into that then instead of being just one person changing the problem or issue, there would be many. 

This type of change would fall under the second order of change, because you are implementing a social movement type of change not just something that effects the immediate people around you. Well at least in my train of thought, I know that I can change the people around me easily, but what I want and hopefully all want is to tackle the big issues effecting our country and our world and that is where the second order of change would be implemented in. The key I believe is to get everyone to buy into the change you want to make happen so they are not those unmotivated, negative-Nancey's in which all they do is bring the entire movement down and nothing else. You have to think how things like the Berlin Wall came down, how communism in third world countries were destroyed, how a bunch of pilgrims who wanted religious and political freedom were the catalyst for this great country we live in today.

People need to be motivated, engaged, and buy in to what you want to do to be able to get a social movement happening. Again let me end on this note," but you actually have to change them YOURSELF!"

-TA
                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Blog #2

A leadership experience that I had that followed the SCM of leadership development would be when I was 17 and was completing my Eagle Scout service project. To attain the highest rank in scouting, eagle, you have to complete a value based service project that will have a lasting impression on people for many years to come. What I did was I built a room for the Westerville Area Resource Ministry (W.A.R.M) who's motto is, "Give a hand up, not a hand out." What they do is help people lead better lives for the future, not just the present so they can be viable people in our society. My project was to build a daycare room for parents to drop off there kids when they are seeking counseling.
I know that when I was growing up there would be nothing worse than going to a place with mom or dad and just sitting in a waiting room for what seemed like hours waiting on them return and have nothing to do there but be bored. So what I wanted to do was build a room that would entertain as well as educate children while they were waiting on there parents as they received invaluable assistance from this organization. So through many generous donations from local businesses I built a very comfortable and cozy room that would keep children occupied for the duration of there parents visit there.It was a two fold victory for me because not only did I complete the cornerstone requirement for my eagle but gave back something tangible that people could use on a daily basis. I felt awesome after I initially completed the project but the best feeling was when I stopped back in there unannounced over last winter break and saw how engaged and entertain the children were using that room and the things on the inside while there parents where there. Being that young you do not realize that your folks are hard up, so doing anything to brighten there days was just the best feeling in the world.
Switching gears and now talking about change and how to manage change and how it is most effective is a great question to pose. I feel there are two ways to thing about change in our society, you can either wait for change and hope that it comes or you can step up and become and make change happen for yourself. Personally I am the type of guy that if its not broke don't fix it but that is not saying if there needs to be change then I will try to make that happen. So when President Obama came out with his Obamacare health care plan, and changing everything up, yes I did not respond well to that and did not like to see it happen, and I still do not. So my change will be slow if at all with that going through. But when we decided to change the way we were fighting the war in Iraq and decided it is time to draw down the troop numbers then I responded to that better because I knew that was a change in the right direction. How is change most effective and what you need to manage change is a pretty easy question to answer I think but the solution might be tough. The answer is identifying things that need to changed, I think as a society we can think of many things that needed to be changed but it executing the change that is hard sometimes. Change is most effective when it will change a large number of people for the better. Identifying a large concern that a large amount of people will like to see changed in some manner. What you need to manage and see that change carried out is a lot of dedicated and driven people that are ready to to put the work in to make that goal a reality and see that change come into action. It might take months or years to finally see it happen but if you work at it long enough then you will see it come through.

Social Change Awareness....?

Well hello everyone out there in cyberspace, this is my first ever blog I have ever wrote so I hope it keeps you somewhat engaged! In what ways am I becoming more aware of social change and how it is shaping me as a leader? Well that is a difficult question for me to answer in a straight forward response. Until a week ago I was not quite sure what the term "social change" meant. Social change to me means that you are changing your environment in a positive way and you are making a direct impact on the people around you, especially some of the least fortunate ones who are in need of social change. In my 22 years I have not really been involved in any direct social change movements, now that is not saying that I have not done good deeds or service projects to help better my community and the people around me. I am very involved in my church, the Knights of Columbus, my scout troop, and obviously my fraternity. Yes I have been involved in very worthwhile service projects and have done good turns daily, but I feel that being part of a movement that socially changes a group of people is much, much more than service projects or philanthropic efforts.
I feel that to take part in a movement that socially changes a community or a group of people is a major effort, because you are not just helping people for a day, week, or a year but for a lifetime. You have made their lives better forever and I know that personally and unfortunately have not been apart of such a movement. But I am welcoming the opportunity to take on an effort like that and really make a difference for a lifetime, not just the present.
I do not think there is a time in my life where I thought of social change differently because honestly I never really heard of the term or seen people engaging in socially changing activities. Since I am green at the gills with this, I am welcoming it into my life and I hope that I can engage the people around me to get educated about what this really means also. But how I would approach this now would be with open arms, an open mind, and an open heart. My current approach to this topic is just to get educated and take that knowledge I receive from this class and my peers and then become the subject matter expert and in return educate the people around me to advocates for this. Then instead of talking about how they took the wrong approach and how they are correcting it later on, that they take right approach first and lead by example to their peers. Now I would think that would be a socially changing movement.