Friday Summary.
Me being the crazy person I am I got up really early and ran
down the palm drive to check out Stanford Campus, (Palm drive is a 1,000 south
pacific palms, lined up for a mile in from of the entrance of Stanford, which
is the largest campus in America, second largest in the world at 9,000 or so
acres). Stanford is gorgeous; I love the architecture, arches, and the weather,
NICE.
So you may be wondering, “what is a liaison?” (or maybe you
are smarter than me). In my role as liaison for quest I will:
1.
Welcome
2.
Represent
3.
Inform
4.
Disseminate
So I suppose the preparing this blog post actually factors
into my role as a liaison- double whammy!
One of the first exercises we did on Saturday was the
“leadership compass.” I particularly enjoyed this activity as it provided quite
a few insights about how I am others lead, and although I don’t normally
approve of labels, in this case they were very useful. The exercise divides
people into 4 leadership styles, one for every cardinal direction.
North: This
people are typically the ones that like to take control, and are assertive, I
label them the “Boss/control freak”
South: Southerners
are easy going, nice and relaxed people, they are friendly and caring, I dub
souths “the Mother.” (Incidentally, I may be this more than any other one, its
difficult because I show tendencies of each).
East: An East
likes to see the large picture and what could be, they are very conceptual
people, they tend to be unconventional, I label them “Hippie!”
West: Westerners
are practical, dependable, and realistic, thus they are “Robots.” (sorry
Westerners, this was the most fitting name I could think of at the time.
Looking back at these, in a way they mimic the stereotypes
for regions in America, except I would say that East and West are the other way
around, but what do I know? I haven’t traveled that much, relatively
speaking.
--After figuring out who was in each group (the Norths were
HUGE) we broke up into groups to discuss our awesomeness. I now know that
South’s are superior, we are quiet, efficient, AND nice. However, we do have
weaknesses, we procrastinate (so true), have difficulty saying “no” also true,
we may be “too nice.” Some pet peeves are a lack of recognition, mean people,
and unmotivated people. After intense discussion we have decided that we are
“subtle manipulators.” Oh, our mascot is The Giving Tree, because we just keep
giving until there is nothing left.
Another workshop we had was about outreach to high school
students, and building bonds with them, I am hoping that Vassar’s quest chapter
can start doing some of this, by reaching out to the admissions office and
hosting Quest Matches and Finalists.
And yet another workshop…. MANAGING MONEY with Taylor
Altman!
It turns out that being a non-profit is extremely difficult,
and requires, among other things- incredible book-keeping skills, not a dollar
can go unattended, otherwise the auditors may disapprove, so keeping 30-odd
schools’ finances straight is no picnic. In order to maintain responsible fiscal
policy I hope to open up a bank account for Vassar, and also am required to
have all receipts mailed within three days! Not much too work with, but I think
we can do it! If we don’t we may have to go to reimbursement, or zero-funding
status, which sounds like a greater pain in the neck, and not much fun at all.
---It looks like I have a little work to do to get Vassar’s finances in shape,
fortunately this year we have an amazing treasurer.
At lunch, which was incredible by the way, (several of our
lunches were personalized, all were delicious), we met the present CEO of
Quest, Dr. David Hunter. He is a close friend of the founder, Dr. David
McCollough. According to David quest is doing well, right now we need to grow
the applicant field so that we can continue to grow and offer top quality
students, top quality educations. David is an very approachable wonderful guy,
he came on our trip on Sunday to San Francisco, and spoke to all of us, I hope
to be as personable and wonderful as him one day.
In the afternoon we discusses the Quest ambassador program,
by which students reach out to high school students, and applicants, and
encourage and help them to apply, and improve their lives. We later had a breakout group! Which was pretty cool,
it was nice to get to know people better as well as try to figure out what
would catch our attention when we were younger and get us to apply, for me it
was just a letter with the line “full scholarship at a top school” that did it,
I applied and here I am. (I wonder how many opportunities like that, that I or
others miss out on.)
We also learned about “social media” that afternoon. I think
I have a semi-coherent idea of what it all entails now, and boy, is it a lot of
work, (well it can be). There is Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, Foursquare, Tumblr
so much media! And I don’t even have a smart phone! I also learned to do’s and
don’ts, for example, don’t change your twitter picture often, don’t do a sales
pitch, or ask for something.
And the day went on.. (I told you this was going to be
ridiculously in-depth).
We discussed getting officially recognized as a chapter,
which is something that I don’t think Vassar has achieved yet, but if I have
one goal for the club this year it is to get recognized and get on the VSA
website! As part of getting recognized I need to get a leadership team, a lot
of last year’s will be too busy/abroad. We also need a constitution, to be open
to everyone, and a way to differentiate ourselves—find a niche and fill it. My
plan is to be passionate and emphasize the need for a safe space for low-income
students at Vassar to discuss the difficulties they have adjusting to life
there, I also want to emphasize how this is making Vassar a more inclusive
place, promoting understanding, and helping us cater to each student, and thus
enable them to thrive. One of the thing I want to do is have a financial
literacy meeting, and educate students about the resources we have here, Vassar
has taken care of me for the past 3 years, and if you know how to do it, it
will take care of you too. I want to emphasize the club when we sell it for VSA
recognition as being philanthropic, cultural, and academic.
In other news I know have five new friends in the New York
Metro area. Quest grouped us together by geographic regions. So obviously I
have the best one: we have Columbia, Parson’s School of Design, Trinity
College, Yale, and Wesleyan! A pretty impressive group, if you asked anyone,
and I am confident that we will do amazing things together.
And, what do you know, that’s all I have for Friday, well I
did get to know people better. Us Questies went on a walk to downtown Palo
Alto, and had fro-yo. I got to know the liaisons from Columbia and Wesleyan
better, one of the great things about this weekend is learning about how diverse
we are as a group and how similar we are. (Thanks Emory for suggesting I
identify people by their partner college)
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| View from Stanford Law School |
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| As you can see from how comfortably we are posed- they have nice chairs. |
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| Ceilting |
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| did I mention that I love arches? |