Freshman year was not how I thought it would be. Entering into the school year, I was a little skeptical and a little disappointed. I was super excited to start high school and be with my friends and have a little bit more freedom. Distance learning is working out okay. It is still stressful and a lot to keep track of, but it is not the chaotic mess that happened in the spring. I was also a little worried about what we would do with activities. After training with Scott Backovich, I feel like we can come up with activities for the student body that are fun and aren't necessarily on zoom. So far, this year has taught me a lot of things. I need to be able to face change and adapt to it. All of the challenges with COVID-19 and distance learning have given me a better sense of how I adapt to situations and how I can get better. During my time with this program, I hope to become a better leader when dealing with adversity and challenges.
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“It’s not about forgetting the past, it’s about growing from it.” -Nate Feuerstein I like this quote because it talks about learning from your mistakes in your past. For me, it helps me think about what I do now has an impact on my future. I have the choice to learn and grow and become a better person, or I can stay stagnant and wait for opportunities to come my way. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” -John 3:16 I have known this verse for a long time. It was one of the first Bible verses I learned at Sunday school. I like this verse because it reminds me that I am loved by something greater than this whole world. It reminds me that I follow a God that knows me by name. He knows me better than I know myself. “Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory or one of unthinkable horror.” -C.S. Lewis I like this quote because it reminds me that everyday is a new day, and I can either choose to make it a good day or a bad day. When you choose to have a good day, you are happier and act like a good person.
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My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence. —General Montgomery This quote means something to me because it states how we as leaders relate to people and help them. Our leadership program adapted to the restrictions put on by Covid and was able to put on fun events that the whole student body was able to enjoy. That is why I like this quote. We are always adapting and relating to other people to give them confidence.
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One of my goals for Leadership is to become more connected to my peers. I want to be able to help people the best that I can, so I need to be involved so I can be around people to address needs when I see them. My second goal for leadership is to become more professional. I am excited to learn about all of the resume stuff and professionalism. One of my short term goals to become more fluent in Spanish. I eventually want to be bilingual because I will have a lot more job opportunities. My other short term goal is to become more aware of my grades. I tend to not look at them because I instantly get stressed if I feel like I am not doing good in a class. One of my long term goals is to get a well paying job. I want to have a job that is well paying so I have a bit more flexibility with what I can do for others and where I can go. My other long term goal is to be bilingual. I want to be fluent in Spanish so I have more job opportunities and can communicate with more people.
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My first goal was to become more connected to my peers. I have worked towards this goal by introducing myself to the people around me in my classes. I try to have a conversation with the people that I meet. It has been really great to see people around campus that I know. It helps me have more of an impact on people. My second goal was to become more professional. I have learned how to write a resume and am going to complete my mock interview soon. I can send a professional email and have it sound really good. I know what a professional outfit looks like and can do some impromptu public speaking. My third goal was to become more fluent in Spanish. I have made some progress in Senor Giedd’s class. I can write some basic sentences and a couple more complex ones. I plan to practice on Duolingo this summer and I am taking Spanish 2 next year. I will also have my grandma teach me some Spanish because she is fluent. My fourth goal is to become more aware of my grades. I have Aeries on my phone now. I can look at my grades and what I got on my assignments whenever I want. It has helped me be more accountable because I know my grades and can keep track of them. My fifth goal is to get a well paying job. I will be working on this goal for a while. I have professional skills that I have gained through leadership and FFA. Being bilingual will help if I stick with Spanish throughout high school. If I stick with the honors and AP classes throughout high school, that should help with getting into a good college. My sixth goal is to become bilingual. I am in Spanish 1 right now. I am planning on taking Spanish all four years of high school and maybe even minoring in it in college. I am going to do some Duolingo this summer to help retain the Spanish that I learned this year. I hope that if I become bilingual it will lead to more job opportunities.
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In the end of the 2019-20 school year, freshman Madeline Stewart was kind of nervous about how high school was going to be. She was very excited to be able to switch classes and go off campus for lunch, but she was nervous about how she was going to do with her classes. She has always been very conscious about her grades and she didn’t want them to fall. “I have never liked my grade to fall below a B+. I stress myself out a lot over it,” says Madeline Stewart. This year as distance learning has been going on due to COVID-19, she has been really focusing on doing her work well and in a timely manner. “I need to find the balance between stressing about it too much and stressing about it too little. It is not healthy to stress out too much but I still want to be producing quality work,” Madeline explained. Madeline feels like she has adjusted to distance learning well, but will be ready to go back when it is okay. She is excited to see her teachers in person and hang out with her friends.
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Fall Fest 2020
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My granny has made an impact on my life. She is very involved with what we do. She comes to a lot of our sports games, takes me and Abby shopping, and we always sit by her during church. She helped us plan a teen retreat this summer. She is a spiritual director and loves to ask us questions about how we are doing.
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If I were an animal, I would be an owl. I have always wanted to be able to fly. I could fly wherever I wanted. I would also be a night creature. I usually don’t stay up very late, but I like how the sky looks at night and how quiet it is. If I was an owl, I could live alone and not have to rely on anyone else. I would have huge eyes and be able to turn my head 270 degrees. Mice would be pretty gross to eat though. I would live in a tree. In conclusion, these are all reasons why I would be an owl.
Portfolio Page #11- The Season of Giving
For my final, I chose to get a tag from the Giving Tree.
First, I went to school and got a tag from the tree in the office. Then I saw that my little girl wanted a L.O.L. doll, so we ordered two of them off of Amazon for her. They got here, so now I am typing out the writing portion of my final.
I am really excited for her to get these! I hope she likes them. I liked helping make Christmas better for a kid that isn’t as fortunate as I am.
This assignment was valuable because you get the child what they want for Christmas instead of them may be getting nothing at all. You help make their Christmas better. It feels great to help a child in need.
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What I liked about leadership this year was that we really had to think creatively about what events we did. This year forced us to look at our past events and think about how we could adapt them to fit with COVID protocols. We have gotten opportunities to participate in events that we have never gotten to do before. Us freshman got to go to a CASL conference about emotions on zoom. We learned a lot. We also got to do training with Scott Bachovich and got event ideas. Some of the ideas that he gave us could be used in an in-person setting. Since we have been back in person, I have met new people in my classes. Leadership is really cool because it is people from all four grades. It is really fun for me to interact with upperclassmen.
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Sports- I have played multiple sports throughout my life. The sport I am playing right now is water polo. I chose a picture of a pool because I also hope to do swim. I love water polo because I like to swim and it something way different than anything I have ever done. I have been in the best shape I have ever been in because I have started water polo.
Faith- My faith plays a big role in who I am. I have grown up going to church and go to a bunch of church events. I have met some of my best friends there. I love Jesus. I love that he is always by my side and never stops pursuing me.
Animals/FFA- I love animals. I am raising lambs for FFA. I love showing animals because it gives me the opportunity to work with livestock. You get to see the personalities of your animals as you work with them and take care of them. It is a lot of work but in the end, it is worth it.
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My favorite part of adapted HOCO was the night rally. We got to make up a dance and perform it in front of everyone. I had a lot of fun! It was a great time to bond with the other freshman and it was cool to see all of the upper class men. I loved that we got to experience a rally, even if it wasn't as large scale as it normally is. All the freshmen I talked to loved it!
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My hobby is swimming and water polo. I love these sports because I have fantastic teammates and it is a hard sport. It forces me to go outside my comfort zone and try new things. I am doing the 5:30 morning practices until the summer swim stuff starts. I am really excited about the summer swim and water polo groups because I will be able to improve so much. This sport has taught me the importance of perseverance and hard work. I am not in the best of shape, but I have worked hard to get to the point that I am at today. I never would have thought that I would be at the point that I am today. My teammates are also really understanding that I am new and inexperienced. They help me as best they can and tell me what to do when I can’t hear the coach.
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Dear Mom and Dad, Thank you so much for everything you have done for me. Words can’t express how much you mean to me and how much I love you. You have been with me through the good times and the bad. You have never given up on me and always have helped me accomplish my goals. Thank you for being tough on me and making me work. It has given me life skills that I never would have gotten on my own. Thank you for always being there for me.
Love, Your Favorite Child (Maddie)
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Dear Future Freshman Representative, You are going to have fun next year! It can be a lot to handle sometimes, but you got this. Make sure that you don’t procrastinate and that you do your work thoroughly and completely. Make sure that you color the picture at the end of each journal week. Leadership is a ton of work but it is also fun. You get as much out of it as you put into it. My year was a bit crazy with Covid and my schedule so I didn’t have as many events as you will. When planning events and coming up with ideas make sure you have all of the supplies needed and think outside of the box. The more creative you are, the better the event/project will turn out. Make sure that all of the people on your team are on the same page. If you guys communicate well with the little things, it will make the bigger events like Homecoming way easier and less stressful. Stay organized and make sure to include everybody in what you are planning. Next year, promote the spirit days a lot. I feel like our team this year could have been a bit better about it. It also helps if you keep the number of locations to remind people about events down. We had an app that we hardly used that we had people download. It just made for a lot of unnecessary places to post announcements. Make sure you get to know everyone on your team. The people on our team this year were very nice but there were some cliques in the group. I am not saying that you have to hang out with each other 24/7 but make sure that you make an effort to include and talk to everyone. As a freshman, this whole experience will be very overwhelming for you because it is your first year. Just breathe and have days where you don’t put too much pressure on yourself to get everything done. It helps keep you from getting burnt out really fast. Remember that high school is not just all work and school and no fun. You are going to be amazing next year! Just remember to make deadlines and do not procrastinate. Morty deadlines are different from normal deadlines. Morty’s deadline is a little bit earlier. Next year is going to be great!
Best regards, Maddie Stewart
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Next year, keep up on all of your work. The journals can be a little tedious but if you keep up with it, it is not bad. Remember to color the picture at the bottom of the fourth page. Morty doesn’t give you busy work. She wants you to succeed in life. Make sure that you don’t have open toe or open heel shoes during speeches. Morty is very picky about professional dress. Guys cannot wear long athletic socks instead of dress socks. Morty hates those socks and she will check for them. Do not wait until the last minute to check to make sure that you have all of your supplies. It is better to see what you have as soon as possible so that way you can make sure that you get the supplies in time. It is great to have a game plan so that you are not scrambling at the last minute at events. Morty is not okay with scrambling at the last minute. Do not be disorganized. The first time you meet, get everyone’s phone numbers and make a group chat. That way everyone is on the same page. It will be a lot easier when it comes to events if you are organized the whole year. Make sure to meet with everyone during leadership class and check in.
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This year we worked on mock interviews and public speaking. For mock interviews, you tell Morty what career path you want to go into and she finds a person in that industry to come and interview you. She then helps you write a cover letter and resume that you upload onto your professional website that you will make. During the interview, the professional will grade you on how well you did and tell you what you can improve on. This really helped me learn what employers and colleges look for in a resume and how I can improve. The professional gave me such great advice on how I can be more specific with my cover letter and how I need to fidget less. We worked on public speaking by giving speeches. This year Morty let us pick our own topics because we were still on zoom. I have no idea how she will do it for next year’s class. It was great because we got to write it out and turn it in early but she let us change it a little bit to make it sound better as a speech. You have to wear something professional when you give the speech. She grades you on how long you gave the speech, the actual content of the speech, and so much more. It helped me get more comfortable with public speaking. It was also really great to hear my classmates’ opinions about certain topics.
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This was a hard year for me as a leader. Covid got in the way of me being able to meet my team and meet the rest of the class. We weren’t able to have the normal school events to the scale that we normally would. Being on distance learning for such a long time definitely did not help the circumstances. One of the problems that I observed in our team was that there were a lot of cliques. Distance learning made it so that we didn’t get to know each other as much as we normally would. That also meant that there would be friend groups within our leadership group and they stuck to them. It made it hard to communicate and be included because it was always the same people doing the same things. Next year, make sure that you talk to everyone in your team and get to know them. Be sure to try to include everyone during activities. You don’t want to have that one person that doesn’t feel like they haven’t done anything important. I think it will be better for next year’s group because they will get to spend more time with each other. We didn’t have as much team bonding this year. Make sure you go to Core Camp. That is part of the team bonding experience and is very important. You decide your core values and get to know your teammates. Last year, we were all online and didn’t do anything with it. This year will be different and I think it will help solve the problem.
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An ideal leader is someone who is professional and sticks up for what they believe in. They respect others’ opinions but also keep their own. They are also kind and try to create an atmosphere where everyone can succeed. A leader in our program should get their work done on time and try to be involved in class and event activities. They should be organized and not procrastinate on their work. They should keep an open mind about Morty’s meditation sessions because they can be good for you. Do not expect this class to be easy. This class requires outside of class time and makes you think outside of the box. If you stay organized it will be a ton easier. We do a lot of activities in class that are not the average class activities. Keep an open mind and meet new people. A good thing to do is to introduce yourself to some of the older kids in leadership. They are super nice and will help you throughout the year. I met some great people when I went and sat by the sophomores. It is really fun when you see them around campus and say high to them.