LC 2011!

We're past the one-week mark, people...hard as that is to believe! Sorry for the delay in blog posts...I've been crazy busy and just got back Friday night from the Leadership Collaborative 2011.

And let me tell you.

Can you say awesome experience?! It was life-changing, to say the least. We all had an intense four days of scheduling and non-stop activity which woke us up early in the mornings (around 7:30am for me) and kept us going until roughly 2am every night. Insane? Yes. More fun than you can believe? OH YEAH. We got unbelievable chances to meet people in the Buckeye and surrounding Columbus communities, including State Representative Cheryl Grossman; DOW Chemical Company representative David Wilkins; State Representative John Karney: CEO of Jeni's Ice Cream, John Lowe; Assistant Vice Presidant of Undergraduate Admissions and First-Year Experience, Dr. Mabel G. Freeman; two-time Heisman trophy winner and OSU Alumni Association CEO, Archie Griffin; and drumroll please...the President of The Ohio State University, E. Gordon Gee!

My small group with President E. Gordon Gee! <3
Sorry for the terrible quality. They haven't given the actual picture to us yet,
so I took a picture of the paper version they gave us with my webcam =/
But still!!! :D

Starting off the week were a few classes on etiquette, which taught us proper greeting and dining manners. We also toured the Ohio Statehouse (and even got to sit in the seats of the House!), visited the North Market (a.k.a. one of the most culturally diverse markets I've ever been to), sampled Jeni's ice cream, learned from upperclassmen about campus groups and student organizations, formed intimate small groups with student & staff facilitators, learned a ton about everyone's leadership skills and strengths and how they compared to our own, ate ridiculously delicious meals, played soccer "LC-style", got carpet burns playing lap tag (Google it), tailgated, had a crazy fun dance party, and got to storm the home field of THE Ohio State Buckeyes!! Not to mention, we all made friends that will hopefully last a lifetime.

It was such a diverse group of people -  ranging anywhere from people who lived 5 minutes away, to a few people who stepped foot in the United States for the first time a few days before the conference began. Yet somehow, in a way that would only happen at Ohio State, over those four days we became a family. Difficult to believe, but I think I speak for all of us when I say that it was astoundingly different to be devoid of shared histories and preconceived notions about one another, to be so a part of something. And personally? I think that's AWESOME.

If anyone reading this is considering Ohio State as a college option, or gets the chance to be a part of the Leadership Collaborative...DO IT. You won't regret it :D

I could go on and on about what an awesome week this was and all of the different activities we did, but the staff and upperclassmen were so vague with us that it made everything a surprise once we got there, and I kind of liked that. If you would like more information about it, shoot me an email! I'll gladly answer any questions :)

Lessons learned:

•  Innumerable!!!!!

NEXT UP: Packing. And lots of it. Stay tuned :)



Countdown: 6 days!