Leadership After the UY

After 4 (and a half, but who’s counting) years mentoring within UY cause-driven programs, it should come as no surprise that I continued down the youth outreach and mentoring path, bringing my experience to the Girl Scouts of MN & WI Valleys. Besides having the honor of working with an INCREDIBLE group of young middle- and high-school ladies, my new position within the Girl Scouts ConnectZ program also allows me to seek out and attend awesome college-and career-related events.

 

One of these such events just so happened to hit the “leadership” nail on the head. This past Friday I attended a Women in Careers leadership conference with 23 ambitious, thoughtful, 21st century-skilled high school girls. The main draw of this annual conference sponsored by the Girl Scouts of MN and WI River Valleys is a series of panels where girls get to interact with professional women from a variety of fields and at varying stages in their career. The panel I attended included women from the fields of social work, education, non-profit business management, and public activism. Although I am not debating which college I want to go to or which career path I should take, hearing from these strong female leaders helped remind me that leadership is a process of learning of growing. It’s ok if you haven’t read all the books on leadership, and you have to cut back on the number of extracurriculars (quality over quantity, right?) and it’s ok if you forget your “meaningful” and “life changing” lesson plan in the printer…I think you get the point.

 

So out of the many insightful nuggets of advice, here are my five favorite takeaways from the panel—agreed upon by each panelist, ages 22-54:

 

1. Leadership skills develop over time—you live and you learn, that’s how life works. If you aren’t trying new things and goofing up, you aren't learning.
2. The leader in a group is the person who will take on the extra work to make sure everything is completed. Leadership doesn’t just happen, it is intentional.
3. Involve yourself with people who mean well for you and will take interest in you. As one of the panelists said, “You always need at least one person in your corner.”
4. With that, this person can be someone older or younger than you, so don’t burn bridges and always be open to opportunities.
5. Lastly, but in my opinion the most important advice to carry with you everyday: Be aware that you ARE affecting those around you. Don’t be concerned about IF you are affecting others, but rather HOW. You affect others in even the smallest interactions and many times you will not know the affect you have had on someone. So be genuine. Be positive. Be that person others want in their corner.

 

Keep on keeping on!

Leah

Paths of the UY

               

My name is Jenny Talen. I came to the University YMCA (UY) as an AmeriCorps VISTA through the College Health Corps in June 2012. I am now serving my second term at the UY (which is coming to a close in June) and the experience has been life-changing. The community that is the UY is truly remarkable—people with passion, people with drive and people with the desire to create social change in every aspect of life.

My role these past two years has been to help support, build capacity and sustainability for two after school mentoring initiatives; Y Mentors Literacy Matters and Y Healthy Kids Matter. Together, these two programs serve close to 100 college students who serve over 120 youth in the Twin Cities. At each after-school site, college student mentors invest in young people, building meaningful and positive relationships. As these relationships solidify, Y Mentors engage with their mentees to build a positive view of the young person’s personal future and instill assets in each individual’s life. As an outsider looking in, it has been inspiring watching these programs and college students transform the lives of young people.

In addition to making an impact on youth in the community, the UY makes an incredible impact on University of Minnesota students as well. College students can become part of a safe and welcoming environment dedicated to building cause-driven leaders and creating a community of intercultural competence and acceptance. It has been an absolute joy watching the college students I work with grow as leaders and as individuals. I have made relationships with so many of these students and I am humbled by their strength, resiliency and ability to create social change.

I don’t know where my journey will lead me after my time at the UY concludes, but I look forward to continuing those relationships I’ve fostered and translating the skills I’ve gained at the UY to wherever my path leads me.

Jenny Talen
Americorps VISTA