For the implicit bias test, I chose the random topic assignment, and the assigned test assessed my bias between Christianity and Islam using a grouping method with “good” and “bad” words.  My result was “no automatic preference between Islam and Christianity”.  I thought this was interesting because I answered incorrectly for both Islam and Christianity a couple times, but the results revealed it is based on the time it took for me to make a connection between Christianity with “good” words or whichever.  Although my results weren’t that interesting, I thought it was interesting that following the grouping assessment they asked for the postal code that I have lived in for most of my life (I don’t know if they asked that for every test?).  I just thought that was a unique way to collect data and understand possible biases by geography.

On February 15, I went to see The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe. This play was centered on an indoor girls soccer team called the Wolves. The audience only knows the characters from the numbers on their jerseys. The girls, who are in their junior year of high school, debate current topics and issues during their pre-game warmups. The girls converse on the topic of teen pregnancy, the Mexico-U.S. border, and even the ethical concerns of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Each subsequent interaction between the characters allows the audience to see how the unity of the team changes across time. These interactions include one girl’s use of Plan B and the ensuing rumors that her teammates create. This performance did not feel like a play, but rather an accurate depiction of how teenage girls view the world around them and how the world perceives them.

This performance relates to leadership studies because it highlights how intergroup dynamics shape human interaction. Every character desires to be heard and listened to in a noisy group of teenagers. In large groups, one can see that all the weaknesses and strengths of each individual make up the group’s meaning. No matter the calmness or rationality of the leader, there are certain individuals who speak out against their leader’s decisions. This play highlights the fact that social groups must determine their own collective meaning for success. The reason for many of the aggressive interactions in this performance is the fact that each person feels that they are not valued and do not have influence over anything. A common experience helps to bind this group together and this group learns to unify themselves. Overall, this play was very fascinating because it showed the power of team communication in verbal and physical ways.

Each semester, my sorority offers an array of programs and talks on campus that are available for our chapter to attend. These events typically bring in outside, professional speakers or experts on particular topics. Typically, these topics are academic in nature, but are usually also applicable to real world situations or work experience. I love these events because they provide into into the professional world and give us an opportunity to hear from individuals who have taken classes like we do now in undergrad and built a career from that. Moreover, these SOE’s make events like these extremely accessible to us. For example, one week a professional nutritionist came to speak with us. She not only presented information about the scientific evidence and implications behind the food we put in our bodies, but she also spoke about what her job looks like on a daily basis. Thus, we received applicable advice related to our physical well-being and gained insight into a potential career opportunity.
However, one SOE that I just attended is the one I will focus on in this particular post, because the event really stuck out to me and was somewhat different than typical SOE’s. This SOE centered around drug awareness. When I initially heard the topic of the SOE, I planned on skipping it. Throughout middle and elementary school, I have sat through countless talks given by police officers and firemen about drug awareness. And they all end in the same predictable way with “Drugs are bad.” or “You don’t believe this can happen to you, but it can.” And that was the perspective I went into this talk with. I was not expecting to gain much insight from it, to be completely honest.
However, the woman who spoke defied my expectations. When she initially started speaking, I just assumed that she was professional speaker, or someone who worked in a legal setting or for a non-profit that raises awareness about drugs. However, I quickly realized I was wrong as she began to tell her story. She first described her ambition and life path for the majority of her life. In undergrad, she went to a prestigious university, worked extremely hard, excelled in sciences, and made significant sacrifices throughout her time that enabled her to be accepted to a prestigious Physician’s Assistant program. This really struck a chord with me because I am studying sciences and hope to pursue a career in the healthcare field. She then went on to describe a day that changed everything for her. It was a long story, but essentially, just weeks before she was scheduled to enroll in classes at her PA school, she went to a concert, was stopped by the police, and was arrested for being in possession of a single pill of the drug Molly.
She went on to describe the shock, emotional difficulty, and financial burden that this placed on her family. Her enrollment to PA school was denied and she faced significant legal action and bills. Based on the court’s verdict, they required that she contact a certain number of academic institutions and give talks to undergraduate students about her experience. The court wanted her to raise awareness about the dangers of drugs not only from a medical perspective, but from a legal one that has potential to jeopardize your entire future. After giving her talk and informing us about the significant struggle her entire case has been and the extent to which it has impacted her life, she engaged us in discussion. This was my favorite aspect of the event. She gave us the opportunity to ask questions and discuss issues. She confronted us with difficult questions such as why are drugs so prevalent on college campuses even though so many people recognize them as wrong? Do we understand the consequences of drugs: legally, medically, socially, etc.? And considering what those consequences are (as she described) are they fair or what should be the consequences be?
Her questions got me thinking about how prevalent and how much of an issue drugs are on college campus and how that intersects with our lives as university students to an even greater extent than we realize. One thing I was thinking about was the ethics behind taking ADHD medicine when you are undiagnosed in order to enhance your performance. This was actually also spoken about significantly in one of the readings we read earlier in the semester. Her talk stood in direct contrast to the perspective of that reading, which claimed that self-prescription should be diagnosable.
Finally it even relates to university policy on this campus. I started thinking about of athletes are randomly drug tested and their participation is often contingent on these tests coming out clean. Moreover, many students at UR are on financial aid. Drug violations go directly against national and university policy. Such instances can jeopardize one’s financial ability to continue to study here.
Overall, this SOE was very informative and thought-provoking for me. It challenged me to think simply beyond “drugs are bad for you” and grapple with why such strict parameters and consequences are in place and what happens as a result when they are violated.

Dr. Betty Neal Crutcher gave a talk during the Honor week which regarded questions of ethics and honor. She elicited the three V’s which were values, virtues and visions – which although seems relatively cliché holds extreme prevalence in this day and age. I say this because the modern generation has somewhat shifted each of these V’s and gravitated towards alternate forms of focus, be that through the increase of social media and capability for instant gratification or elsewhere.

An additional point of her speech was the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, which she had close relation to due to her place of birth. Upon prior hearings of this experiment my initial reaction was undoubtedly shock however when hearing of this with personal experiences and effects on the community this reaction was multiplied and grounded due to the personable aspect to it as it only seems as a situation one hears about in textbooks. This distance relates to concepts in leadership as the relation or understanding of fallacies can be overpowered or covered by anecdotes and Dr. Crutcher’s point of ethics. For many leaders reveal a façade of ethical standards by granting miniscule anecdotes as part of a grander ploy or hiding of bias. Which transcends into Dr. Crutcher’s alternate point on trusting no matter the abilities or ways of disparate people with various backgrounds. For everyone is able to be bias but it is when we let these biases overpower not only our trust but our understanding or relation to others is when danger arises. This related somewhat to the unethical choices in the Stanford prison experiment and the immorality Zimbardo projected onto those participating. For it is so easy to let your decisions be blurred thinking it is still an experiment when you are so invested in science and less so to the reality of situations – which can stand true on alternate standpoints not merely science.

Dr. Crutcher’s talk reminded me of although the importance of being honest and ethical will always hold prominence it is also crucial to respect alternate people’s ethics and values without the selfish concept or merely respecting our own.

Earlier this semester, I attending the University’s talk where they brought in a survivor of the VA Tech shooting to talk about her experience as well as school safety and prevention of another school shooting.  She was in the building where the shooter attacked and was shot 3 ltimes.  She  ended up playing dead in the back of the classroom in order to survive while most of her classmates where killed.  She has since been dedicated to teaching people how to survive in a similar scenario as well as educated schools and law enforcement on how to create a plan of action when these events happen.

She talked a lot about how the building she was in had very few entrance points making it easy for the shooter to barricade himself into the building and harder for law enforcement to get inside once the shooting started.  Additionally, a UR police officer spoke to tell us about emergency resources on our own campus in order to help in an active shooter scenario.  Overall, our campus seems very prepared for the unlikely event that this would happen but one thing I learned is that you can never be fully prepared for a tragedy such as the VA Tech shooting.

This past Tuesday, I attended the VA Holocaust Museum to tour the museum and to have dinner with two survivors of the Holocaust.  I have been to the National Holocaust Museum in DC before but the tour of the VA museum was especially powerful as it tied many connections to Va to the Holocaust.  One fo the most interesting things I learned about VA in relation to the Holocaust was about a farm in western VA that sheltered Jewish men that had escaped from Germany prior to the war.  These men worked on the farm in order to make a living and in turn they were provided a place to live in safety away from Germany.  When the war started, these men joined the allied forces and fought against Germany in WWII.  I found this story unique and very interesting as it happened right here in VA.

After the tour of the museum, we sat downforce dinner and two survivors of the Holocaust spoke to our group.  The man spent time in 4 different concentration camps.  He claims the only reason he survived is because he was given better rations as he was a very skilled worker.  The camp he was at was responsible for building rockets for the German army.  He was liberated by the British army and then settled with his wife in Richmond.  His wife who also survived the Holocaust had a different story than he did.  She spent the Holocaust in hiding.  Her father purchased fake papers for her and her sisters that claimed they were Catholic.  At 14, she boarded a train with nowhere to go and eventually found work as a maid.  She spent the war working as a maid under a false identity and then her and her husband moved to Richmond.

This experience was incredible as it really brought to light the horrors of the Holocaust though personal examples as well as tying the Holocaust back to Richmond

Last week I attended Take Back the Night on our campus forum.  This event gave survivors of sexual violence and other members of the University community to speak about the problem of sexual violence on college campuses.  The event structure was an open mic so student could come speak to the crowd on their own personal experiences or some students brought essays or poems they had written about the problem of sexual violence.

This event made me realize how prevalent sexual violence is especially on college campuses.  While I thought I knew how awful sexual violence is, hearing first hand accounts from members of our University community gave me new perspective of the horrors of this issue.  This event empowered survivors to be able to share their story about a topic that is often overlooked and uncomfortable to talk about.  The overwhelming majority of sexual violence is against women and I think men have a duty to be active bystanders as we all have the ability to help stop sexual violence before it happens.

This event provided powerful first hand accounts that I hope inspired every person who attended to become more actively engaged in combating the problem of sexual violence, specifically on college campuses.  I was unaware of how prevalent this issue was on our own campus.  I went through Spiders for Spiders training with my fraternity last year and I hope this event encourages others to attend similar training and become more active bystanders