HDF 190:

FIRST YEAR LEADERS INSPIRED TO EXCELLENCE LEADERSHIP PORTFOLIO

Chris Toppa SPRING 2013 ctoppa@my.uri.edu

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Strengths Opening Statement Section 1: Self Leadership Section 2: Leadership Theories Section 3: Inclusive Leadership Section 4: Leadership Theories Section 5: Interpersonal/Organizational Leadership

SLIDE #3 SLIDE #4 SLIDE #5 SLIDE #6 SLIDE #7 SLIDE #8 SLIDE #9

Signature Strengths Belief Positivity Relator Harmony Futuristic Values in Action Strengths Humor Honesty Love Gratitude

Hope
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OPENING STATEMENT
My name is Christopher Simmons Toppa. Im a 19 years old and currently a First Year Leader here at the University of Rhode Island. My major is Kinesiology, with a minor in Leadership studies. Through completion of this FLITE course I have learned many things about myself as a leader. I am a Servant Leader that loves to help benefit the lives of others. To me there is no better feeling than making a difference in a persons life. I lead to see how many lollipop moments I can get out of my life.

SECTION 1 SELF LEADERSHIP (1 Highlighted outcome) Outcome #12. Student will show evidence of goals and objectives that were planned and achieved
Target class: HDF 190 Additional experience: Type Focus, Career services Description: Today I declared my major as Wanting Kinesiology. I took the Type Focus assessment that Dom recommended and it helped tremendously. It gave me a huge list of occupations and I went through them all and I found that Occupational Therapy was something that fit me very well. After doing the assessment I found out a lot about myself. I realized that I dont want a boring career in business or engineering. Id rather do something that I love to do. I love to help people and that is why I want to work as an Occupational Therapist in the future. I want to improve the lives of others and have impacts in individuals lives. This has been a huge accomplishment for me. I now understand myself better and I have a new career path. I always thought that I can do anything if I know what my goal is. I ve struggled a little bit this year because I havent known my career path and Ive taken classes that havent interested me much. I made it a goal to find a major and career path this year and I am proud to say that I have accomplished that goal. It doesn t stop here however, I have created a new goal of pursuing Kinesiology as a major and I believe I will achieve that goal as well with time. For evidence I am using the course requirements paper that I got from my new Kinesiology advisor right after declaring my new major. See evidence #3

SECTION 2 Leadership Theory and Models (1 Highlighted outcome)

Outcome #39: Student will describe personal application of the above theory Target class: HDF 190 Additional experiences: Group project ITA to URI, Relational Leadership Model by Komives Description: The component in the relational leadership model that makes the most sense to me is ethical. It was clear to me right away that I needed to have good morals in order to be a good and effective leader. A leader that is ethical means that they are going to be the leader of things that supports their good morals. A leader can be really good when they have a good idea between right and wrong. I can see myself using this model when we do our group projects. I want to include everyone and together come up with an organization that supports a good cause and is ethical. I've loved the group work we've done so far in class. It is really important for our class to form strong bonds with each other and the small group work I think is perfect. I look forward to what we do in each class because its always different and never boring. I really liked the marshmallow challenge. My group really worked together and it showed because we had the highest tower. Now that I have a better understanding of being a relational leader, I will use it in my everyday life to be a better leader that forms strong relationships with others. After doing our group project I can now include how we plan to use this model when we start our organization next year. We first use the Relational leadership theory because the biggest change we want to make with the creation of this organization is to include the students in the ITA program more at URI. It is our goal to create equal opportunities for everyone here at URI. We want to do that so everyone can enjoy their time spent studying at URI the best it can possibly be. The ITA students definitely have a good program here, but we want them to feel included in the community of URI. We all believe it is ethical to try and get these students more involved. We think it s wrong for them to be secluded and not involved in activities on campus. While working on our project I saw how I was demonstrating being a relational leader. I was inclusive by listening to what everyone had to say and was open-minded. I was empowering by being positive and believing in my group that we could get a great project done. I was purposeful because we made the goal to make the lives of the ITA students better. I was compassionate about the group work we were doing because I believe everything has a purpose. I was ethical because I was trying to do what was morally right. It is ethical for us to want to help the ITA students feel more welcomed at URI. I was process-oriented because we had meetings and came up with a process to get our project done. See evidence #2

SECTION 3 Inclusive Leadership / Diversity and its application to leadership (1 Highlighted outcome) Outcome #65. Student will describe personal examples of being a change agent Target class: HDF 190 Additional experience: Group Project ITA to URI Description: Becoming a change agent starts with recognizing there is a need for change. (Higher Education Research Institute, 1996). After learning about the ITA program at URI I knew that there was a need for change. They have their own building and arent very involved on campus. They seem to be secluded from every one else and we collaboratively decided that we wanted to change that. I want these students with disabilities to have the same opportunities that every other student at URI has. We worked together with the common purpose to help give these students more opportunities here at URI. After we came up with the idea of doing a type of leadership weekend with them, I came up with a great idea that had a big impact on our project. I suggested that we make it bigger than that and have the institute weekend as a sort of way to start off the organization. I want to get as many people involved as possible so we can make this more than just a one-time thing. I want to have these students more involved all the time. I came up with the idea of doing sports with them such as wiffleball and basketball, creating different teams with leaders and have meetings so hang out and do many activities with these ITA students so they feel welcome on all of the campus. This will make all of URI aware of the ITA program and we would be very inclusive if we can get as many people involved as we can and really get this organization started! I believe that I demonstrated being a change agent while working on this project and specifically because of the ideas I came up with that were a huge help to our project. See evidence #2

SECTION 4 Leadership Theory and Models (1 Highlighted outcome)

Outcome #45. Student will describe personal application of the above theory (social change model) Target class: HDF 190 Additional experience: Mission trip to Dominican Republic Description: For the past four years I have gone to the Dominican republic to do mission work. I go with my dad every year and we go there to be servant leaders to the Dominican community. They are a third world country that needs a lot of help. In some of the really bad areas called Bateyes, they have no running water, very little food; they get no medical attention, and dont have much opportunity to benefit them. I think its terrible that these people live in such distressed conditions and they dont have the power to help themselves because of the government and such. When I go down there we seek to serve their many needs. Ive built a house for a family one year, give out clothes and food, we run a medical clinic, put water filters in peoples homes, and much more to reach their needs and make their lives better. To me there is no better feeling then serving others and trying to create social change. This demonstrates social change because it is making a difference in peoples lives and getting to the root of the problem, which is to get rid of poverty in the Dominican Republic. I try to give the people there the things they need to live. The government doesnt allow these Bateyes to benefit their own lives. They are given nothing and the only help that they receive is from missionaries that go to help. I am a missionary trying to make a social change in the Dominican Republic by trying to make their lives better, I want to continue to do this because they need a lot of help. Also I would like to do whatever I can in other places to end poverty. Its a big goal but if people work together with a common purpose, amazing things can happen. For this evidence I included a picture of the hospital in the Dominican Republic that I have worked on a lot over the years. It was built from start to finish by the Good Samaritan Mission Council that I do the mission work through. There was need for a hospital so we built it. Now that s social change! See evidence #12

SECTION 5 (Interpersonal and Organizational Concepts and Skills ) (1 Highlighted outcome) Outcome #80. Student will describe examples of using active listening skills Target class: HDF 190 Additional experiences: Servant Leadership speeches, Group project ITA to URI Description: Today in class we all watched as all our classmates each gave their own speech on Servant Leadership. They each gave a 2 minute 30 second speech on how they are a servant leader and what it means to them. I used my active listening skills this whole class. Each person had something amazing to say and I noticed from my active listening that we all have the common purpose to help others. Everyone related servant leadership to their lives and it was so cool to see how each person uses Servant Leadership in their daily lives. We all lead in many ways and I found out some great things that my peers do. For example my good friend Ryan Sherman talked about how he helps coach a team now and wants to continue doing so all his life. I found that very interesting because I could tell he was passionate about it and he was being a servant leader. Another example of me using my active listening skills was in our group project. I always listened to what my group members had to say and we would always incorporate every ones ideas. I believe everyone has something to contribute they just have to utilize their strengths. Our project ran so smoothly and we all got along great and I believe that is partly because of our active listening skills.