My Experience At The Marines And Starting School

Doing a group project is a challenge because some members are not well committed to the work. I am going to use my leadership skills to motivate all members to participate equally

The leader must be sure to take the group dynamics into consideration. It is important to make everyone involved feel that their needs are important. For the project to be a success, everyone participating must feel as if they are contributing and that they are being valued equally.

Without a doubt the single most influential experience in my life has been graduating from Marine Corps boot camp at MCRD San Diego. They say less than one percent of United States Citizens serve in the military and a small fraction of them serve as United States Marines. I take great pride in the fact that standing on those famous yellow footprints separates me from more than 99% of people I will meet. Some people claim boot camp was easy for them, that they didn’t struggle or second guess themselves; unfortunately I am not one of those people. I greatly struggled, not physically as that was easy but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Initially I wasn’t sure if I had made the right decision in enlisting right out of high school. But then

I was not the oldest nor the one with the most experience but I was the one my teammates liked to come to talk to, listened to, and believed in. I put a bond in our team that we did not have in the beginning. We weren’t a team when we started but by the time the season was over we were like siblings, I know a part of this was because of my leadership and how I drove us to believe in each other and support each other. I referred to my sibling earlier of how I enjoy children and helping guide them. I also feel this is a strong part of my leadership. I said that I had four younger siblings, with them and including their friends I think I have quite the shoes to fill in trying to lead them in the right direction with being the right role model. I think this is one of the biggest parts of leadership if not the biggest. I have to help the future by showing them the right way to handle and deal with things in life.

My Mother and Father relocated from Costa Rica to New York City where they met got married and where I was born. When I was just two years old, always wanting the best for us, my father moved our family from New York City to Jacksonville, FL in search of a better paying job and the American dream so he could provide us with a better quality of life. To ensure we were always clothed and feed, my father sacrificed everything for us and worked long hours to do so. Though I did have a pronounced, safe and active upbringing the North Florida school system didn’t expect much from the Hispanics that were starting to move to the then small town; unfortunately since my parents worked so much they expected the school system

There are many different cultures or social groups that have a language barrier whether that is because of religion, race, or social differences. These language barriers eventually will have to be overcome so that we can all communicate with each other. Out of these social groups, comes the greatest fighting force in the World, The Marine Corps. Marines have a very unique language dialog that has been preserved for hundreds of years Unfortunately, there comes a point in time when a Marine must transition out of the Marine Corps into the “Civilian World” (as we call it). Transitioning is a very exciting time for Marines but it also is very difficult time due to the strong language community that we belong to.

Working in a group to achieve a high quality group project can be one of people’s most difficult school experiences. Working in a group is tough because there is often someone who does not pull their own weight. “There are five stages to group development, adjourning, forming, storming, performing, and norming” (John & Wiley pg 166). Christine’s group from the Case Study the Forgotten Group Member is in between the Storming and Norming Stages. The Storming Stage “is dealing with tensions and defining group tasks,” while the Norming Stage is dealing with high emotionality and tension among the group members” (John & Wiley pg. 166). Christine and her group could have had better

After much thought and discussion with a mentor in my community, I walked up to my parents when they were relaxing in the living rooms and blurted “I am enlisting in the Marine Corps”. It came out rushed and my dad’s first response was “no you are not”, and of course I replied, “Yes I am”. A big argument broke out after that and it took a few weeks for the waters to settle. My parents really wanted me to go to college, and I really wanted to join the military. Oak Park tends to produce a lot of college-bound graduates, and for those who do not go to college, they become Marines. A deal was settled, my dad knew of NROTC, and he convinced me that it was in my best interest to become an officer. After a lot of stubbornness on my end, I agreed

This recently became evident to me when I joined the IB program and was assigned several group projects. Each occurrence, I felt the need to direct my peers, assign equal parts to each student, and I am guilty to admit that I felt uncomfortable when I was not able to take charge. Because I am so young I have not gotten much of a chance to be a leader, but each summer I volunteer two weeks to become a teacher at my church’s vacation bible school. This year, I was the lead teacher of sixteen children between the ages of seven and eight. I not only got the chance to guide them in making crafts and singing songs, but also leading them to

Throughout middle school and my freshmen year of high school, I was never extremely comfortable in large group projects. For most of my life, I preferred to work alone or do most of the work in group projects. There was a time, however, in my sophomore Project Lead the Way class where my teacher was explaining to us the grave importance of group work and how it translates into the real world of engineering. After the speech, we were put in groups of eight to solve simple engineering problems, and I began to push myself to interact with my unknown peers. Slowly but surely, I grew more comfortable in group scenarios and kept pushing myself forward. Looking forward to today, I am a captain of my soccer team and a constant leader in group projects

By having so much exposure to young adults, I know that I will be one of the people that have a direct impact on them. I always find the greatest pleasure in hearing that I am their favourite senior cadet or that they are thankful that I pushed them beyond their limits. In addition to the sea cadet program, I am also involved in the leadership within my school. I am the head of my school’s leadership team in which I spearheaded my school’s annual grade nine orientation and I am currently in the midst of planning a weekend in May for leaders among my school board. As a leader within my school, I have gained countless opportunity to work with others. For example, during my school’s grade nine orientation, I know that many of the grade nine students looked up to me and would like to follow a path of interschool leadership. In planning a three day weekend for 350 leaders in the TCDSB, I have a fantastic role in working with eleven other individuals to prepare a fun-filled weekend that has always made a lasting impact on me in previous

An important part of our learning and growing experience must stem from our ability to analyze and reflect upon the groups that we have been members in. This reflection can define our understanding of the weaknesses both in ourselves and in the others within our group; and it can help to shape the way that we act in future groups. Adjusting ourselves to compensate for our weaknesses, based upon an honest and thorough examination of our actions within a group setting, is one of most important thing for any person to do. It is only through this evaluation that we can improve ourselves and our interactions with others. This paper will examine a group that was required to make an important decision about adding a new member

The things I will have done differently in the group was to use my time wisely. I believe because we were on a time frame, I tended to rush things just to say okay where done. Also, more support and trust at a point of time I was kind of second guessing another idea. I feel that you have to have trust in your group member to make it effective.

The group assessment in this unit put together four motivated members that wanted to create quality work. Interestingly, it also included for the first time, in my many team assessments, an additional strong-minded member that wished to lead the group. Sousa & van Dierendonck (2015, p. 15) propose, that sharing leadership duties requires humility from the group leaders to allow others to take responsibility for the task whilst remaining willing to step in and lead when needed. DuBrin (2016, p.27) further states that good team members have the courage to challenge the direction the task is taking and therefore showing leadership within the group. This was an important learning activity for myself as I moved from initial apprehension of joint leadership, to increasingly appreciating the strengths of other team members and the value this added.

Leadership/Group Work: Give an example of your leadership within the context of a group activity. Focus on your specific contribution to the group, particularly noting how you were able to influence or motivate others especially when conflicts arose.