Activism Blog #1

1. Activism:

This week, our service learning group visited with the SafeHouse of Seminole in order to help the Girl Scout troop with taking part in community service. We met with the Troop Leader and some of the Girl Scouts on Saturday at SafeHouse. There were five of us, but only two girl scouts. I would consider this our only pitfall, as we were hoping that all of the girls would show up.

Our first activity was to make Halloween bags for the children of SafeHouse. We stuffed over thirty bags with candy, small toys and pencils for each one of the children. This activity was a fun way to give a little to SafeHouse by ensuring that all of the children had a fun and happy Halloween. Secondly, we played with the children and helped them to make tie-dyed t-shirts. This was a great activity, as we were able to interact with the children and everyone had a lot of fun. We made shirts for all of the children who were present, as well as all the children who were not able to be there. Next week we need to solidify all of our plans for Sunday’s Girl Scouts meeting.

2. Reflection:

The activity we completed for this week relates very well to Girls Leadership. Through the tie-dying activity, we were able to provide the Girl Scouts with an opportunity to use their leadership. The girls were able to interact with the children and to help them with their t-shirts. They were just as much in charge of this part of the event as we were, so we truly practiced power-sharing and realistic, authentic leadership experiences. We were able to follow Lyn Mikel Brown's example of listening “to what girls tell us they need and then to provide the opportunities, resources and the scaffolding for their creative, meaningful work” (8). This week changed how I view Girls Leadership, as I saw the girls truly enjoy what they were doing and express their desires to lead by helping the children and teaching them what to do. The girls exhibited aspects of transformational leadership, as they displayed a need to “share ideas, energy, and creativity,” rather than wishing to perform leadership “tasks” such as delegating or taking charge (Van Linden 17).

3. Reciprocity

I feel that I am getting a great deal from this service learning experience. Not only am I learning even more about Girls Leadership, but also about how to help my community. Working at SafeHouse was very gratifying, as I learned about working with children and had a lot of fun. Working with the Girl Scouts is helping me to better understand how to foster leadership development without taking an intervention approach, and how to apply the theories I have learned into practice with real girls.

Works Cited

Brown, Lyn Mikel. “The 'Girls' in Girls' Studies.” Girlhood Studies 1.1 (2008): 1-12.

     Print.

Van Linden, Josephine, and Carl Fertman. Youth Leadership: A Guide to

     Understanding Leadership Development in Adolescents. San Francisco: Jossey-

     Bass,1998. Print.