Blog 16: Advisory Meeting #2

Content:

EQ: What makes an effective Marine military leader?

Answer 2: Team building and dynamics are an important aspects to being an effective leader.

Details:

1) You do everything with your team, not just give orders. If a team is going on a 5 mile run, the team leader should run alongside them (my mentor, Captain Hankle)

2) You go through everything with your team. Everyone goes through the same training and experiences the same things. (The West Point Way of Leadership by Col. Larry R. Donnithorne)
 

3) Communication, trust, and achieving goals are among the key parts of a teams dynamic. If you lack communication, there will be confusion and goals wont be achieved efficiently. (The West Point Way of Leadership by Col. Larry and my 1st independent component)

 

Concluding Sentence: As a leader, your team are the ones you work with and you need to know them well.
 

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

Content:
1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

• I plan to help my dad start the process of beginning a Army Cadet Corp at iPoly. This would require making multiple presentations, attending meetings, and filling out paperwork for both the Army Cadets Headquarters and iPoly. My dad and I would need to get people interested and get a certain amount of people signed up. We would also be establishing certain requirements such as a budget. We would just be setting up the Army Cadets for the income school year.

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

• I will be working alongside my dad to make the presentations and go over details and paperwork. There are many requirements we'd have to fulfil in order to set up the Army Cadets. 

3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

• This project would help me explore the making of a unit that would be practicing leadership in everything they do. One of the answers I'm focusing on is team/leadership building. Taking on the initiative to start the Army Cadet unit is a major responsibility and takes a lot of  people and leadership skills to accomplish the task.

Vietnam Presentation

      In this past month, I had the opportunity to help my dad with a presentation for the sophomores at iPoly. I helped with running the slide show and I learned a lot about my dad that I didn't know.
      Now the reason I felt this experience linked back to my project is because my dad has gained exceptional leadership skills from his experiences in the army. Just watching my dad was proof of that. He knows how to gain respect from others just by how he bears himself and the way he talks to others.
      He also learned a lot of different skills that I view as important for a leader. For example, he had to make careful thought out decisions that would greatly effect his team. While he was in Vietnam, any wrong step he made could've been his last because of booby traps. He helped lead his team carefully through terrain so that his team was safe.
      There was a lot of information from his presentations that I thought was useful for my project.

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

• Literal
• a) I, Samantha Cooper, affirm that I have completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
• b) "The West Point Way of Leadership" by Col. Larry R. Donnithorne. This book was more about military leadership and how to understand and apply one's self as a leader, but I thought it was a good example on a method of leading others.
• c) Spreadsheet in the side menu
• d)With my Independent Component, I focused on my Gold Award Project. This project required me to plan, organize, and host an event in which I address a community issue. I was in charge of setting a date, booking a venue, collaborating with multiple organizations and businesses, and collected donations for my event. I coordinated everything in order for my event to actually happen.
• Interpretive
• Well to start off with, I was required to complete 65 hours for the project originally. This includes every single detail of planning my event and after I have hosted my event. I had to travel a lot to meet with people and I made presentations to spread the word out. There were also the smaller details, such as flyers, that I had tasked for me.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Applied
• This component helped me to put my skills to practice. I was in charge of everything and I was working with multiple people, so I had to put my skills to practice. I've come to find that everyone has a different, effective way of leading, which has showed me that there are multiple paths to go down.

My Girl Scout Gold Award Event: Operation Military Kids

My sister



These were a few of the girl scouts that helped out today

My dad helping with the pocket flags

Prepin' for the Event

These are the signs I made for my event

       Here are some pictures from my preparation last night. It took me all afternoon and evening, with the help of my family, to finish getting ready for my Gold Award event. But it was totally worth it

My family and I made 174 cupcakes of various types for the event