As this new school year gets rolling I am both excited and nervous for the coming weeks. Last year I got involved in French club or Le Cercle Français and Rotaract, a service organization. Last spring I decided to run for leadership positions in both clubs and now I find myself facing a lot more responsibility than I did at this same time a year ago.
To some, French Club may seem like a silly club that doesn’t need to be taken seriously. I, however, am passionate about French. I love to speak it every chance I get and I am always looking for those opportunities. This is the primary reason why I joined French Club. Six months later I decided to run for Vice President because I wanted to make French Club into something that people took seriously, not just something to blow off or only come to when they feel like it or if they have nothing else to do. I wanted to make it into a club that students would want to come back to week after week and feel like they were getting something out of it, whether that be improving their French speaking skills, learning about Francophone culture, connecting with others who share similar interests etc… Anyway, you are probably wondering where I am going with all of this. The point is that I was elected VP, the school year has started, French Club was at the involvement fair, our first meeting is next week and I am pretty terrified. What if I fail? What if I am not able to make this into the club I envision it to become? What if people come and then never come back because they think it’s boring? There are so many what ifs.
I realize that in the grand scheme of things, Le Cercle Français at Penn State is fairly inconsequential to most people’s lives and to the world in general but it’s not inconsequential to me. Some days, I am honestly tempted to run away from this new position as I come to terms with the fact that even in a small student organization, a leadership position can be intimidating and more difficult that I thought.
One of the biggest obstacles I have found so far is communication. There are six members of the e-board, which doesn’t seem like too many, however, in the past week alone there have been several miscommunications between us. It is one of the more frustrating parts of the job. This is something I am looking to improve throughout the semester, as communication is one of the secrets to successful leadership because if we cannot learn to communicate effectively between us, how are we going to be able to communicate effectively with our members?
This being said, I cannot imagine being on the list of possible candidates for the future presidency of the Pennsylvania State University. There are so many things that could be addressed on this topic, especially after our class discussion on it, however, at the moment, I am just thinking about the communication aspect of it.
In class we looked at the “administration tree” that is responsible for keeping this university running. The tree is fairly large and complicated with WAY more than six people on it. It is very important for that group of people to communicate effectively amongst each other so that they can effectively communicate with all the faculty, staff and students that make up the Penn State family. This is something I’m stressing because as Penn State has learned over the last two years, miscommunication can lead to grave consequences.
So going back to our discussion from class on Tuesday, great communication skills are definitely one of the qualities we should look for in the person who will eventually become the next leader of our university.
As the university moves towards this big decision and the semester keeps moving forward, I also will be moving to improve my own personal communication skills. I want to push myself to be the best Vice President of the French Club that I can be and hopefully I will find some success along the way.