Dylan Riddle
12/5/19
SLC 101
Service Action Plan
This first semester at NC State and in the Impact Leadership Village has definitely been a learning experience for sure as a student and a relational leader. It has been more challenging than I expected, and I am still in the process of understanding the best way of doing things in college. It has taught me many things about myself as a relational leader and as a person and has showed me what I need to improve on the most. I have enjoyed the service action proposal project, because it has allowed everyone in the village to pick a topic that they are passionate about and come together as a team and try to make a positive impact in the community. This project made me realize what I value most and how I can be best used to make a difference. At first my plan for the service action proposal for this class was to contact this big organization called RISE, which focused on providing food to places where people are starving, by getting people or organizations to sign up to pack food packages to be sent off to where the food is most needed. Then I changed my service action proposal to working with the Autism Society of NC at NC State. I have always had a passion for wanting to help people with developmental problems, so this was perfect for me. This helped reveal to me that I want a career in a field where I would be able to help people with developmental issues or people that live in poverty, and it played role in me figuring out what major I would like to go into. It also let me see my biggest strengths and weaknesses as a relational leader. One primary component of the relational leadership model that was one of my main strengths was being inclusive. I have a good
understanding of myself and others and an appreciation for others’ cultures. I also greatly value the differences in people, because if everyone thought the same then this would be a very boring world to live in. Inclusiveness came in handy with this service action proposal by helping me understand what people with developmental issues deal with and go through every day, which is why this was such an important topic to me. I would say the empowering component of relational leadership is something that I am good at but have been slacking at during this first semester of college. I am very good at encouraging the people around me and always staying positive regardless of the situation. I firmly believe that everyone has something to offer and it is extremely important to include everyone and talk down on no one. I have not been involved as would like to have been in the village and I really need to work on this next semester to create better relationships between myself and other villagers. Ethical is probably one of my strongest components of the relational leader model, because I have good morals and values and stand firm in what I believe in. The main reason I chose the Autism Society of NC for my service plan was because of my values and it’s something that’s very important to my beliefs. One component of the relational leadership model that I really need to work on is being purposeful, which is having a strong individual commitment to a task or goal and to establish a common ground between yourself and other people. I struggle with fully committing to an activity and I end up wasting a lot of time and I know I really need to improve this, because it makes doing anything more difficult. I need to learn how to do identify my goals and think more creatively and to stay on task a lot better. This made completing my service action proposal much more difficult and take a lot more time than it should have. I also need to work on the process-oriented aspect of the relational leadership model, because I am not the best at trying to organize a group of people to
complete a task, but I have not had too much practice at it either. I got to work a lot on my communication skills, because that’s really vital to the relational part of a relational leader and being over a group of people. I have seen growth in my ethics since I have been at NC State, because my beliefs have been challenged a lot more than I am used too, which has let me understand how to stand up for what I believe in and value. I need to continue to develop as a relational leader, especially in the purposeful and process-oriented components, to successfully implement my service action proposal. I need to greatly improve on my organizational, communication, and time management skills to do my service plan. I think the village is doing a great job at helping us reach our leadership goals, the leadership goals that I am working on now I have to learn on my own and decide for myself. The village can help me complete my action proposal by collaborating with me to improve my plan and volunteering to help me carry it out. My top strength themes are positivity, adaptability, and competition. These strengths will help me to develop as a relational leader and with adapting to college and staying upbeat about everything. I can start developing my leadership needs by being more involved in the village building stronger bonds with everyone and it will also help with my communication skills. Another step I can take is to become more purposeful with all of my actions and to be more decisive and direct in my intentions without any distractions. My philosophy for a good leader is that they respect everyone, while standing firm in their beliefs and being able to organize and collaborate with a group of people. It is someone that is not afraid to take charge and make difficult decisions, while at the same time looking out for the best interest of the group. My leadership philosophy has not changed since beginning this class, but has made me more understanding of everything it takes to be a good leader.
Interview with the Autism Society of NC
My name is Zach and Macy asked me to answer these questions for you. I’m actually an ILV alumni as well so I thought this could be fun.
1) The mission statement of the Autism Society is to improve the lives of individuals with autism, support their families, and educate communities. We respect and value the uniqueness of all individuals with autism; when provided the opportunity, each person can make a unique contribution to their family, community, and society.
2) My own personal mission for the Autism Society here at NC State is to raise awareness of college students and to help bridge the gap between our campus and the autistics community and to erase the stigma.
3) I was a special olympics soccer coach back in middle and high school and it was some of the best memories of my life. When Macy asked me to help her start up the club I was super excited to relive some of those memories.
4) We volunteer around the Triangle with events such as Camp Royal, Miracle League, and Respite. We also have several meetings a semester where guest speakers come in and talk.
5) The semester is winding down so most of our volunteering is done. Last week DJ Svoboda came and spoke to us, and when miracle league starts again, we will be doing that consistently.