By Madeline Stophel
I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from FLEG when I first joined. I knew that it was made to help us develop our leadership, I just wasn’t exactly sure how. But now, looking back at my time spent in this organization, I’ve realized that I’m a completely different person than the one I was eight months ago at the start of the school year. One important skill I have noticed a change in is the effect on my communication.
In my senior year of high school, I was one of the officers for Science National Honor Society, and therefore in charge of the Science Olympiad team. While everything worked out well, there were several situations that resulted from miscommunications throughout the year, the worst of which involved scheduling events at state. I believed my teammate had scheduled the event, and he believed the same of me. We didn’t realize until the night before the mistake we made. We went in early the next morning and got the situation sorted out with the volunteers. However, although it worked out, it could have been solved earlier had we had some foresight and advanced communication, which I took as a lesson going into college.
Now that I am in college, I make sure to confirm everything is being done when working in a partnership. Often, I have an assignment – whether to create the GBM slide, run the meeting, or create a presentation – with another person on my committee. Although simple, these assignments have helped me improve my communication so that I will reach out to my partner almost immediately, divvying out tasks so that we both have equal parts and don’t forget everything.
The collegiate committee’s slack channel from the beginning of the year to now has undergone a drastic difference. In September, when we first started, most of the communication, especially the beginning of any conversation, was done by Dominik or Leah. Although this was not a bad thing (we were only starting to learn what FLEG was all about), it is certainly a different picture than now. The slides are sent out by whichever FLEG recently ran the meeting, bolstered with comments from the committee about ideas or updates with what we are doing for the events. The Co-directors certainly participate, reminding us about deadlines and giving their input on ideas, but it is more committee run than before. We are now more proactive and open with each other. FLEG has given me both the incentive and the practice to improve my communication skills. Without it, I wouldn’t be the same person I am today.