Leadership

Residential Leader
Deakin Residence Waurn Ponds
2017-2018
During my education I have not just focused on study but have made a conscious effort to make sure I am a part of my community and helping others. As I have developed as a leader my goal and vision as a Residential Leader was to bring all university residents together to be motivated to participate in all aspects of the Deakin university life. I wanted to support them not only academically but also socially and mentally so they could grow and find success during their time at Deakin. I have throughout my years of study continued to grow and develop myself so that I can be the best individual in supporting others. I have always wanted to be a part of the community and utilise my skills to work collaboratively with other people. I started being a Residential Leader in 2018 mentoring 60 students through their entrance into University life. A Residential Leader (RL)  acts as a role model for students and provides support to residents welfare and safety. I believe that I was a clear role model for all students by being a positive influence that interacted with everyone to make many friendships and connections, show respect for all members, always act in the best interest of others and participated in all university events and activities. By performing these behaviours many residents followed in my footsteps to feel supported and welcome to go to every event with me and uphold and create a respectful, safe, and welcoming community.

In accepting the leadership opportunity I prided myself in being a leader that upheld the Deakin RESPECT values, recognising student behaviours and referring to Campus life staff, planning and promoting activities and events, attending all training and development offered. The Deakin RESPECT values are important in leadership as a leader needs to support others to be led to success and be inspired to be motivated to achieve great things. By supporting a culture of the Deakin RESPECT values I was able to support all students in an environment that they could grow in to strive socially and academically. An example of this is my ability to respect all students on campus, this was done through understanding that everyone has boundaries and learning how to communicate with different individuals. I made sure to create an environment that everyone could feel welcomed in and felt like they could ask for help if needed. I ensured to make sure that everyone knew that their wellbeing was important to me and I would be there for them. Being a part of this experience allowed me to be a positive influence in providing a welcoming community for all students on residence. Through different jobs in the past and studying Psychology I find that I have really developed my emotional intelligence and find that this is a key skill when working with students to help recognise their emotions and use that information to guide my response and manage their behaviour. Using my emotional intelligence supported the ability to be able to use my awareness of myself and others needed when working in groups with other Residential leaders. We often had to work together to work out how to run an event productively and what role everyone would play. I was able to communicate effectively and understand how to move the conversation in the right direction so that everyone could have a say and be heard, when someone was spoken over I could understand with how they would feel and made sure the conversation was directed back to them so they could keep speaking and get their point across. By using this skill I was able to get the most out of our meetings and make sure that everyone could speak and have a say to utilise everyones ideas. 

I always made sure that all 60 students were accepted and felt like they had a voice to ensure they felt like they belonged. This was done through having meetings and going around in a circle and letting each student talk and express their opinion. I believe it was an effective practice as each student could speak up, if they didn't have anything to say I made sure to check on them at a later time so they knew I was their for them and that their input was valued. One experience that changed my practice was a student that I noticed had withdrawn from the events, was mentally down and struggling with university. I questioned how could I help them and what would be enough to impact them. I spoke to campus life and directed the student to the right counselling and support networks to help with their emotional and academic stress. I wanted to go further in my support and made a conscious effort to sit and have our morning coffee together. Something so small offered them the social interaction that they needed, at times we didn't even speak, however, this revealed to them my support and that I could be someone who would listen if needed. This experience made me reflect and be aware that this was a real life example of leadership in a different way, that providing empathy gave me the development I needed to push my skills further then before. In my unit, we had a range of diverse students coming from all over the world. In leading a diverse group of students I found it vital to make sure that I could encourage my unit to connect and meet new people in making sure they had a memorable time while studying at Deakin. I found it important to be open minded and curious to keep learning about each individual and make sure that each opportunity on campus was given to all students. During my time as a Residential leader I organised residence sport which was held every Monday. This activity allows all residence students to engage in physical activity and get the chance to build new relationships. Each Monday 200 students would participate, by running the event I was able to meet people from all over Deakin and enhance my leadership, organisational and team work skills. At residence sport I also coached a team in mixed netball and was lucky enough to win the overall residence sport competition.

A second event I helped to organise for the students was a Sunday Market. This allowed students to have their own stall whether it be things such as clothes, earrings, paintings and cakes. Students could follow their interests and make and sell it to the rest of the Deakin residence cohort. I loved supporting students to be creative and explore a different group of people and interests. 13 stalls were showcased and a large student representation came on the day. I also decided to raise money for the foundation GAWS a non-for-profit animal welfare organisation and had students from the stalls donate some of their earnings to the foundation. This event enhanced my already strong connection with the community and provided a chance to promote student creativity. Being a Residential leader allowed me to give every student a voice and a support network. I aimed to be a leader who was a part of every avenue of the role and I didn't want to leave the position feeling like I could have done more. I made sure to make my mark and create as many memories, friendships and experiences as I could. I learnt how important it is as a leader to actively listen and the role not only grew my emotional intelligence but revealed that listening to my fellow deakin residents allowed me to put myself in their shoes and pay attention to small changes in their life to better understand and reflect on how to support and help them.  

During this experience I was awarded the   

a great achievement to be recognised by Deakin for my efforts to engage students through my promotion and organisation of activities and bringing students together as a community. Reflecting on this provides the sense of success that I achieved and wanted to conduct during my time on residence. It also reminds me of the constant learning and development of leadership that will continue to grow through each opportunity I am a part of.