Drifting

As a Cardoner Leadership student, I have the privilege to attend seminars that share valuable information that applys to both my academic and career goals. The goals, however big or small, have received much help from these educational seminars. The past two seminars, share this same insight. 

Last week we had a small group discussion where we discussed the different view of an employee who wanted to have floating absent days. She was an employee who came to work in the South from up North. In addition to this fact, she was also Jewish. Since I am from the south, it was evident to me what her problem was automatically. The south is an absolutely wonderful place to live, dont get me wrong, I cant imagine living anywhere else, however, the nick name "bible belt" wasn't coined out of thin air. In a place where conservative christianity is the norm and even Catholics are hard to come by, the fact that this women was Jewish was requesting Jewish holidays off was about a joke and a half when I began to read the discussion essay. To say that the south is stuck in tradition would be a true statement. So, her suggestion of approaching the boss with a new plan of action for the company was a lost cause, although it was the appropriate plan of action. 

This week, we  had a speaker come to us from a PR firm in New Orleans. His advice was very enlightening. Since he was a Loyola alumni I felt that he was very relatable and was very equip to answer the many of the questions that we had about what him and his firm did throughout the city. He mainly shared with us his experiences with Hurricane Katrina and how his firm was effected. His experience with the natural disaster really pushed the limits of their company but ultimately fixed the firm into a more equipped PR firm. He shared with us many of the stories of his experience with the hurricane. I knew that hurricane Katrina was a storm that devastated millions of people but I had, had no idea how the situation was back in New Orleans when they where trying to broadcast to the world that they were okay. 

PR really played a big part in keeping the reputation of New Orleans during the storm. Living in Florida, hurricanes actually have their own season, so we know a thing or two about tropical storms. However, I had not recollected on the factor of PR.

In conclusion, both of these experiences led me to great insight about how community interactions are a great way to show leadership skills. Since Cardoner is a community-service based program, I feel that these lessons are very practical.