Trustworthiness: Jackie

Trust is essential to any relationship whether it be a friendship or otherwise. Having dealt with  situation like this before, I would bring the two students together immediately to hold a meeting. When something like this happens, holding a meeting together allows the students to talk face to face and resolve the situation instead of the "He said, She said" situation. Obviously when trust is broken between a pair of friends, the person who has entrusted the other is going to feel extremely hurt and that can not be fixed right away. Once trust has been broken so has a bond, and a person starts to rethink their decision in trusting another.

This situation can be resolved in face to face conversation and the best way to resolve it is to understand both sides of the story and come up with a logical answer. The major marker that the kids discussed is eye contact. If a person doesn't display eye contact it could mean that they are hiding something, and this doesn't apply all of the time, but it can be at some points.

Trust, Monti

        Trust is very important with these kids. They only have a short time to become with friends with the people here and they form trust bonds quickly. In this situation, a bond is broken and needs to be dealt with as soon as possible. A meeting definitely needs to be held, but I would first talk to both parties involved individually. Getting both sides of the story is important to see if there was miscommunication between the two students. When I have heard both sides I will get both students together to figure out the real problem and a solution. 

If indeed the student who was trusted with the secret was at fault, I would try to explain how important keeping that bond intact is crucial to a good living environment. As one student put it, trust is, "Faith in somebody or in something you do" another said, "…the ability to believe in someone". This is important to our students and would hope the other person would understand. Trust is a gift someone gives to another. The best answer I received from a student was this,"...when you give your heart and your brain to other people, to friends, and trust is one of the most important feelings man can can have because it means a testimony of someones goodness."

Week Two

(Blog due Sunday, July 14th)

Trait: Trustworthiness.

How does a person gain trust? Is it through telling people that you are trustworthy and that's that? Or is it through never giving people a reason to be mistrustful of you? While people might believe you for a little while if you're constantly telling them what to think of you, we all know that actions speak louder than words and, eventually, they'll know whether they can really trust you or not. So how do we show that we are, in fact, worthy of others' trust?  

It's a matter of being ethical and holding yourself to a high moral standard. Don't lie, cheat, steal, or throw anyone under the bus to get ahead. Be fair to other people, listen to them, respect their right to have an opinion that you may not agree with, and don't share confidences of theirs with other people. The old adage of "Do unto others as you would have done unto you" is a helpful way of keeping yourself in check.  

Activity:

Monti: Discuss trustworthiness with the students. Ask them to define what 'trust' and 'being trustworthy' means to them. Do they consider themselves to be trustworthy?

Jackie: Engage the students in conversation about how they know if someone is trustworthy upon first meeting him/her. What markers do they use: body language, things they say (and if things they say, what things, what cues)?

Hiro: Engage the students in conversation about trust and if they've ever been in a situation where they broke someone's trust or someone broke their trust. How did the situation make them feel? What did they learn from it?

Blog Post Exercise (2-3 paragraphs):

Imagine one of the students from AELP comes to you upset because he/she entrusted sensitive information to someone whom they believed was his/her friend here at camp and he/she's just found out that the information is spreading through the whole camp.  

Using what you've learned from your conversations with the kids (citing quotes from the kids with whom you spoke), what would you do to resolve the situation? How would you handle it? Would you hold a meeting with the students and, if so, what would you say at the meeting?

Week One - Adaptability: Jackie

This week was a major week for AELP, and adaptability was the perfect theme for us. With all of the weather changes we had, especially early on, we had to adapt to a lot of situations. As previously mentioned there were a few situations that involved changes due to weather and planning, these being going to the movies instead of an outdoor activity and also changing the place that we would be viewing the fireworks for the 4th of July. The kids were awesome when it came time for them to adapt to these changes. We had told them that we were going to the movies some were excited because they had never seen the movie before, but some were not feeling the same way. It was our job to try and get them excited for what we were going to do that day! After the movie the kids seemed to be pleased with it but of course, you can't please everybody. I believe everyone has done a good job of it so far this week though.

As I spoke with some of the students this week, they all had similar answers to the question of what they would do if they had to adapt to a situation that went bad. Jimena said that if she had plans to hang out with a group of friends and someone all of the sudden got sick (ironic because of what's going on in the dorm), she would simply make plans with another friend, and that's how she would adapt to the situation. The answer to this question was similar across the board, they all said that they would just change their plans. For me it would be the same. the easiest way to adapt to something is to not stress about it, but be open to many different options.

Great work the first week guys! I look forward to the week ahead :)

Week One: Adaptability Post by Monti

This week had a lot of adaptation incorporated with it. The first day I was there we had a beach plan, but since it rained, the staff had to figure out a new game plan and decided to go to the movies. Another time, we realized that the fireworks we were planning on going to on Wednesday, were actually on Friday. So a new plan was made to go to another towns display. Adaptation was a huge part of this week.

For the example, we have real life experiences to take from! Many of the kids are very understanding about the weather conditions and changing plans. I know that many did enjoy going to the movies or switching venues, which could are both feasible options for unexpected cancelations. If it was a school activity, we could always go into the gym and still be able to do the days activity. If our activity is outside of campus, like a beach day, movies or museums or staying at school for an indoor movie, are both great options that are widely accepted by out students. 

Week One

(Blog post due by Sunday, June 7th)

Trait:  Adaptability.

Sometimes the best laid plans don't work out the way intended.  Leaders will often be faced with this predicament and they must quickly adapt.  It helps if the leader has information at hand that will allow him/her to make those snap decisions wisely.  Knowledge about the people involved, the details of the event, details about the alternatives, etc. allows the leader to problem solve, and problem-solving is a very powerful skill for a leader.  Moreover, keeping a positive attitude through all of this can turn problems or mistakes into opportunities and learning experiences.  

It is the great leaders who can embrace change, be flexible, and balance opportunity and risk while keeping in mind the strengths and weaknesses of themselves and those depending on them.  

Activity this week: 
Monti- engage the students in conversation about what activity they would most like to do while they're here in the USA.  If they say something that you know is not a possibility here at AELP, recommend a comparable alternative and see how they respond.  If it takes more than one option, keep going until you find something that they would like to do.

Jackie- engage the students in conversation about situations they've had where they had to change plans suddenly, how they felt about it, and how they resolved the issue.

Hiro- engage the students in conversations about their favorite thing to do in their home countries when it's raining.  If they say video games or something electronic, ask them what they would do if that weren't a possibility.

Blog Post Exercise (2-3 paragraphs):
Imagine:  an outdoor activity that is planned here at AELP has all the kids really excited.  Suddenly, the skies open up and it's raining cats and dogs and we're forced to run indoors.  A lot of the kids are really upset about missing out on the planned activity and are asking "What do we do now?"

Using what you learned from your conversations with the kids this week (citing examples of responses you received from them), what alternative would you propose that takes into consideration the information they each shared with you but is also a feasible solution here on campus?  How would you express the idea to them?