By: Kendall Wood, BBA, Psychology 2020
We wrapped up our last class meeting Thursday at 1:45 pm. This doesn’t mean our interaction as a class is over, though. The best day of Spring 2017 is yet to come!
This coming Tuesday we will hold a reception celebrating the grant decisions that each team made and awarding those grants to members from the organizations! To me, this feels like Christmas Day and I get to be Santa Claus for the first time in my life. We’ve been anticipating this day all year, and it’s hard to believe it’s here.
Knowing that celebration was soon to come, Thursday’s class was dedicated to much reflection. Before class, Andy asked us to write down 3 things that we learned “out there,” in the field, with real people amidst real life. The discussion that followed was very unstructured, and we each got to share a few of the many life lessons that we gained over the semester. Some of them are simple and don’t strictly pertain to philanthropy, and some of them are perspective-shifting and have influenced how we plan to give for the rest of our lives. I wrote down my 3 and jotted down more as my classmates shared their own. This definitely does not encompass all the lessons learned for the entire class, but I connected and agreed with the following 8 lessons learned “out there”:
- How to run a meeting with an actual adult. — This one was serious for me. Being in a position of leadership over an older adult was a challenge at first, but the more we did it, the more comfortable I became, and now I’ve gained confidence in my ability speak maturely and act professionally.
- No amount of e-mailing or phone-calling will have the same effect as a face-to-face conversation. — Our generation is often inclined to limit our interactions in person, but this kind of work cannot be done without meaningful, face-to-face conversations. I found this to be true with my team meetings as well as meetings with nonprofit executives.
- How to ask good questions — Preparation is key to doing this. Maggie McBride made a good point on this topic today, indicating that we owe it to our classmates to ask good questions because they depend on that information to make important decisions regarding our grant money.
- How much work the Waco nonprofits are doing. — I think we were all blown away by the amount of effort that is being exerted over seeing Waco prosper. It is exciting and humbling.
- Success comes from giving more than receiving. — Receiving will never be inherently bad, but there is a special joy that comes from giving, and only from that.
- Collaboration is the best way to see real impact. — My classmates’ blogs previously explained the incredible results that came from our decision to collaborate. The impact of our grant money increased beyond what any of us had initially imagined.
- We choose our perspective of scarcity vs. abundance. — Viewing the world with the perspective of scarcity results in a lonely and cold life, always believing there’s never enough and that people are only trying to take from you. However, viewing the world with the perspective of abundance results in a joyful life full of gratitude and warmth because you know that there is fulfillment in pouring yourself out for the sake of others.
- How to broaden your horizons in giving. — Many classmates mentioned that they ended up giving to areas of society that they never believed they would. This just shows the passion of these students to step outside of themselves to see great work done.