We Want to Make a Difference

So why we do what we do in SLA? Because it's cool!

Just kidding...To be honest, I have never thought about it seriously until now.  I realize a lot of the times we just do things that seem interesting to us, hoping we can gain something from it.  But we have no clue what we are getting until we reflect upon it.  And learning about relevant theories definitely makes one think deeper and see things from a different perspective.

For me,  the leadership identity development model is more difficult to understand than the student development theory because the model is more abstract whereas the student development theory is drawn from empirical experience, but it perfectly explains why we do what we do in SLA.

Most if not all of SLAers have gone through stage 1 to 4 as we are all aware of the leadership concept, highly involved on campus to explore personal interest and develop personal skills, have taken on leadership roles and managed others, and probably facilitates a good group process instead of holding a positional role.  We have accomplished all the above from experience, from observing or reading about what other great leaders do.  If  our own experience or other people's experience has proven it right, we continue to do what we are doing, otherwise we modify the way we do things.  It's like when I learn how to cook, my mom would tell me you should do it this way.  When I ask why, she would say because that's what I have doing for the past twenty years.  But little does she know there is a scientific story behind it and chemical theories can be used to explain why things would taste good if prepared in a certain way.  Therefore, the leadership theories provide a logical explanation to what we see in student leadership development.

There is nothing wrong with learning from experience, but then we can't predict what happens next because we don't have a strong theoretical basis.  With the leadership identity development model, we can see our leadership development journey in an analytical way and envision where we are going in the future.  I really like the last two stages of the model where we take responsibilities for the development of others and care about the community.  We have discussed it in class that leadership is about inspiring and empowering others to pursue their passion and make a difference in their life.  Right now we are on stage five, generativity.  We care for the welfare of the buckeye community, and we want to empower more students to become leaders so that they can empower more people.  This is how we change the world, same idea as Pay it Forward, the movie mentioned in Kelsey's blog.  We do what we do in SLA because we want to make a difference. Our motivation is how we can better serve others and we are concerned for the sustainability of the organizations.  We mentor younger peers to help them develop their leadership abilities.  After we graduate, we will be on stage six, integration and synthesis.  Our leader identities have matured and we will dedicate ourselves as life-long learners to adapt to organizations of different complexities.

Identity development model and the student development theory allow us to contemplate and reflect on our involvement experience, focusing on not just why we get involved, but also how we get to where we are now.  It ties directly to the workshops and facilitation we do in SLA.  We need to understand our own motivations and development process to be able to serve others and help student organizations to figure out their development progression.  We will become authentic and more effective leaders because we believe in what we do and we have a strong theory to back it up.

One thing I don't understand about the identity model is the helix model of development.  Do we have any real-life examples when people go back and forth between these stages?