Volunteering with the Squad!
Being a project team, we were able to demonstrate trust, accountability, deal with conflict, develop a sense of commitment, and pay attention to the measurable results by looking at each individual’s emotional intelligence and utilizing those skills to better mesh as a group. For our group project we chose volunteering at The Gathering. The Gathering’s mission is to feed Milwaukee’s hungry. We decided as a team that we wanted to give back to the wonderful city that has given so much to us (education, opportunities, etc.). Volunteering at The Gathering truly made a positive impact on not only Milwaukee’s people, but our group as well.
As a team, we were able to demonstrate trust by pushing each other out of our comfort zones and carry out our own separate tasks. We started off the morning by rolling silverware together as a team. There was trust in each member that we would ask questions if we had any. We trusted each other to follow the process and carry out our tasks as a group. There was trust in our group that we would be self-aware of our emotions as we were going to meet people who live a completely different life than we do. Through self-awareness, we were conscious of how we presented ourselves and represented our university. We were aware that we were there to serve the people of Milwaukee.
We held each other accountable by asking each other questions about the tasks at hand. In order to plan for The Gathering, we needed to sign up beforehand and coordinate our schedules. Cedrick carried out the task of signing our group up. Luis was accountable by suggesting this volunteer event to our group. I was accountable for making sure we knew where we were going. We demonstrated accountability at the volunteer event by carrying out whatever tasks the coordinator required of us to the best of our abilities. We were also held accountable by the coordinator Natalie by giving our best efforts in completing whatever tasks she threw our way.
The only conflict our team really experienced was lining up which day to have the volunteer event on. We were unsure how we were going to make it work, between everyone having different jobs, clubs, family life, on top of being full-time students. However, we knew that we could fall back on our trust, accountability, and commitment to each other to complete our volunteer project. Harnessing our leadership and understanding the emotional differences in everyone’s schedule helped our group come together to deal with this conflict. At the actual volunteer event, there were no sources of conflict. We were there to serve our community and had a wonderful time meeting other volunteers and the people of Milwaukee.
Commitment is what brought us to The Gathering this past Friday morning. Being full-time students, we were committed to our education and to this class. Due to the fact that we had all signed group contracts with one another, we were all on the same page as far as work load and what we wanted to accomplish. We were committed to the volunteer project by showing up on time, being engaged, and giving our best effort to carry out the various tasks. Motivation truly shaped our group to complete this project. Volunteering at The Gathering helped us along and give better insight toward what we wanted to have our website look like. Building the relationships between our group members helped keep our commitment to the volunteer event.
We were all able to pay attention to measurable results through emotional examination and empathy. At The Gathering, we got to see first hand what goes into feeding Milwaukee’s hungry. Observing the cooks in the kitchen, watching the coordinator explaining instructions for the volunteers, personally rolling the silverware- all of these steps needed to happen in order for us to effectively make a change in these people’s lives. We were able to witness the results first hand when we served food to everyone who walked through those doors. We served over 150 people that day. 150 less people that would go hungry. We were able to give the feeling of community to these people as they had the chance to socialize in a warm and safe environment.
Organizations Squad! 