Meet My Team

I would like to introduce you all to my team!

 

On the far left is Bailey.  She is a junior in Secondary Education with a focus in Biology.  She is wonderful!  She has a great source of internal motivation, and if you ask her to do something, her answer is: "Oh! I did that last week!" She never complains and is willing to help out whenever you ask.  Her background in education will be really helpful while we are in Kenya in case we get asked to teach after-school classes.

Next is Chance.  He is a freshman in International Business.  Trust me, you want to meet this guy!  He is positive, optimistic, and funny!  He is our business-minded team member and always has great ideas.  I'm excited to watch the kids at the CYEC interact with Chance--they are going to love him!

In the middle is Nick.  He is studying Agriculture/Business.  He grew up on a farm in western Kansas, and truly has a passion for agriculture.  This guy knows his stuff! :)  He is also very resourceful and enjoys logistical planning.  The teenage boys who live at the CYEC do a lot of work with crops, so Nick will be able to form an instant connection with them!

Then there's me.  For those of you who don't know, I'm a sophomore majoring in Family Studies with a secondary major in International Studies and a minor in Non-Profit Leadership Studies.  I am the "relationship" person on our team.  I absolutely cannot wait to arrive at the Center and hold all those sweet children.  I have taken on (or been assigned!) the "mother" role of our team--I'm the one who sends out e-mail reminders about upcoming deadlines, etc.

Finally, there is Kenna.  She is a junior majoring in Family Studies and minoring in Conflict Analysis and Trauma Studies and Leadership Studies.  Kenna wants to work in Public Administration, and she will be great at it!  She knows how to take on a task and get it done.  She keeps us all focused at our team meetings. :)  Kenna will have a strong role while we're in Kenya: she has an uncanny ability to think outside the box and come up with creative ideas and approaches to normal things. 

As you can see, our team is incredibly diverse: in our backgrounds, our majors, our areas of interest, and our personalities.  Despite these differences, we share a common desire for social justice, and we all have hearts for service.  We definitely aren't perfect--trust me, we've already had our fair share of conflict-resolution meetings. :)  Conflict is to be expected, though, especially when we spend so much time together.
  
We aren't blind to the fact that this summer will be hard: we will have fights and we will disagree on things...but we will get through it.  We already love and respect each other.  Our different strengths all combine to make an incredible skill-set that has the potential to accomplish great things this summer in Kenya.  

Until next time,
-br

"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.  For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow." Ecclesiastes 4:9-10