HDF 190:

FIRST YEAR LEADERS INSPIRED TO EXCELLENCE

LEADERSHIP PORTFOLIO

Jennifer Roth
SPRING 2017

Jennifer_roth@my.uri.edu
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Strengths SLIDE #3
Opening Statement SLIDE #4
Section 1: Self Leadership SLIDE #5
Section 2: Leadership Theories SLIDE #7
Section 3: Inclusive Leadership SLIDE #9
Section 4: Critical Thinking SLIDE #11
Section 5: Interpersonal/Organizational Leadership SLIDE #13
 Signature Strengths
Developer
Relator
Arranger
Analytical
Responsibility

Values in Action Strengths

Fairness
Kindness
Leadership
Love
Gratitude

M
 OPENING STATEMENT
HDF 190 has taught me a lot about who I am as an individual as
well as a leader. It has allowed me to realize my strengths and
values and understand how I can apply them into my everyday life
and activities. Learning the different leadership models has
allowed me to find what qualities of a leader I value most, and has
made me more aware of how I should live my life. My HDF 190
class is just the start of my leadership journey.
 SECTION 1
SELF LEADERSHIP

Outcome #8: Student will express a personal values statement.

Target Class: HDF 190

Additional Experiences: Student Entertainment Committee

 SECTION 1
SELF LEADERSHIP

In my HDF 190 class, we learned about the 4 V’s theory of leadership by Dr. Bill Grace. I learned that Ethical leadership means learning,
understanding, and applying the 4 V’s in your life. The 4 V’s stand for Values, Vision, Voice, and Virtue. Values are core principles that people
base their lives and identities around. Vision is the ability to visualize the big picture and frame their actions on their goals. Voice is the process of
articulating our vision in a way that convinces others to act. And Virtue is the process of understanding that we need to live up to our word and
that we become what we practice, meaning we become the person that we present ourselves to be. All 4 of these ideas are connected to each
other, sharing characteristics that are key in the roles they play in peoples’ lives. All of these things are very heavily connected to our Values. In
HDF 190, we were able to take the VIA strengths test to see what our values strengths were. After taking the test I found out that my strengths
were Fairness, Kindness, Love, Leadership, and Gratitude. Fairness is treating all people the same despite differences, Kindness is doing favors
and good deeds for others, Love is valuing relationships with others, Leadership is being able to guide and organize a group, and Gratitude is
being aware and thankful for the good things in your life. After learning our core values, in class we were given a “Leadership Crest” in which we
were able to write out our own personal values statement. A personal values statement is something that you will base your life around, depicting
your top values and how you plan to apply them and always practice them in your life. For my personal values statement, I decided to focus it
around one of my strengths, Gratitude. It reads, “My top values are Fairness, Kindness, Leadership, Love, and Gratitude. All of these values are
important to me because they relate to every aspect of my life. Gratitude is one of my personal most important values because I like to be
thankful for everything in my life. I plan to utilize this in the future by being aware of all of the little things and not taking them for granted.” Within
one of the clubs that I do, the Student Entertainment Committee, we did something similar to this. At the beginning of the fall semester, our
graduate student asked us to draw on a card one personal statement that we want to be something we follow the whole year. I decided to write,
“Be Yourself” as my personal statement because I think that it is important to live life as your own person, without fearing judgement from others.
Being yourself connects to my values because by being myself, I am sticking to what I believe it and the principles I have close to my heart.
 SECTION 2
Leadership Theory and Models

Outcome #27: Student will describe personal application of the above theory:
“Servant Leadership” theory of leadership by Greenleaf

Target Class: HDF 190

Additional Experiences: Safe Zone Training, Student Entertainment Committee

 SECTION 2
Leadership Theory and Models
I try to utilize this Servant Leadership Model, created by Robert K. Greenleaf, as much as I can in my life. There are many ways in which I
show it, that range from very small things, to much bigger acts of service. After a very interesting and informative panel discussion in my
HDF 190 class, from students who use the servant leadership model in their lives every single day, I learned many key points about servant
leadership. One of the things I learned was that servant leadership can be about small acts of service; that it doesn’t always have to be
huge, noticeable acts. One way in which I showed a small, yet important act of servant leadership was when I partook in Safe Zone
Training. Safe Zone Training is a training program in which students are educated on the LGBTQ community in order to create a safer and
welcoming environment on campus for those students. I look at this as an act of servant leadership because I wanted to put others’ needs
and beliefs before mine, in order to create a place where everyone feels welcome. This relates to the Building Community characteristic of
the model because by understanding pronouns, specific vocabulary, and the things we can do to help, we can be more successful in
bringing people together to form a unified community. This connects to my responsibility strength because I felt as though it was my duty to
understand the people who are too often prejudiced or misunderstood in today’s society. This act of service can also relate to the
Awareness characteristic because of how the group facilitators as well as the attendees were in-tune with the problems that many LGBTQ
individuals face on a day-to-day basis, which is what fueled our desire to become Safe Zone Trained. During my time here at The University
of Rhode Island, I have also provided much bigger and long-term acts of service. Although I have never built a house or done much
volunteering, I still associate many of the things I do, as acts of servant leadership. One thing I am very involved in, is the Student
Entertainment Committee. As a committee, we bring musicians, comedians, magicians, speakers and movies to campus for everyone to
enjoy. This also is an example of Building Community because we bring groups of people together with similar interests, and allow them to
create relationships with each other. This relates to my Responsibility strength because I feel as though it is my duty to bring this people
together. I can also relate this to the Listening characteristic of the model because we must pay attention to who the students want to see,
or what type of events they want, because ultimately they are the ones who will be going. This connects to my Fairness VIA strength
because I want to make sure that everyone’s voices are heard before any decision is made. In the future, I plan to use everything I learned
from this model to further push my servant leadership endeavors.
 SECTION 3
Inclusive Leadership / Diversity and its application to leadership

Outcome #83: Student will create a personal code of inclusive

leadership

Target Class: HDF 190

Additional Experiences: Safe Zone Training, Student Entertainment

Committee
 SECTION 3
Inclusive Leadership / Diversity and its application to leadership

Inclusive leadership is a huge part of the Relational Leadership Model. The Relational Leadership model emphasizes the process of creating purposeful
change. When leading others, it is important to follow the components of this Model. The components include: Inclusive, Empowering, Purposeful, Ethical,
and Process-Oriented. To create my own personal code of inclusive leadership, I look closely at the Inclusive component of the Relational Leadership
Model. Being inclusive refers to including others, and working with others who are different than you. It means that you take into account everyone’s ideas
and points of view and that you do not let anyone feel like they are not a part of the group. I also firmly believe that differences in people make the group
thrive, because each individual has something to offer and everyone has the ability to create purposeful change. Despite race, ethnicity, religion, and other
differences, everyone should be included. I think that everyone’s different strengths and beliefs should be valued. Inclusive leadership is a perfect example
of a place where I utilize a lot of my strengths and values. I utilize my Fairness value because I want to make sure that every person has a chance to speak
up. I try not to favor people or exclude them. I utilize my Responsibility strength by standing up for people who can’t stand up for themselves or don’t have
the confidence to be assertive. I feel like it is my duty to get the people involved who need help getting involved. I also utilize my Relator strength because I
enjoy having close relationships with other people, so I try my hardest to get people to participate and to want to be a part of the group. Using all of this
information, I am able to live my life with an inclusive mindset. I have used this personal code of inclusive leadership throughout my time here at URI. An
example of it is when I participated in Safe Zone Training. I showed my inclusive code of leadership because by going to Safe Zone Training I showed that I
was willing to help make this campus a safe and more welcoming place. The only way to do that is to learn about what you can do to be more inclusive. I
also show this in the Student Entertainment Committee because we value hearing everyone’s different opinions, and we make sure that we hear them all
because everyone should have a say in what musicians, comedians, or movies we bring to campus. This is also important because people have different
interests when it comes to concerts or other events, so we want to make sure we are getting a variety of different acts My Fairness and Responsibility
strength is utilized in both of these things.
Komives, McMahon & Lucas. “The Relational Leadership Model.”
 SECTION 4
Critical Thinking

Outcome #89: Student will demonstrate proficiency of critical thinking

Target Class: HDF 190

Additional Experiences: Choosing what college to go to

 SECTION 4
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is a self-disciplined process where a person thinks rationally about decisions they have to make. It is the process of identifying a complex problem,
assessing and interpreting the information available, and cultivating a reasonable solution. It is about coming to well-reasoned conclusions to issues instead of
assuming or irrationally thinking. The goal of critical thinking is to arrive at your desired outcome and to create the most success possible. A perfect example of
critical thinking is when I was going through the process of deciding what college I wanted to go to for the next 4 years. The process was more than just looking at
schools face-value; I had to go more in depth into each school I was looking at. I had to look at the location relative to where I live, the cost for all 4 years,
resources and opportunities available to me, as well as the school atmosphere and facilities. I had a complex problem, which was selecting a school, and I was
therefore assessing and interpreting the information I had gathered from each school. The only thing left was cultivating a reasonable solution. After looking a
URI, I saw a lot of things that I liked. I was originally drawn to the location relative to my house and the cost, however, as I began to look deeper, I saw other
things that drew me in even more. I heard about the Student Entertainment Committee from someone I knew who was involved in it, and was very interested in it.
I realized that if I went to URI, this could possibly be one of the many amazing clubs that URI has to offer. Secondly, it was the Leadership Institute that helped me
decide to come to URI because the saw the potential of being able to grow as a leader and couldn’t wait to be involved. This is an example of critical thinking
because I had to decide what opportunities I could utilize the most, have the most success in, and what would make me the happiest. This was an example of my
Arranger strength because I was able to assemble all of the information and resources I was given and find the most successful result. With all of these factors in
mind, at last, I chose to go to URI… and I think that I definitely made the correct decision. My problem solving abilities were shown here because I was able to
take this issue that would have a huge impact on my future, create a list of pros and cons, and then make a reasonable decision that would have the best
outcome for me.
 SECTION 5
(Interpersonal and Organizational Concepts and Skills )

Outcome #122: Student will show knowledge of the construction /

elements of informative and persuasive speeches

Target Class: COM 100

Additional Experiences: Student Entertainment Committee

 SECTION 5
(Interpersonal and Organizational Concepts and Skills ) (1 Highlighted outcome)
Before you can give a speech, you must know the basic structure of it and the most effective ways to give one. In my COM 100
class, we learned all about how to construct and give informative and persuasive speeches. To begin with, I learned that public
speaking is the process of speaking with a purpose to a group of people in a relatively formal setting. An informative speech is a
speech that explains, instructs, defines, clarifies, demonstrates or teaches. A persuasive speech is a speech that is aimed to
convince the audience. I learned that in order to give a speech you must select a topic, determine your main points, identify your
thesis, find your supporting materials and then create your outline. In your outline, you should have an introduction with an
attention getter, thesis and summary of main points; a body with 3-5 main points; transitions that introduce each main point; and
a conclusion where you restate the thesis, and have a clincher that leaves the audience inspired or wanting to learn more. One
important thing that I learned was that the introduction was one of the most essential things in a speech because it is the
opening material from which the audience members gain a first impression of the speech’s content and of the speaker. In my
COM 100 class we were given the assignment to give an informative and persuasive speech. I used the information I learned to
create it. I also learned about informative speeches within the Student Entertainment Committee. Because I was the VP of the
Special Events Committee, I was able to shadow the president and see how she liked to talk in front of the general members as
well as the executive board. Since the Special Events President was going to be away, I was told that I was going to have to talk
about the organization and the movie we were showing in front of an auditorium of people. On a piece of paper, she outlined the
main points, as well as how to open and close the speech. I learned a lot from this because it was a good example of utilizing
the informative/persuasive speech outline outside a class setting, in a place where I’d be more realistically using it. I can also
utilize this in the future because next year I will be the new Special Events president and I want to use everything I learned. I will
use my Responsibility strength here because it will be my duty to run the subcommittee.