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Philly trip

June 2017
A short but fine adventure by Arantxa Read more
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  • Arantxa DillonPhilly trip

    #1 Salvation Army

    June 15, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    One of the significant differences in the service experiences in Philadelphia versus those we have to work within on the team in Winfield, is the culture and environment we worked in. Compared to Winfield, or the town I was raised in, working within “rough” areas is not something I am used to. Nor is it something the team is exposed too much unless you are from a major city perhaps. Walking to the Salvation Army through Alleghany was an eye opening experience for myself, and effective leadership in an area like that surely changes due to context. Another significant difference would be the involvement of everyone on the team in one place at the same time. While we do a variety of services on the team, few, if any, involve the whole team working on a job together at the same time. Freshman Workday and Homecoming may be the closest we get, but even then there are numerous sites we spread out amongst, or people participate in Homecoming service with their respective sports teams or organizations. Seeing all of us work together was an enjoyable experience. Seeing how others lead either through action, using their voice, or a combination of the two. Becoming more acquainted with a variety of personalities and how they may change based on jobs and factors such as being tired is also interesting. All of these not only help make our team stronger as a whole, but also will help in leading people in scenarios through the future. ​Read more

  • Arantxa DillonPhilly trip

    #2 Front Step

    June 15, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    While all the leaders we met at the service experiences are worth writing about, Wesley Tink is going to be the Philadelphian leader I want to discuss and elaborate on some. First and foremost, I find his involvement within the neighborhood Front Step is involved in to be interesting and worth recognition. Sure, Front Step and his organization is in within the neighborhood, but Wesley himself lives in New Jersey. To invest so much of one’s time into an area he does not even live in says a lot about his character. He said those who rent have a hard time giving back because they know their stay is short term, but him not living there should set quite the example for those even living in the area for a few months. While I am sure he ranks well within a few practices of servant leadership, Modeling the Way is among his best. Encouraging the Heart would definitely have to be a close second. While my interactions with him were small, I would be pressed to think of times where he was not upbeat, positive, and smiling about the work being done within the park. To not only keep others upbeat, but also himself given some of the barriers of maintaining the park is impressive. The best apart is the community seems to feed off the energy some. Front Step is an organization for children, but many of the adults in the houses around the park appeared to know Wesley well. When hearing his voice they were quick to talk about how well he was liked, and the positive change he brings to the area.​
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  • Arantxa DillonPhilly trip

    #3 Share Foods

    June 15, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    One example of a servant leader that I saw during the trip was the lady at ShareFoods who was assisting a mentally handicapped gentleman make boxes and perform other tasks so that we could continue our work on packaging more food for those in need. While I never actually talked to her, I did witness some of the actions she performed the man. She provided instruction on how to tape the boxes in the beginning. She did so calmly and slowly. Once he got going and found a rhythm, she would fully let him take over and he pretty much became a one man wrecking crew for creating boxes. She would encourage him to continue to help keep him focused and always encouraged him when he accomplished goals by giving him high-fives. Once all the boxes were finished, he even found work to keep himself busy. From sweeping, to breaking down boxes, to hauling those containers to the recycle bin, she did a great job encouraging him all areas as he performed each task. Those who work with people such as the gentleman at ShareFood, are servant leaders in my book. They are putting other’s needs and wants before their own and doing so with a smile on their face. It was evident she enjoyed what she did, and this simply wasn’t something to do as a job. It went much farther beyond that in providing this guy with the tools for success, and also setting him up to beRead more

  • Arantxa DillonPhilly trip

    #4 Art Museum

    June 15, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    What I am most interested in learning about myself is how I adapt to the culture and environment of Philadelphia and even how the others on the team manage to do so. I think for many people on the team, and myself included, this trip will expose us to some new scenarios and environments that we may have little to no experience in. Being a younger member of the team, I look forward to learning from those who have been within the program longer and how they conduct themselves in those situations and then try and apply the strategies I like or may be most effective with, to how I lead. With the international trip still ahead of me, I will definitely have other times to use what I have learned about myself on this trip. I also hope to learn how to take lead on the service work there in some capacity. With Freshman Workday approaching quickly, some of these jobs would be very representative of jobs we may do for FWD. For example, looking at the jobs we did within the park would give plenty of ideas. That is also an environment I may have to lead at during FWD. So looking at the ways others will look to Encourage the Heart and Challenge the Process will help give me possible ways to do the same at the start of next semester. I am sad Bartram Garden’s fell through due to weather because that would have been another great area to gather ideas.Read more

  • Arantxa DillonPhilly trip

    #5 Christ Church

    June 15, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    Personally, I think the best way I have learned to “treat every job as an adventure” like Kouzes and Posner said, was to simply maintain an open mind about the trip, the service work we did, and all the other activities we did outside of that. One way to kill the excitement a new adventure can bring is to compare places or what you may be doing to the bad experiences you may have had in the past. That even goes for good experiences. If the adventure falls short of the wonderful experience you had last time, even that could be enough to ruin the good memories created on such an adventure. Essentially what I am saying is that one should not come into a new job with preconceived notions of how they think it may go. It does not really matter if it is the exact some job or a different one. There is no cookie-cutter recipe for an adventure, so why approach it as such. Also, sometimes jobs can largely be looked at as dull, boring, or something that puts you to sleep. Adventure has a whole other sort of ring to it. When I say the word adventure to myself, I feel excitement for the unknown. Much like the kids graduating and moving on to the next stage of life at Christ Church, we all remember that excitement of a new adventure and memories to be made at the college we selected to go to. While unknown leaves room for bad or good to happen, 50/50 odds seems well worth the risk to me.Read more

  • Arantxa DillonPhilly trip

    #6 Mile Tour

    June 15, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    When the plane landed back in Wichita after a long, but good, week in Philadelphia, I can confidently say that this trip has had a positive influence on my skills as a leader and as a person. I feel the biggest gain from the entire trip was gaining perspective on a whole different kind of way of life, as well as a brand new leadership context to master in the future. A different way of life is that everyone in Philadelphia seems to be on a tight knit schedule. Sure, people are busy in Winfield, but there is almost a whole different kind of tension, or feel in the air when it comes to getting where you are going. People move with a purpose and authority if that makes sense. In a leadership world, that’s going to be something to remember. Maybe that means people finding time to serve others in the community is sparser so you have to get creative with recruiting help. I am not saying people do not want to help people in Philadelphia, rather finding that time will be difficult. All in all, I cannot help but think of this mural we saw. A variety of forms of artwork all coming together to form ONE mural. Just like the variety of people who came together to create a masterpiece, or even the town known as Philadelphia today. Despite the differences from Winfield, to Ulysses, or to Philadelphia, you can always depend on people coming together to do service from every background to help build something great.Read more

  • Arantxa DillonPhilly trip

    #7 Ben Franklin

    June 15, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    As I have discussed in some of the other photo journal entries some, I think the prolonged exposure to the culture of Philadelphia will be the most significant new experience for myself. Having been raised in Mexico in my earlier years, and then moving to Kansas later on in my life, it is fair to say the environment of Philadelphia will have a new way of life to understand due to the culture those people are raised in. This new culture can cause new personalities, values, morals, ethics, you name it! The culture of rural Kansas is sure to be different in some aspects versus that of urban Pennsylvania. Not completely different of course, but I am expecting to see some differences. Another new experience is going on a trip with the thought of Leadership in mind. When I have traveled, usually it is with the thought of a vacation in mind. During that time, one is probably hard-pressed to think about servant leadership, while also taking in the sights and sounds of a whole new area. Just writing about it can seem like an overload on the brain. Due to taking the class, I am sure I will be reading, or observing, the leadership characteristics of those from both the past and the present. People ranging from Benjamin Franklin, all the way to people like Wesley Tink. These experiences could be overwhelming, but all things said, I am very excited to be on this trip to make those new experiences.Read more

  • Arantxa DillonPhilly trip

    #8 Looking over Philly

    June 15, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    The first thing that I learned from the service work that helped me understand Philadelphia better were the variety of statistics dealing with those living in some of the low-income areas on the edges of Philadelphia. The lady from the Salvation Army recited off quite a few statistics dealing with things from average income in the area in relation to the poverty line. Needless to say, the people in the area were well below said poverty line when it came to income. While I understand that’s not all of Philadelphia, it puts the work we are doing for those people in a different light I would say. I also remember hearing statistics in relation to sex trafficking and abuse and the new facility they had opened up not too far from the warehouse we were working in was helping to combat some of those things. Even better was that they were seeing success with the programs. The last job we did at Front Step was also interesting seeing as we were surrounded by the neighborhood and those in the neighborhood could easily talk to us and such. While cleaning the park, people from the area were grateful for the service that we were doing and some said they were even encouraged to try and do more now due to the maintenance work we did. Between these two events, I think that even though some areas struggle, they want to make a change. It is almost like they need a nudge to get going sometimes though.Read more

  • Arantxa DillonPhilly trip

    #9

    June 15, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    Here is the impressive line of trash bags we put together for all the cleanup work at Front Step’s park. Not in the shot is all the limbs we managed to haul in as well. Pictures like these really make all the hard work worth doing.Read more

  • Arantxa DillonPhilly trip

    #10

    June 15, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    Here I am standing in one of the many tunnels at Philadelphia City Hall. While I know little about architecture and the process to make such a building, you cannot help but admire the craftsmanship of something made a little over hundred years ago.Read more

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