Mikaela Seltzer

 

The Campus Residency and Research Tour was so much fun! I learned a lot about leadership and saw the UMD Campus. I also had the chance to meet with all the other interns and get to know them better.

The first leadership workshop we did was Mousetraps with Myles Alexander. It was really fun and insightful because it showed me how in some situations the method of communication needs to change and the way you communicate. Another activity we did was writing down ten values that we felt were most important in a leader and then we had to crumble them up and throw them into the trash until we had three left. This activity was a little eye-opening because it kind of showed me what kind of values I have as a leader and what I want in a leader.

This photo is from one of the leadership trainings. It is called Mousetraps.  

Something that really inspired me was the second leadership training that we did with Antonio Silas. He told us about The different leadership styles and how depending on the situation and the person you can use a little bit of all of them and I thought that was really interesting. Even though it seems kind of obvious I never really thought about it in that way. I really enjoyed it.

This picture is of one of the retired cows from the farm that is on Campus 

We also toured the campus farm and saw the two cows, sheep, and goats that were currently on the farm. I think one of my favorite activities was the insect zoo. That was the first time I ever held a tarantula and other insects like a prying mantis and a lopper. I really enjoyed this one because I was never the biggest fan of bugs and this helped me get used to them and get over my wariness of them.

I was holding one of the prying mantis from the insect zoo until my arm started going numb.

The Tarantula I held was named Stella. Her legs felt weird on my hand. Something that I will be working on during my internship and throughout the rest of my life and career is my communication skills, and working on how to give directions in a way that does not cause a misunderstanding. I struggle with giving directions sometimes because what is clear to me might not be clear to others, I am learning how to work on it through this internship.