Being a full-time student and reporter takes up a majority of my time and daily schedule. However, on top of that, I am also involved in several campus organizations.
One of the organizations I am involved in is called Campus Diplomats. We are the official ambassadors to UF's Dean of Students Office. Throughout each semester, we put on several programs, outreach and service opportunities to ensure students apart of all populations are represented and are given resources to ensure they are successful and feel welcome on UF's campus.
In addition to our three main areas of focus, we also like to incorporate and improve moral within the organization's membership. We currently have over 100 members, including 42 new additions that were added at the end of February.
This past weekend, we had our Spring Retreat to give new members and current members a chance to really bond for the first time and partake in group activities.
I decided to take my reporting skills to the retreat and interviewed one of our two membership development chair leaders on the purpose behind the retreat, as well as the activities members would participate in throughout the day.
Below is my interview with Nick Goebel, third-year Public Relations major at UF, in addition to a quick clip of some of the activities the Campus Diplomats participated in during our "Field Day" portion of the retreat.
As Nick mentioned, we had a former Campus Diplomat present on the importance of finding our "why" when being in an organization much like Campus Diplomats. As an organization, we interact with students on a daily basis and make tremendous impacts on the student body population. So, it is important to constantly remind ourselves as to why we joined the organization in the first place as a source of self fuel when days seem to get tough on campus.
From there we had time dedicated to expressing the overall strengths and weaknesses our organization has at the moment. This allowed all the current members a chance to reflect on how we can turn our weaknesses into strengths for the overall group moving forward to next semester.
Finally, as you saw in the video we got time to just have fun with one another in our field day activities. The activities ranged from doing yoga, pieing our executive board members in the face, playing musical "bench" chairs and a water balloon toss.
Although the activities during the day were dedicated and driven to helping the overall organization, I was able to pull out several key themes mentioned throughout the day, such as leadership and communication, and found ways that I could also implement those strategies during my time as a student reporter.
While balancing classes, reporting and involvement opportunities can be difficult at times, it is a piece of my collegiate career that has shaped me into the person I am today. And for that, I am thankful to be involved in an organization like the Campus Diplomats.
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