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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 1998)
I The shape of success Leadership program helps students complete goals they have set ERIN REITZ is a senior the ater performance major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist. Oh yes, it’s that wonderful time of year again. The leaves are falling, the air has a wonderful chill, and the squir rels are as big as David Hasselhoff in Germany. It’s also that time of year when your fellow students really start to think about what they’re doing with their lives. Have you noticed it? People every where are running around like headless chickens, late for interviews with big shot companies. Advisers’ offices are swamped with desperate eighth-year seniors trying to convince the adminis tration to let them slide through English 101 and finally get out of here. Everyone is basically, well, freak mg out. This grouping is likely to include you, except you aren’t planning on graduating magna cum laude any time soon. You may still need to take library (the lovely freshman scourge that it has become) and about 137 other electives before you finally get to the meat of your major. You’re just trying to be here, now. But there’s a catch to just “being here.” There’s something missing in your University of Nebraska-Lincoln experience, but you don’t know what that is. You want to do more than just show up to class (almost) every day. You want to make an impact on this campus, but you aren’t sure where to start. Don’t fret, my contused readers - the answer is LeaderShape. LeaderShape, as described by its Web site, is a six-day leadership devel opment experience designed to help participants learn to “lead with integri ty.” It’s one of the best things ever to hit this campus, and it’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced. The program’s roots are in die Allerton Conference Center near Champaign, 111. The national program was begun by Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity in 1986. The nonprofit compa ny, LeaderShape, Inc., took charge of the program in 1988, and expanded it to include students outside of the fraternity. National sessions are held at Allerton each summer, but it has also branched to 19 campuses nationwide, including our own. Each individual program is attend ed by about 60 college-age men and women, who represent every facet of campus. If you’re a part of a student organization or are a student assistant, you are eligible to attend. As of this year, there has been more than 5,000 participants in the program, and they have represent ed 300 schools, organizations and corporations throughout the coun try. bound big / It is. trie funny thing about LeaderShape, though, is that the people you experience it with become like an intimate family. Out of all 58 of us at Camp Carol Joy Holling that week, I can remember everyone’s name. They are fellow students who, within only one week, renewed my faith in people my age. The large group is divided into five smaller ones called “family clusters.” Your fami ly becomes your foundation during the program. Families become very close-knit groups because of the openness that’s created within them. By the end of the week, family mem bers can share any thing with each another. Real bonds, not superficial ones, are created and maintained. Through the activities within the group and with our families, we i learned how L to count m on one another, and at the same time, keep one another accountable. Because of this program, I feel like I’ve discovered how to trust again. Your fellow LeaderShapers catch you if you fall. 1 The other integral component of this institute is the facilitators. They are a dynamic group of volunteers who are dedicated to being mentors and advis ers for students. There are two lead facilitators and five family cluster leaders. They are the people who keep the energy level up and keep you on your toes, and they are really good at it. Believe me, they are moved by the experience just as much as the students, if not more. The program centers on the formu lation of a personalized “vision” for each student’s organization. A vision can be anything you want it to be - it’s a goal that you have for your group, and it carries with it a 12 month commitment LeaderShapers have a year to work on their visions and make them reality. Believe me, that year flies. l he bonds and associations you establish at the institute are what keep you going on your vision. People you’d never have thought to work with can become vital links in your pro ject, and the university suddenly becomes a more connected envi ronment. It truly is amazing. Making a difference on my college campus has been a goal for me ever since I can remember. I never quite knew how I would do it until the people in this program showed me. They helped me to see the value in myself and what I was doing and gave me indescribable inspiration. I honestly cannot put into words what a moving week LeaderShape was. I can’t tell you exactly why I cried at the end of it, or what a high it was to know that I was a part of something so pow erful. Applications for LeaderShape are due Nov. 24. It’s an awesome opportunity to make positive changes in your life and the lives of those around you. Don’t pass it up. PS. Thanks, Victory. It’s been a fun ride. (Sapienza!) Wasting away Consumptive habits call for appropriate remedies s _ * » XXX . — ■.. mmmmm GRAHAM EVAN JOHNSON is a graduate student in German and environmental social studies and is a Daily Nebraskan columnist. Waste not, want not Do you know what that means? Besides describing the essence of con tentment, it tangibly means that the less one wastes, the less one wants. Then its logical antithesis is the more one wastes, the more one wants, because what one had is now gone. Therefore, the more one wants and tiie more one attains, the more one wastes, so the more one wants, etc., ad infinitum. It was Sir Isaac Newton who stated more than 300 years ago that energy cannot be created or destroyed. So, if one applies this meaning of limits to a model of consumption and waste, one will conclude that the expenditure of time and energy to dis pose of things one has, it will use the same amount of time energy required to produce it i ms disposal can be done appropri ately or inappropriately. Disposing with time and energy appropriately allows one to reuse that time and energy to his advantage. Disposing with time and energy inappropriately lets the ener gysit in a useless form. The important conclusion is this: If one does not waste the things one has, by disposing of them in an inappropri ate manner, then one has no need or desire to expend time and energy to regain them, because they already exist within his realm. However, if one continues to dis pose of waste inappropriately, then one continues to expend time and energy to obtain more things, without reusing what already exists. This is die importance of reducing consumption, reusing what we already have and recycling to dispose of our things in an appropriate manner. This is easy to do. Whether you know it or not, today is University of Nebraska-Lincoln Recycles Day, which follows the Sunday’s national day. This day was created to add visibil ity to one of the necessary methods of disposal, if our consumptive society is to survive for any longer length of time. If we choose to expend time and energy to create something that must be wast ed, then we must expend time and ener gy to properly maximize reclamation. As many know, the United States is the most wasteful country in the world when it comes to energy expenditure. Even though the United States is a large producer of energy, it does not have to exist at the expense of future generations and the world as a whole, by contributing 25 percent to global greenhouse emissions. In fact, the United States has to be the most responsible, because of its wealth, power, developed status, capi talist and consumptive way of life and relatively minuscule percentage of the global population (5 percent). Recently, the United States finally agreed to meet greenhouse gas emis sion standards set forth by the Kyoto Accord, by signing on the treaty in Buenos Aires. However, our own state senator, Chuck Hagel, continuing to doubt the ingenuity and flexibility of the United States’ public, called the signing “insane.” Not only has Sen. Hagel crossed the line of inappropriateness, by using terminology hat’s considerably undiplomatic, but he made this state ment to a global audience. This statement also shows his strong convictions that he United States’ public is too ignorant, too self ish and totally inept to conceptualize and pursue a reworking of internal operations to comply with he agree ment standards. We have until 2012 to comply with hese standards, which is plenty of time to educate he public and implement change. If we don’t comply to the agree ment and figure out how to reform the country’s inefficiencies, the United States will be seen as the rogue, destructive nation that is too short sighted and too selfish to assist the rest of the world. I believe this will lead the United States into a severe crisis of internal disruption and financial devastation. These inefficiencies could lead to con sequences like severe trade divestment, because no country will want to do business with one that is so wasteful and damaging to the world. Maybe it is Sen. Hagel who is too ignorant, selfish and inept to conceive of what inefficiencies must be removed and how to best approach maximizing environmental and economic benefit Fortunately, there are many others that are not What does reducing, reusing and recycling have to do with signing a global agreement to cut greenhouse gasses? The answer lies in the question. Landfills and inefficient living and working habits cause significant amounts of greenhouse gasses. The Lincoln-Lancaster landfill has a pro posed length of 20 more years until it is full. However, if this community were to increase its recycling efforts, become aware of the advantages of doing so and be allowed to do so in an efficient manna-, we could double or triple the current landfill’s lifespan. When corporations, government and die people decide to work together, they can remedy the inefficiencies and unnecessary expenditures caused by inappropriately wasting away a healthy lifestyle (i.e. shorter work weeks, local ized purchasing, sustainable develop ment, clean energy alternatives paid by all consumers, etc.). But this is the tricky part, because it takes the participation and cooperation of die local polity, private and public waste and recycling services, corporate and industrial entities, and creating an end-market to resell and buy the recy cled materials. Most importantly, it takes the par ticipation of every individual in the entire community to always recycle and buy recycled content products for where they live and work. The best alternative is to not create the waste initially by reducing con sumption and reuse policies. An exam ple of both of these is a national bever age container deposit law, which will surely become a future policy of this country, as it is already in numerous states including Iowa, Michigan and Maine. Our society and our earth have lim its, and we must formulate appropriate methods in order to live within those limits, because the result of breaking those limits means societal decay. Energy and time cannot be created or destroyed, but they can be used in a way that maximizes input and out come, and that is how societies around die world are evolving as we approach the next century. Waste not, want not
