Passionate About the Mission
feels strongly positive about the organization's purpose, what groups it serves, and how it plans
to do so
Facing Project Internship (Summer and Fall 2014)
“Connecting people through stories to strengthen communities.”
We live in a society that is overwhelmed and bombarded by information overload. The whole world is at our fingertips and with that much access, the only way we can begin to process it is through numbers, efficiency, and streamlining. What this mission and this organization force us to do is to slow down and consider one. Instead of just looking at the fact that x percent of our population is food insecure, the project introduces you to the story of a mother who has eighteen cents and no idea what she will feed her child tomorrow for breakfast. When I began this internship, I was captured by the beauty and the value of a story. At some point along the way, without really realizing it, the book—piecing it together and publishing it—became the end goal. After visiting with the publisher, I set a tentative timeline of what pieces needed to be accomplished and when. As with any project, challenges popped up. We got fewer stories than we originally hoped for. The cover I envisioned wasn’t possible on the design software we had. Our original plan for acquiring pictures didn’t turn out. Two weeks before the book was due to the publisher, my project manager and I realized we hadn’t yet found anyone to write the foreword and introduction. Each of these challenges required partnering with other people and working with and around their own schedules and timelines. Each of these challenges provided the opportunity to slow down, ask, and remember what the purpose of each piece was. Reflecting on the mission of this project, I eventually realized that the book was not an end in it of itself, but rather a beginning—the spark we hoped would ignite a conversation and eventually bring change to our community. The means, the “how”, is important, but never at the expense of the “why”.
Staley School of Leadership Studies (Fall 2011-Spring 2015
“Developing knowledgeable, ethical, caring, inclusive leaders for a diverse and changing world.”
This mission statement and the school’s commitment to living it out is what drew me to invest so much of my time and energy into this program during my undergraduate career. As a freshman in the Introduction to Leadership Concepts course I was strongly encouraged to memorize the mission statement, as a student staff member I gave tours to prospective students and pointed out the mission painted on a wall in every classroom, and as a class leader I saw the mission come to life in student learning outcomes. The mission is so prevalent, so transparent, and so intentionally held up as the standard and purpose for all classes, events, student programs, etc. Still, the first time that I really recognized that I not only felt passionate about the mission, but also felt I had a stake in it, was during my sophomore year. That year, I applied to be a member of K-State’s student case competition team for an international leadership conference. For part of the interview process, I had the opportunity to give a five-minute talk about the leadership topic of my choice. After much deliberation, I decided to talk about the mission statement and a potential gap I saw between espoused and lived values. The school attributes four traits to the type of leaders they are trying to develop—knowledgeable, ethical, caring, and inclusive. In my mind, three of these traits essentially have at least one course designed around them: knowledgeable (Introduction to Leadership Concepts, Adaptive Leadership, Theories of Nonprofit Leadership), ethical (Ethical Dimensions of Leadership), and inclusive (Culture and Context). What I spoke about in the interview was the lack of instruction around the trait of “care”. To me, this spoke to the possibility of two different assumptions or biases: 1) that care was somehow inherent or attached to one or more of the other traits or that 2) care could not be taught or developed. This ability to recognize a potential gap and willingness to address it, demonstrates a care not only about the mission, but also about the way it is approached and accomplished.
Christian Challenge (Fall 2011-Spring 2015)
“Infusing the world with life by training students to become people of G.R.A.C.E. who treasure Christ.”
The fact that I can recite all three of these mission statements by memory says a lot to me about how these organizations live their missions—and perhaps demonstrates that I truly am a word nerd. I love beautiful words. There is so much power in words—what they can make us feel, how they can challenge us, where they can take us. This mission gives me goose bumps. I don’t know about you, but I want to infuse the world with life! What I think Christian Challenge does, more uniquely, in their statement is address how they will accomplish this grand mission they are calling others to. G.R.A.C.E. is an acronym that stands for the following:
G—Understanding and experiencing the Gospel of Grace.
R—Solidifying a loving and trusting Relationship with God and others.
A—Taking Action to advance God’s Kingdom.
C—Growing more like Jesus in Character and lifestyle.
E—Putting forth Effort to know God and make him known.
Christian Challenge is a campus ministry with a full time staff that meets corporately Thursday nights for worship and teaching. Additionally, Challenge trains and supports student leaders to facilitate small bible studies and to meet with other students one-on-one in discipleship relationships. I have been a student leader for the past three years, and this mission and acronym have come to mean so much for me. Not only have I seen them influence the way I lead bible study and meet with other girls (deciding what content to study, how to spend our time together, what types of questions to ask), but also has become a sort of filter through which I make decisions about how to invest my time in my day to day life.