LeaderSHIP

Who knew learning about becoming a great leader could be tons of fun?

My last weekend was spent at Camp Caraway, North Carolina as part of the TRUE Leadership Retreat. Yes, TRUE is an acronym standing for Trust, Relationship, Understanding and Excellence, each an integral part of developing leadership. How did I end up here? Well, I got an email about it from Larry Champoux (member of International Students Inc.) and also that two scholarships were being offered on a first-come basis which covered travel, food and accommodation at a nominal cost. Hoping this could turn out into a 5-day mini vacation, I signed up for it.

I traveled with Freeborn Rwere, a post-doc at UofM in Chemistry. Talking to him, I could see that he came across as a perfect  representative of Zimbabwe (his home country). It was interesting to know how he compared politics and society back home with what he experienced during his 9 years in USA.

Steve and Karen Lynip picked us up at Charlotte brought us to the camp after a hearty lunch at Cici's Pizza. We were received by an ecstatic Dan Kronstad who set us up in our cottage. As the day ended we met other students and staff coming in after long road trips. The next four days were going to be fun.

The food was one of the highlights of the retreat with ample options even for a hopeful vegetarian like me. Too bad the packed schedule didn't give us extra time to binge on the delicacies. Neither did it give us enough time to sleep in late in the comfortable air-conditioned bedrooms. But I can't complain, the tiring activities more than made up for it.

One other highlight of the retreat were the speakers invited to talk about leadership. The gifted speakers Eunkyu Lee and Eshan Samei talked at length about the different aspects of cultivating leadership. They were very effective in communicating their thoughts through personal life examples and dispelled my notion that lectures on this topic would put me to sleep.

We were segregated into life-groups and were led to perform several of team-building exercises that brought about a deeper understanding of each other. The two best activities I was proud to be a part of were Boat-Building and a Circuit of 8 team-tasks. The most challenging of the 8 was to have our entire team climb over a 15 feet wall without any tools. 

The Boat-Building was intense and rewarding as finally we had to cross the lake in our boat. Yes you read that right, cross the lake in a cardboard boat! 

Among the activities, the High-Ropes course and  Paint ball were the ones to look out for. The high ropes took its toll on you making you traverse paths you wouldn't have dared to at first glance. Paint ball was fun especially for those who didn't get shot (and thus didn't get painful shot marks). Foosball, Air-hockey and Ping-pong should not be forgotten here.

There were some hilarious and fun moments as well, one of the particularly good ones was the Bhangra dance my team and I put up during the culture show. Hats off to my team who put in all their spirit and learnt some jazzy Balle Balle and thumkas. Watch it here.

The people I met and the friendships I developed here are sure to go a long way. I have seldom met a bunch of people as enthusiastic and spirited as these. I got to learn a lot from them and hope to put it to good use. Concluding this post with this beautiful video which sums up a lot of the memories!