Spring Leadership Retreat 2020
“The first step to creating meaningful change is rooted in inquiry and introspection” says Melissa Steguins, the author of the book “Self Care at Work: How to Reduce Stress, Boost Productivity, and Do More of What Matters.” In this regard, the leadership retreat for the executive board members of the Vassar Haiti Project (VHP) hosted on January 25th was a huge success! It was an invaluable opportunity for us to think about who we are, what potential we have, and how we can better contribute to the communities we support.
There were two central figures, Dr. Ernest Barthélemy (a member of our Board of Directors) and Sahara Pradhan ’15, former VHP president and Vassar alum), who dedicated their expertise and time to lead workshops in this retreat. Despite their different leading styles, both had one thing in common—they were inspirational and captivating. They knew how to open us up. They understood how to encourage people to be present at the moment, articulating their words clearly with impact but without verbosity. Just listening to them leading discussions and sharing their opinions, I could envision myself being a better speaker who does not use filler words like “um” and make eye contact with the audience while exuding out confidence.
But even substantively, the retreat was an enriching experience due to the breadth and depth of activities we did throughout the day. We imagined the last day of our life and looked back at our lives retrospectively-–what is it that I would want people to say about me, my accomplishments, my contributions to the world? The concept of “death” really made me think about what values, events and relationships I need to prioritize and cherish. How we got to this is a whole other story but meet me and I’ll tell you about it!
What I found the most rewarding was our discussion regarding Haiti’s current situation and VHP’s shortcomings. Students in VHP have repeatedly pointed out that “context” is often missing in our day-to-day VHP operations. Why is this work that I’m doing important? Who are the people in Chermaitre that we are trying to support? What do their lives look like right now? Moreover, it is often very easy to find fault in others while we overlook the specks in our own eyes. Many good points were raised on what VHP can do better and how improvements can be made. This proactiveness spoke to the student leaders’ humility, honesty and sincerity for VHP. Discussions about Haiti’s historical and current political situation, the necessity to let the people in Chermaitre know that we have not forgotten about them despite our inability to visit Haiti, and ways to make VHP a more transparent, inclusive and dynamic organization all added to our enhanced understanding of our individual and collective roles within VHP and what steps should be taken moving forward.
I will conclude this blog post with a quote from one of our student presidents, Ayumi Haremaki, who echoed something that most of us had felt at the end of the retreat – “Out of the five or six VHP leadership retreats I have been to, this was the best one.”