My Definition: The ability for a group of individuals with separate goals and aspirations to come together and complement each other as they strive for one common goal.

 

My Criteria: Each member involved in the team must be committed, willing to listen, unafraid to keep other teammates accountable, and encouraging.  In order to work with others, one has to be open-minded to the ideologies to the rest of the team.  By realizing the strengths and weaknesses of the other members, one should understand how to best utilize those strengths and weaknesses to accomplish the most success.

 

 

Reflection: Fish Camp 2014

 

I was selected to be a counselor for Camp Rogers during the spring of 2014.  Camp Rogers was just one of the many camps during Fish Camp 2014, a university orientation program for the Class of 2018 at Texas A&M University.  At first, I was nervous as to how I would work on a team that was so different than me.  For most teams I’ve been a part of, we all had a specific common interest: all business majors, all tennis players, etc.  In Camp Rogers, we all came from different backgrounds and were brought together under a broad mission of wanting to serve the incoming class of freshmen.  

 

The rest of the spring semester was a little challenging for me, and I began to question why I applied for Fish Camp in the first place.  Several of those who I worked with seemed to be less self-motivated, goal-oriented, and hardworking than me.  Counselors missed mandatory meetings, failed to complete Discussion Group outlines, and didn’t contribute towards camp skits or banners.  Furthermore, I felt like the leadership between my chairs and experienced counselors wasn’t completely in tune. Without clear direction, it seemed as if Camp Rogers was going to be an embarrassment.  

 

However, during that summer, we took the time to go on road trips and have other forms of camp counselor bonding.  On each road trip, we ended each night by gathering around and listening to each other’s life stories one by one.  Hearing about where some of my fellow counselors were coming from really opened my eyes.  I was able to have deeper conversations with each of them, and we began to get to know each other’s passions, values, and aspirations.  Taking the time to get to know the rest of my team exponentially increased my ability to work with them, and we began to work more as a cohesive unit.  I began to see my role as a leader by example, yet it was vital for me to give repeated encouragement towards the rest of the counselors.  Texting them out of the blue to ask how they were doing, keeping up with their other organizations and upcoming test, and taking the opportunity to grab lunch with them on an individual basis were just some of the few things I tried to do to show that I valued them as a team member.  

 

By the time Fish Camp actually occurred, we exceeded our expectations as a camp.  We didn’t have any unmanageable issues, and we received constant feedback from our freshmen on how much they enjoyed Camp Rogers.  In the end, I learned how the process of a team doesn’t always have to be flawless.  What’s most important is that when we work as a team, we work as a team and provide an impactful final product like we did for the freshmen of Camp Rogers.