E-Portfolio Link

Charisma N. Ricksy's E-Portfolio

Introduction:
Hello! My name is Charisma Nia Ricksy and I would like to thank you for visiting my e-portfolio. This site is a collection of some of my best work during my career as an undergraduate student at The Pennsylvania State University. The pieces I have selected are meant to reflect my many abilities as a student as well as aspects of my charismatic personality.

Over the course of this year, I have been afforded the privilege of learning, not only academically but also socially. One element of my growth as a student has been through becoming civically engaged. I define an engaged citizen as one who volunteers, or joins clubs and organizations which aim to better their respective communities. Personally, I have developed a strong desire to be involved in my community in an effort to make a difference. The pieces of work included in this portfolio are meant to reflect some aspect of civic engagement. Some works, such as my blog entries, are narratives from my own experiences while other works focus on the impact others have made on their respective communities by becoming civically engaged.

Please browse around freely and should you have any questions or feedback on my work, please visit the "Contact Me" tab. Thank you for visiting my e-portfolio and I hope you find many of the pieces of interest to you.

Become a Servant Leader!

University of Oregon Mortar Board Website

This past weekend, I volunteered to participate in the Mortar Board Day of Service. Mortar Board is a national honor society for seniors with a chapter here at Penn State. The Day of Service included a presentation by Dr. Nicole Webster, a professor from the Agricultural and Extension Education Department at Penn State, and later ended with a community service effort. Although I was not necessarily thrilled to be returning to the Penn State Arboretum (remember the MLK Day of Service in January?), I thought the overall experience was really worthwhile. I was especially captivated by Dr. Webster's presentation. She discussed becoming a servant leader. When she started her presentation, I had no idea what a servant leader was. I knew what a leader was, but I didn't know what she meant by being a servant leader. By the end of her presentation, I had a clear understanding of what this term meant and I was inspired to work to become a servant leader myself!

What I found most compelling about Dr. Webster's presentation was how it nicely tied together the two subject matters of our class: rhetoric and civic life (or engagement). Dr. Webster began by discussing a video in which college students were asked what it meant to be a servant leader and like me, they were not entirely sure of what the phrase meant. She then began to explain what a servant leader was and capped off her presentation by providing the audience with 18 ways to become a servant leader. Some of these suggestions included: making a decisive decision and sticking by it, keeping company that are as hardworking as you are and being willing to challenge the majority (as long as you know your facts). Although these suggestions did not require that we go out an try to have a hands-on approach to changing the world (as the word "servant" might imply), Dr. Webster's speech made it clear that by exhibiting these characteristics of a servant leader, we are actually having a profound impact on the world, just one that is not necessarily visible. 

Her presentation itself was definitely rhetorical in every way possible. It was persuasive, motivating, and inspirational yet still light-hearted and easy to follow. Furthermore, the ways in which the speech actually tied in an element of becoming civically involved by becoming a leader was especially awesome to me. Once again, I am left realizing just how prevalent both rhetoric and civic life are. Even when we might not think of something as rhetorical or we might not think we are being civically engaged, we really are!

Here is a video clip of employees and associates talking about Bob McDonald, the CEO of Procter & Gamble, and the characteristics he possesses which make him a successful leader of his company and in turn, an effective servant leader:

The Rhetoric of Compliments

Typically, when we think of rhetoric, we think of someone who delivers a moving speech or just has a way with words that has some significant impact on their audience.  And while this interpretation of rhetoric is valid, I also realized that simply complimenting someone is also a form of rhetoric. Just as a speech may have a persuasive or impressive effect on the audience, so might a compliment.
I started thinking about this topic after I had a meeting with one of my professors. I knew I was doing well in his class, but I wanted to meet with him to see how I might improve my performance even more. During our meeting, he said some really nice things about both my work ethic as well as my personality. I don't know what it is, but there seems to be something different about being complimented by a professor or other authoritative figure than being complimented by a friend. In any case, these short phrases which praised either my performance in the class or my personality had a significant impact on me, the audience.
Generally, we tend to take compliments for granted. As a society, we have become so skeptical of others and their motives in doing or saying certain things to us, therefore preventing us from accepting a compliment at face value. However, by constantly reading into a compliment more deeply than what is actually being said, we tend to miss the most significant part of being complimented. Sometimes, when someone compliments me, I, too, begin to question their motives and such, but today, after hearing such kind words from my professor, I am led to think differently. His words encouraged me to keep the good work up. His compliments let me know that I am doing something right and to me, that is just as persuasive and motivating as any speech I could listen to for minutes on end. From now on, I hope to view compliments differently and learn to actually appreciate the significance behind them.

Civic Duties

Hey There!
Throughout the course of this blog, I have had some posts focused on civic engagement but for this entry, I really wanted to focus on where we get these civic duties from?
This semester, I am taking an Introduction to Contemporary Africa class and often times, we compare American culture with that of some countries in Africa. It has become crystal clear that our customs are completely different from theirs and therefore, our civic engagement vastly differs from theirs as well. In Africa, they have more of a collectivist society so their civic engagement involves helping, not only themselves and their families but also their neighbors. Everyone within society is expected to help others by sharing their crops or watching each other's children free of charge. Here in America, as we all know, society is completely different. But I wonder, where do these differences come from?
From our lectures, I have learned that in Africa their values greatly differ from ours, which might explain why their civic engagement is also different. In Africa, large percentages of the population are amongst the lower class of society. They face extreme poverty and must overcome a daily struggle for food, water and medicine. Since their way of living is different, so are their values and engagement in society. For many Africans, working together to support one another becomes their civic engagement, which is especially reflective of their societal norms and values. They are more concerned with getting their next meal, rather than exercising the right to vote or volunteering with organizations. I think we can safely say the same applies to our customs in America, in regards to our norms being reflective of our civic engagement. Those who are a part of the upper and middle classes tend to donate money to charities or we believe we are being civically engaged by voting for the next President. This greatly reflects the values of our society because we are all about maintaining a class system and often times, we do not take advantage of the opportunity to better our community by becoming involved and helping others.
I'm not exactly sure why this topic crossed my mind but I thought it was interesting. What is your take on where our civic engagement comes from?

Here is a video clip of Peter Levine, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) discussing what civic engagement is and how we can become more civically engaged: