Ideas in Antiquity Journal #1
Chapter 1:// August 25th 2020
5:30 pm
This is my second day of classes for the Fall semester of 2020. A semester unlike any semester I’ve ever had in my 4 year college career, but with the workload I have already, a semester nonetheless.
When I initially registered for “Ideas in Antiquity” with Dr. Sandridge I had only a bit of an idea of what the class might be about. I know a few things about Ancient civilizations and that’s what initially grabbed my attention about the course on BisonWeb. Broadening my knowledge of the Ancient world excited me and after researching the class, I was even more intrigued.
After our first class it was made clear that we would be learning about Leadership Development in the Ancient World. When I first hear the term “Ancient Leaders” I think of Julius Caesar, a commonly known leader who was eventually stabbed in the back, literally, by those he lead. In class roll was taken, and we dove right into the leadership at hand. I found it interesting how much of the course was dedicated to us developing our own leadership skills, and not just studying the leadership qualities in our readings. We were also introduced to Kallion today, a well organized “homebase” for our assignments and readings.
Following reviewing the syllabus, we were asked about the five ways we could expect to further our leadership development. I honestly had a hard time finding the five examples, and was furiously searching them in my syllabus to have my chance at earning some participation points. By the time I realized Kallion was now the topic of discussion, my fellow classmates had already listed the five ideas.
- knowledge: knowledge of what leadership entails, whether it be psychological, emotional, or the challenge of leadership itself
- behavior: how leaders behave towards others, situations, and themselves
- relationships: how to establish relationships with people we lead
- decisions: making decisions that enable us to be better leaders (specific majors, training, etc.)
- reputation: How to establish being known as a good leader
We were reminded to look to Kallion for our assignment for out next class and our zoom class was ended.
August 27th 2020
3:00pm
For this class we were asked to come prepared with our first assignment completed. We were tasked with googling the term “portait” and finding a photo that caught our eye, but was of someone we could not recognize and easily project our own knowledge. After reading through the instructions, I was excited to do this assignment as I love to analyze.
I selected this portrait as the young woman’s eyes caught my attention. I answered the questions associated with the assignment in my notebook. I looked forward to seeing what portraits my classmates had selected, and although there wasn’t enough time for everyone to share, I still enjoyed doing the assignment.
Chapter 2:// September 1st 2020
4:00pm
Over the weekend I set time aside to read the assigned books of The Odyssey. I am familiar The Odyssey from movies, documentaries, and Ancient history podcasts. Finally sitting down and reading The Odyssey felt long overdue. I also learned this week where the term ‘mentor’ originated from.
Dissecting the Athena’s mentorship of Telemachus this week was eye opening. Learning of the true meaning behind ‘mentor’ and ‘mentee’ changed how I originally viewed the terms.
In class we went into breakout groups and discussed leaders that made a difference in our lives and set us up for leadership roles. My fellow breakout group members went into detail about teachers that had helped them see the potential in themselves. When my turn to speak came I was at a loss for words, I had no mentor, no one person in a leadership position that stuck out to me or had impacted my life positively in any way. As I looked around for a moment I hoped my wifi would stop working. I didn’t want my group members knowing no one had provided me with menos. I quickly replied with my usual answer when asked about a special person in my life (my mother). It was only my second week of class and I was already questioning the leadership skills I had just said to another classmate were pretty solid. This exercise made my realize that not only did I need to look into finding a mentor, but to make decisions in life that would enable me to develop my leadership skills further, and be able to mentor others in the future.
