SLI Fellows

Hi Everyone!

Hows it going? The weekend is finally here and it is just so nice to relax!

Tomorrow I am going snowboarding with some friends and we are all so excited. We have three car loads full of people and we are pumped. 

However, I am going to discuss what I did last weekend in my blog. I am a new member of the Siena Leadership Institute. Along with 13 other sophomores, I am a leadership fellow on campus. It is a one year commitment and only spring semester sophomores can apply. It is from January 2009 to December 2009. We just had a weekend retreat at the Carondelet Hospitality Center. It is about 5 minutes away from school and it is basically a retirement home for 80 nuns. As soon as we said that we go to Siena, they absolutely loved us. These were definitely cute old ladies. I'm not trying to brag, but I made some friends! 

The purpose of the retreat was so we can all get to know each other. In this upcoming year, we are going to learn how to be better leaders on campus. Some of our goals are to improve our public speaking skills, communication skills, and to work effectively and respectfully with others. Our first task as SLI fellows is to come up with a community service project. 

I am really excited about this. In my summers back home, I volunteer with childhood cancer patients and it is really life changing. Along with interning with Smith Barney, and working for my brother's store, and taking summer classes at SUNY Stony Brook, my summers get kind of busy, but working with these kids really makes it so much better. 

Needless to say, I am expecting a big community service project out of our group. I do not want to just volunteer for one day and then say, well we fulfilled our requirement and that's that. I want to make it a weekly thing. All the fellows can bond together as a team and we can really make a difference! So if anyone has any suggestions, let me know! 

Time to pick up some last minute snowboarding gear for tomorrow!

Talk to you soon,

Patrick