YouthBuild student Jasmine was part of a class-wide exercise focusing on responsibility and accountability. She was elected as leader of the group, and was given the responsibility to give assignments and tasks to her team to complete the given goal. They were given 13 tasks to complete in just 90 minutes at Tanger Outlets in Deer Park. The group had to send each completed task to the group leader, who had to relay the accomplishment to YouthBuild staff. At the conclusion of the scavenger hunt, all of the students had to return to class together, as a cohesive team, and give a presentation with their findings.
Following the exercise, Jasmine wrote a short reflection on her experience, what she learned, and how it will help her grow:
"I was in charge of a scavenger hunt that tested my leadership skills in a group activity. We were asked to find several items throughout the Tanger Outlets; with those items, came certain instructions pertaining to them. We had a time limit to put forth the group effort to retrieve each item as instructed. As a group, we managed to complete the task in an unified fashion.
The lessons I learned from this activity were:
- How to execute my time.
- Work with others to reach a goal.
- With teamwork, you can accomplish more.
- With the support of others, you can reach higher goals than expected.
- How to lead a group with many different personalities.
- Set aside any differencesto achieve the goal at hand.
The skills and experience that I’ve expressed about this exercise will help me dearly in my everyday life including my career choice. I will have to learn how to function around others and always be mindful that everyone has different ways of completing task.
I learned that everyone together on the same page can most definitely make a task easier and will bring a group together full of ideas. I learned that MY WAY isn’t just the only way and that my way may not always be the only correct way."