SLO 7 - Entrepreneurial Leadership.

When I first started writing my reflection for this SLO, I was really confused - having never taken a business class, I didn't know what the tenants of Entrepreneurial Leadership were, much less how they related to libraries. No, that's not quite true - I was relatively sure how one could use the advocacy, marketing, and communications aspects of entrepreneurial leadership and apply them to libraries. I had no idea how I had done any of these things, as I haven't worked at a library since 2009. I've volunteered with my local public library since then, as well as extolled the virtues of the local public library, but I haven't worked for a library since my summer job in 2009, in Resource Management (Collections Management).

Curious about the current thoughts on this, I googled it, and got a very good article about the tenants of Entrepreneurial leadership. I shrugged, and wrote up a rough draft on how I used the those tenants when I decided to return to Ukraine with the Peace Corps. I wrote about how I used the principles of risk management, innovation, and change management, as well as both taking advantage of opportunities given to me and the responsibility of taking graduate school classes while overseas. Then we had our first class, and I realized that I didn't really understand this SLO as it was written, so I emailed my professor, who replied with: "It is more about taking the initiative to make difference." He mentioned grant writing (though that was probably a tongue-in-cheek reference to the class I took with him last semester (LIS 644: Digital Libraries) where I had to submit a grant application for a grade), which is a rather common thing for Peace Corps Volunteers to do. Usually they are related to  PEPFAR (HIV/AIDS) or SPA (small projects) (the handwritten draft can be found here, under SLO 7).

And I realized that I still don't quite understand this SLO as written, but I am gaining an understanding. One of the wonderful thing about my graduate school program is that there is rarely a wrong answer, just a better answer.

My artifact isn't something that I created. It's something I've lived by. It's the mission statement of the Peace Corps:

Peace Corps: About

 How did I take initiative to make a difference? And how does it related to what I've learned in the program? 

1. I accepted a invitation to go to Ukraine in 2013, from where I was evacuated in 2014. 
2. I called Lee Shiflett, and got myself into the program. I had applied to UNCG and the Peace Corps at the same time. I was able to enter the program Fall 2014, a year behind my original schedule.
3. While a Graduate Assistant with the program, I answered questions about Ukraine, and the Ukrainian people. I helped explain the situation in the Donbass, as impartially as I could. 
4. I returned to Ukraine, to my old school, in June 2015, and stayed for a full year, before returning to the US and UNCG.  
5. I was part of a long-term, multi-generational development project. 
1. I took the initiative to go back to my school in Ukraine, to go back to my students, all while taking classes through Blackboard/Canvas/WebEx
2. While in Ukraine, I created a list of humanities reference resource about Ukraine, and added in information that was missing from the databases.