Day 1 by CarolineHallee

When my flight landed in San Diego, I was filled with a sense of anticipation and curiosity. I was anxious to meet the small group of other students I would be working so closely with for the next two weeks and step onto the UCSD campus for the first time. Our arrival was followed by introductions, a tour, and our first meal in an on-campus dining hall, but the most memorable experience of the day was the evening’s leadership exercise.

We began by filling in a series of questions about ourselves, our answers eventually culminating to create a “leadership type”. These types, represented by colors, told us our strengths and weaknesses in leadership due to our personalities. Out of the group of nine, three of us, including myself, identified most with “yellow” – social, sensitive caregivers. Two of us were “orange” risk takers, two “green” logical lovers of information, and two “red” responsible workers with a need for security. Even though I am aware that individuals seldom perfectly fit specific archetypes, these colors gave me a sense of the core traits and values of my new community of students and assistants. In addition to helping me understand others, this exercise helped me learn about myself. An informational sheet about my color gave examples of personality patterns I was predicted to have. While not every listed trait of “yellow” leaders described me, I was surprised by how accurate some of them were. The sheet also listed weaknesses that I may be perceived as having because of my personality. To see how we lined up with these predictions in real interactions, we anonymously swapped post-it notes with

a few words about our first impressions of each other.

Though the activity was uncomfortable at first, it was enlightening and formative. One of my most valuable takeaways from the evening was the importance of taking the time to consider how I come across in first impressions and setting unique goals to better the way I interact with others. I also appreciated the straightforwardness of this exercise, because it allowed us to quickly understand each other at a deeper level than can usually be understood at first glance. I hope that we can use the information we learned tonight to create a bonded and well-rounded group as the program progresses.