Breanna Wethey reflects on her experience in the TLC program at CSUSM. She attended several workshops covering topics like leadership styles, empathy, persuasion, and networking. She learned there are many types of leaders and styles. It's important to understand your own style to grow skills. Community engagement opened her mind, including volunteering at a homeless shelter and Autism walk. She joined the Communication Society and was inspired by speakers on making a difference. Her goals of a 3.0 GPA and joining a club were achieved, while long term goals of graduation and career are ongoing. She feels the program helped her understand leadership and give tools to lead in different aspects of her life.

1. Breanna Wethey
ID: 001105374
March 18, 2015
TLC Reflection Paper
I loved getting this opportunity to participate in the school as well as the community. This
program is excellent for opening doors to new things and making connections with people and
organizations, as well as learning useful skills for life and for the future. The workshops for the
program that I attended were useful and enjoyable to listen to and participate in. The sessions I
attended include: “TLC Program Overview and Graduate Panel”, “Your Type Focus Results and
Your Leadership Style”, “Empathy and Social Change” “Leadership and the Art of Persuasion”,
“TED Talks with Drew Dudley: Leading with Lollipops and Gratitude”, “It's All About Your
Leadership Style”, and “Leadership and Networking Tools for Life”. From these workshops, I
learned a lot of important ideas involving leadership. For example, there are many different types
of people and therefore many different types of leaders and leadership styles. There are different
types of power, and different types of leading styles that are implemented depending on the
situation and the people involved. It is important to know your own traits and to discover your
own leadership style; this will help you to continue building your leadership skills and to become
a better, more understanding leader. Also when you lead, you must be empathetic, and be careful
not to judge, discriminate, or make assumptions. Being consciously empathetic has helped me be
more effective at work and be a better leader in my personal life.
My favorite thing that I learned from these workshops and that had the most impact on
me was a topic discussed during the session with the TED Talks video (Leading with Lollipops
and Gratitude), as well as the session about leadership style: leadership is within you at all times

2. in all aspects of your life; leadership isn’t necessarily a title or a status. The previous concept that
I had in my head of the word “leader” changed a bit. I learned that you can show leadership in
many different ways, not necessarily from an authoritative position. Even something such as
showing a good example to others by acting a certain way or saying a certain thing can be
powerful leadership. We do not have to be a “Steve Jobs” to be transformational. Leadership is
not beyond any one of us; it is attainable now. I believe I am a leader to my younger brother who
looks at me as an example as the oldest sibling with more experience. I also do my best at my job
as a hostess and a food runner to do the right thing and work hard. I am still continuing to find
ways to implement forms of leadership into my work and personal life.
One of the most important things that I learned is that engagement in the community will
open your mind and introduce a global perspective. For the community engagement portion of
the TLC, I participated in the 5k Walk Now for Autism Speaks and its separate educational
presentation both held by CSUSM sorority Alpha Xi Delta. I am glad that I learned more about
autism; I previously wasn't very aware or informed about this condition that many people suffer
from. The walk had a very large amount of participants and seeing so many people that care for
the cause was inspiring to say the least. I also went to a homeless shelter in Vista with CSUSM's
Communication Society and helped serve food to the families that lived in the shelter. This was
also very eye-opening because I learned about what people that get stuck in very unfortunate
situations have to go through; it is a much different experience when you see it in person and
actually talk with the children of the homeless families who are too young to really understand
what is going on. Participating in these events, I have gotten the opportunity to show a good
example and to observe others showing a good example and taking a stand which is a powerful
leadership action; it gets people to want to follow the example.

3. In addition to community engagement, I engaged at the campus by joining CSUSM's
Communication Society. I’ve attended five meetings so far since the beginning of the fall 2014
semester, and I plan on continuing through the rest of the year. There is definitely a lot to learn
about leadership in attending Communication Society events and meetings. For a few of the
meetings, we've had speakers talk to us about useful information and internships in the field of
Communication. I've also attended the club's Old California Coffee House fundraiser, the Froyo
Love ice cream fundraiser, the school showing of "Inocente" from the Latino film series,
photojournalist Don Bartletti's presentation on underpaid child laborers in Mexico, the Vagina
Monologues, and donated to the club's sock drive. Inocente, Don Bartletti, and the actresses of
the Vagina Monologues stood up as leaders and presented to us giving awareness and
encouragement that we can make a difference.
From the SMART goals that I can remember, I believed that I’ve achieved most of them.
I think I remember that two of my short term goals were to get at least a 3.0 for my first semester
at CSUSM, as well as to get involved with a club at school, and I did achieve those things. My
long term goals revolved more around graduating CSUSM and finding a career that I would like
to pursue. I was not very sure at the time, but now I’ve decided to go along the way of Tourism
and Hospitality. I have yet to graduate and find a more specific career path, so those goals will
remain the same until I complete them.
This experience has helped me reach out of my bubble to say the least, and I have grown
as a person and as a leader. I am a generally shy person and this program has helped me
understand my leadership style and given me tools to be a better leader in different aspects of my
life. My goal is to implement these ideas that I’ve learned about leadership, such as leading by
example, into my everyday life, and I'm very encouraged to see what other experiences and

4. knowledge is out there. I will, without a doubt, continue engaging in events, helping out at the
campus and in the community, and learning about myself as a leader.