It's About To Get HECHTic

Last weekend, the Leadership Summit (whose theme was "The Power of U") was held by Student Leadership Services. An extremely successful event, it's purpose was to "increases awareness of real world leadership concepts and emphasizes the development of one’s leadership potential", boasting keynote speakers Chad Crittenden and a local circuit court judge (whose name I can't remember, but I'll update this once I look at the paperwork!). Throughout the event, leaders at UM and the Miami community held sessions on specific topics that pertained to becomming a better leader and member of society. My favorite part was the StrengthQuest session I participated in- if anyone ever gives you the chance to take this assessment, definitely take them up on the opportunity! My top five strengths (input, strategic, learner, achiever, and ideation) were a bit of a surprise to me, but upon further investigation they helped me learn a lot about myself.

This week has been a crazy one- there's tons of preparation for future events (Relay for Life, the Poverty Summit, Celebration of Involvement, quite a few concerts and fundraisers, etc.), and although it's hard work, it's certainly exciting.

Most exciting of all is the fact that SportsFest is this weekend- and Hecht is about to kick butt for the 8th year in a row.

Here's a slideshow for last year's Sportsfest...



(I also found a video of my RA Lisel.... so adorable! But I'll let her decide whether or not that's shown :-P)

Opening ceremonies begin with the classic torch run, where Hecht brings up the last leg and let's all of the other residential colleges know what's up. After that it's the banner presentation and general parading of how awesome we are. The games start at 7 and don't end until Sunday at 1 (with the tug of war- perfect!). Although I am nowhere NEAR anything CLOSE to resembling a person with ANY athletic abilities, there's still plenty for me to do. I, along with some of the other girls on my floor, volunteered to be a team captain; making sure everyone is where they ought to be. Some of the 'sports' I'm participating in may also come to a surprise; rock, papers, scissors, connect four, rock band, and the classic kickball. Needless to say, it's going to be a good weekend.

Last night Hecht started things off a bit early with a large pep rally in the lobby. Each floor (which makes up a team) was given a chance to show off their team name, their t-shirts, and any cheer they had come up with. There were some great cheers, tons of team names with more than just one meaning, and some great speeches by Leyla and Fletch (whose speech I wish I could repeat, but it wasn't quite..... family friendly. We take this competition seriously, and Stanford needs to watch out.)

Of course this is all in playfulness- it brings residential colleges closer together and unites the UM community.




But seriously- Stanford needs to watch it.