2021 Gumbo final - Book - Page 217
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heidi
“Hi I’m, Heidi Reed. I’m a freshman at LSU, and I’m involved in FLC, student government
as a UCFY senator, Pre-Optometry Association, Zeta Tau Alpha, and Greek Ambassadors.
I like to join organizations where there’s opportunities to grow in my leadership skill.
It’s important to be a leader on campus because I always like to be a helping hand for
people around me, and I want to grow as a leader for my future job. Leadership skills
are always good to have. One time that particularly impacted me was when I was a
student ambassador at my highschool. Our job was basically to show the kids around
and there was this one girl who I got paired with for the day. We get new buddies on
the first day of school, and still to this day, she says how nice I am and how I helped her
get involved at Parkview and become comfortable. I do think it’s important to inspire
others to pursue leadership roles, but I also think you can’t pressure anyone into that.
It’s a good opportunity for everyone, but some people would just rather be a follower.
And that’s ok! It is important to encourage other people to be involved. I’m a member
of FLC, and in FLC, they pick about 75 freshmen through an application process online
and an interview. We’re separated into small groups of about eight freshmen and two
leaders. You learn about the different branches of Student Government, and then at the
end of the year, you work on an initiative project. You think of something that can help
around campus. And this year, the winning group was given three thousand dollars to
make their initiative happen. I was in the winning group so that was fun. We were the
orange group, and our initiative was to add period products into the LSU Food Pantry.
We interviewed people, took surveys, and asked people if this is something that they’d
use. We got our numbers and presented it to the leadership. There’s so many different
organizations where you can make a difference, and there’s also an organization for
everyone. You can find your people, your place, and make a difference!”