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- BLI announces a new Access Opportunity
- Barger Leadership Institute is moving!
- BLI Announces New Partnership with The London Idea
- Former Jet Blue CEO donates $10 million to Barger Leadership Institute
- BLI Hires a New Assistant Director
- BLI to Co-Host ‘Extreme by Design’ Film Screening, Discussion
- BLI awards Small Grant for Halfway Hijabi event
- BLI Launches New Capstone Experience
- BLI Launches New Fellows Program Structure
- Keep Calm and Lead On
- BLI Fellow Wins Wolverine Tank Pitch Contest
- BLI Congratulates Mya Haynes
- BLI Alumni Receive 2015-2016 Fulbright Honor
- The 2018 London Ideas Project is Announced
- Congrats to BLI partner Sandra Levitsky for being awarded the Golden Apple!
- Congrats to BLI Fellow and Peer Facilitator Elisabeth Benham
- Tales of Leadership: The Advanced Fellows Journey
- Welcome to the 2018 Capstone Cohort!
- BLI welcomes new director!
- BLI Across the Pond
- BLI Hosts Voting Guru Nancy Thomas
- Ram Mahalingam's award winning film to be screened at two film festivals.
- The Capstone Experience with the Migrant Education Initiative
- The Mindful Leader - Becoming an Engaged Leader
- A Weekend of Mindful Leadership
- Introducing the 2019 Capstone Teams
- The Peer Facilitator Experience
- Dinners with...
- BLI Students Start Small and Dream Big in Detroit
- From Freshman to Senior Year -- Four Years of Leadership Learning
- BLI Speaker Series: Food For Thought
- BLI Director, Ram Mahalingam featured in the Record
- Capstone Bootcamp 2019
- In a Distracted World, Solitude is Practice for Tomorrow’s Leaders
- A Conversation on Mindfulness, Bias and Racial Justice — a podcast with Ram Mahalingam
- The Mindful Leaders Retreat — Laying a Foundation
- Being a good leader is knowing when to practice gratitude
- Channeling Mindfulness
- Compassionate Leadership: Creating a Just, Inclusive and Mindful Society with Mirabai Bush
- Dinners With...
- Announcing Capstone 2020 Teams!
- Meet our 2020 Leadership Lab Teams!
- Leading Mindfully
- A Senior's Reflection on Peer Facilitating
- Expect Challenges
- Reflecting Back and Looking Forward
- From Leadership Lab, to Peer Facilitator, to Program Assistant
- Project Healthy Schools Global
- Learning to be an Effective Leader
- Leading Life with Dignity: A Challenge of Our Time
- Pause, Reflect, and Create
- What's Happening in the Lab?
- Capstone 3D Virtual Gallery
- Announcing the Break Away Podcast!
- BLI Advanced Fellow featured in M-LEAD's Leadership Lens Series!
- Two BLI Advanced Fellows Receive the Renowned MLK Spirit Award
- Stand Against Asian Violence
- BLI Hosts Alumni Panel
- Announcing the BLI's 2021 Capstone Cohort
- BLI Offers COVID-19 Hardship Grants
- ALA 175: Foundations in Leadership
- The Peer Facilitator Leadership Experience
- What's Happening in the Lab
- Capstone Boot Camp 2021
- Mindful Leader Reflection
- Learning to Lead with Compassion: A Mindful Leadership Retreat
- Okanagan Charter
- Foundations in Leadership, a Peer Facilitator Perspective
- Heart-Centered Leadership with Rebecca Irby
- Announcing the 2022 Leadership Certificate Cohort!
- Welcome the 2021-22 Mindful Leader Fellowship cohort!
- BLI Peace Leadership Retreat in Detroit
- BLI director awarded the Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award
- Seithur Sanitation Initiative receives the MLK Spirit Award
- The Michigan Difference Student Leadership Awards
- Feedback is Love
- Deepening the Foundations for Equity and Renewal
- Creating Leaders – Being a Peer Facilitator at the BLI
- M-LEAD Leadership Lens Feature: Kaitlyn Colyer
- M-LEAD Leadership Lens Feature: Mya Harris
- What's Happening in the Lab
- The Leadership Certificate at the University of Michigan: Cohort 1
- Color of Care Reflection
- Mindful Leader Retreat Recap
- Social Transformation, a Passionate Community of Scholars
- The Michigan Difference Student Leadership Awards
- Break Away Podcast
- BLI Weekend in Detroit
- Leadership Lens with Olivia O'Connell
- Leadership Lens with Becky Woolf
- Leadership Philosophy Reflection
- Senior Reflection, Renuka Murthi
- Dignity and Well-being in the Workplace: A French Perspective
- BLI – Year One
- Teaching Leadership, a Senior Reflection
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When beginning the STF workshops, I will readily admit that I was expecting a linear process. I thought I would enter these workshops, get a bit of advice on how to narrow my program idea, learn how to create a budget and be on my way out. I had no idea how strongly STF would impact my perspective on a variety of social issues, on teamwork, and on the power of a group of committed students at U of M.
During the workshops, I learned a wider breadth of useful information than I could’ve expected. I learned how to connect with stakeholders, how to pitch my project, how to both give and receive useful criticism and how to integrate new ideas into my project while maintaining personal foundations. I also learned that when trying to help fix a problem, you need to truly dive into that problem and know it as well as possible through root cause analyses, gathering multiple perspectives, and doing an immense amount of research. I also learned how to create succinct project plans and a detailed budget.
Beyond beneficial information regarding building my specific project, I also was provided the time, space, and support to reflect on preconceptions and biases. STF challenges you to reflect on your personal ideals and answer the question “Why am I doing this”. Often in college, we get stuck in a cycle of doing what we think we have to do, not reflecting on why we are doing it. However, STF looks you in the eye and makes you reflect on your own perspective and innately understand your motivations.
However, what I was not expecting was the fantastic people I would meet through this fellowship. STF gathers some of the most passionate and kind people I have yet met at U of M. They are passionate about solving the problem they are focused on, but they are also ecstatic to help you figure out how to tackle your project, too. “Leaders and Best” is a popular phrase at U of M, but in STF, you feel that more than ever. I am incredibly grateful that I could not only receive the guidance and support of the BLI staff but that I could enter an incredibly supportive, endlessly passionate community of scholars and, most importantly, change-makers. I have no doubt that I will continue seeing names from STF creating spectacular businesses, nonprofits, and organizations. I entered this program knowing that I would expand my workable knowledge regarding creating a program. But I never could have expected the personal impact this program would make, both regarding my personal beliefs and in the connections I would make with the fantastic STF cohort.
–Elizabeth Tolrud is an ecology and cellular biology student at the University of Michigan with a passion for combining fieldwork, lab research, and environmental advocacy. She is a current undergraduate researcher at the Colacino Lab exploring the impacts of lead on epigenetic regulation during neural differentiation. Previous experiences include ecological fieldwork at the University of Michigan Biological Station. Elizabeth plans to pursue a doctoral degree in ecotoxicology while maintaining a holistic lens through environmental justice.