Project Details

Tavi/ Interest Group Journal

April 10th 2019

Today I had my interview to be a Tavi leader.  We had a small meeting where the Vice President over admissions told us that we don’t need to be anything other than ourselves.  We then were interviewed individually by two people. The questions were very basic, mainly wanting to know why I wanted to be a Tavi leader.

April 17th 2019

Today we had our first meeting as Tavi leaders.  We went over a brief schedule of the summer which included the dates for ThunderU and we learned of the online training that we were to complete beforehand.  In this meeting we also played a game using toothpaste to create a picture of what the best Tavi leader looked like. The point of this game was to realize that everyone is unique and that the incoming class needs us to be ourselves in order to help them in the most effective way.

July 25th 2019

Today I completed my online training for Tavi leaders.  The training was mainly explaining the different events that would go on for the four days we would be participating and what my role would be.  I was also required to learn the common bond dance and to take a quiz on what we were to talk about each day.

August 21st 2019

Today we had our Tavi leader meeting where we learned that the new name would be interest group leaders, because we were assigned students based off their interests to help smooth the conversations and interactions between them.  My interest group was the Hunting group. During this meeting we covered more of what our job would be and we practiced the conversations they wanted us to have in order to assure each student was aware of the help they could receive on campus.  We then ate and met with the ACE over our interest groups and they gave us a little more instructions on what we were supposed to do.

August 22nd 2019

Today our job was to walk around campus with our Tavi pole (or spurtle) and help students and parents find where they could check in and find other resources.  Today was more of a service day full of helping people find their way around.

Later in the day I spent time looking for ice breakers and small games I could play in case the conversation ever died or I began to feel awkward in the group.

August 23rd 2019

Today I was able to meet the members of my group for the first time.  The first few minutes were a little uncomfortable as we waited for the other members of the group to arrive.  But having a common theme of hunting was very helpful and facilitated most of the conversation as we swapped our best and worst hunting experiences we have had.  We then went to the opening ceremonies, ate, and started our interest group activity. The game we were playing was archery tag, which was a blast. The arrows had foam tips on them and we plays using the rules of dodgeball.  The game was supposed to go for close to four hours but it was hot and the students began to tire quickly, so I elected to help each member of my group find their classrooms so that come Monday, they will not have to worry about it.  After that we ate again and started the resource activity where I showed them each resource in the student center and what it was used for. During this part I guided another group as their leader had to leave early.

August 24th 2019

Today we started with another big assembly.  It talked about title IX and some of the traditions here at SUU.  I had to step out of my comfort zone to help them get excited about some of the traditions because I am not a great dancer and I don’t particularly care about some of the traditions, but I wanted to help them have an open mind.  I feel that I did a good job because they at least tried and had a little fun. We then went to the tailgate party where I sat with some of the less social kids from a couple groups and tried to help the conversation flow. By the end of the activity I didn’t need to talk as much because they were able to maintain a good conversation.  After the party I took over for another couple groups as their leaders had to go, so I had 15 students. Luckily I had a game called catch phrase, which was able to keep their attention for the hour and helped everyone feel more comfortable with each other and to talk and share openly. We ended the night with the closing ceremony and I let my groups go for the weekend.