Study Saturday: Servant Leadership

A true leader is one who serves.

The philosophy of Robert Greenleaf is put into practice in the first book by Dr. Barbara Baggerly-Hinojosa, the first graduate of my cohort in our Ph.D. program.

In Are You a Ten?: The Ten Characteristics of a Servant Leader, Dr. Baggerly-Hinojosa includes journals for her readers to keep track of the progress through their servant leadership journey. She has taught workshops using this guide.

Following the publication of Are You a Ten?, Dr. B-H also released The Leadership Collection, an anthology of articles.

Now Are You a Ten? is also available en español!

My doc classmate who I met yesterday also reminded me to look out for the best interest of my own students, a true testament of servant leadership.

Keep serving!

Study Saturday: Superstar Students

🎼Shine🌞 🌠bright💫 like a 💎diamond🎵

My summer speech students impress me more and more every single day! Our principal informed me when I started teaching there that they’re the Cream of the Crop,🌽 as the top students of our school.🏤

As we wrapped up the week, they turned in their résumés📜 and did their interviews💼 to prepare them for the workforce. Props👊 to their professionalism👔 and my photography📷 skills!

Following our interviews, they expressed their value of their class ranking, GPA and bright future careers. I have one particular student who aims to become a trauma physician😷 and already is making her mark on campus through her club involvement. All of them are ambitious and are heading toward their aspirations through their 🍎academic achievements🍏 and participation in extracurricular activities.🏈🏀⚽️⚾️🎾⛳️🎻🎺🎷🎸🔬🎮

Once class was over, I enjoyed lunch🍛 with the ☝️Rising Seniors. They all seem wise beyond their years, and I feel extremely blessed to teach them one of their college credit courses (amongst others, as well as Advanced Placement/honors classes).

CHEERS to this Class of 2015!

Study Saturday: Catholic Church & School

Separation between Church and State… What’s that?

When I taught college, I didn’t lead my classes in prayer because we were in public schools. However, I did inform my students that I am a woman of faith, and I occasionally requested moments of silence out of respect for people or incidents that I believe deserved our attention.

My Ph.D. is from Our Lady of the Lake University, a Catholic school, so I’m grateful for my faith-based education. Before our classes, we would pray. Every year, we would have our Convocation at Church, where we would light candles to illuminate. After we passed our first year luminary exams, we earned these medals.

Our fourth year symbolized our candidacy, upon completing our final set of comprehensive exams.

Matthew 5:14-16

Bearing all of this in mind, I very much integrate my soul into my studies.

Spirit Mode = Scholar Mode

Recently, I reached my latest milestones as a Ph.D. Candidate who is ABD (All But Dissertation): the blessing of my Concept Proposal before the HOLYdays and the passing of my Proposal Defense this past Tuesday! GOD has surely blessed me on this journey, and as my classmate, Dr. Alex Garza, who graduated a year ago, told me: it’ll happen in GOD’s time.

Today, the LORD likewise blessed me in continued service to our Church: this time as commentator at Mass for the first time. After going through my proposal, I felt like my voice was cracking. Yet the LORD stayed by my side, and kept me going, and luckily, several congregation members commended me for speaking clearly.

Where am I going with this? I am going with GOD’s calling, which is to establish a Catholic school. The future generations of the Church deserve an opportunity to lead by their faith and values systems, even in their education. Honestly, I am uncertain of what will happen from here, but if I keep listening to GOD, He will lead me toward His plan.

GOD Bless Y’all!!! ¡Díos los bendigan!

Happy Birthday to Bishop Mike mañana!

By the way, my friend, Bishop Pfeifer has double-digits in his age this year, as well as my mom, the Birthday Girl, this Tuesday, and I also will in my next birthday!