Reflections
Lights Academy Retreat
David Ness- Principal of Lutheran High School
Key Points-
Education Philosophy-
If you aren’t a guide on the side you are a sage on the stage.
*You have to be humble enough to let others who know more about certain subjects take charge and teach.
* Avoid delivering content without keeping the audience entertained.
* Learn from others and their thought processes to enhance your own understanding.
* Use SWOT analysis
Through listening to Mr. Ness speak, I learned lots about how to be successful in and out of school. He taught our class that it is cruical to accept failure, you cannot succeed at everything you do. In accepting our failure and acknowledging that it is there, (something we can use our SWOT analysis to do) we can truly embrace the learning and growth opportunities presented to us. I plan to apply this to my life in such a way that I will let other people teach me about things I do not have much understanding of rather than trying to be right, or a "know it all" all of the time.
Mrs.Buchholz-Graphic Design
Key Points-
Type and Field
*Different types of text can affect the viewer's perspective
Types of text
*San Serefs- are easy to read on your screen, modern, casual.
*Slab-Get a point across, business, Headlines in newspaper
Types of Alignment
*Ragged Left - crazy, used with a picture to the right text on the left
*Ragged Right - casual
Look for fonts with different weights.
*Light
*Bold
Colors
*Color schemes
*Complimentary color schemes- opposite colors (red and green)
*Analogous color schemes- colors that are the same general shade.
*Warm - Exciting, hot or warm feeling
*Cool- Cold feeling
*Monochromatic - all one colors
*Black and White - Serious and Old
*Neutral colors- whites, browns, tan
*Spot color- Flat
Mrs. Buchholz taught me tons about graphic design, prior to hearing from her I had no idea simple design or color schemes could effect the tone or idea your website gives off. I certainly intend to use everything Mrs. Buchholz taught us to enhance any projects I do that use graphic design.
Mr.Rinks- Development Director
Key Points-
*We need to look for more important plans that God has for us.
*Chill, but do not waste time
*We need to trust that Gods plan is bigger then we could ever imagine
Although I got the least out of this speech in terms of information, I believe it was the most helpful to me spiritually. He touched on the deeper meaning of a plethora of different bible verses. Digging deeper into the word is always extremely beneficial to me. Another area I learned a lot in was about not trying to know what our future will hold. It was fascinating to hear about the many crazy and unexpected twists and turns that Mr.Rinks life took to get him to where he is now. I am going to work on keeping my eyes set on this rather than trying to control what happens in my life.
Syrian Refugee Group Project
1. In our group communication worked well and was definitly key. As I was absent for two of our group work days it was important for us to be able to communicate what work I needed to get done outside of school.
2. What our group did not do well was trust eachother. I was assigned things to get done outside of school, but when I went to do them another member of my group had already done it because this person did not trust that I would get it done. This, in return, made it harder on me because I had to try to find other ways to help benefit my group and our project.
3. If we were to do this project again I would want to assign specific pieces of the project to certain members of the group to ensure that every one had an equal part in getting it done.
4. This activity was very helpful to me because it taught me about how I need to be more engaged in what is going on in the world around me. Too often I take advantage of the freedom and safety that I am provided as a citizen of the US. In the future, since I plan to do mission work in Africa, I will need to be aware of any turmoil that the countries there are experiencing.
Mr.Budnack-CEO of Parker Task Force
Key Points:
*100 students in Parker are hungry and would not have food on the weekends without the generosity of the Parker Task Force.
*The PTF has been around for 27 years
*Volunteers come from all different backgrounds with very diverse skill sets.
*All clients are all treated equally, with tough love
*Individuals can only come for a certain amount of time.
Being able to visit the PTF and hear from the CEO Steve Budnack was an awesome experience that I was able to take a lot away from. I learned a lot about how much work goes into running a non-profit, and what the difficulties are with a business like this in compassion to a normal paying business. In visiting the task force I was also very humbled through learning of the many students who receive food from the Parker Task Force every week. I had no idea how many people in Parker struggle in the face of poverty, and thus how very needed the task force is.
Mr. Albers- Executive for conjugation services for rocky mountain district: Problem solving, conflict resolution-serves as an attendant
Key Points
*183 congregation
*All school ages
*60 schools
*35 districts in the Missouri senate geographical
*Has been in the senate for 16 years
*Ordained Pastor-Works with all youth ministers and local teachers to build a local community
DCE - Youth Pastors
Lutheran vs Public
Provide mutual support to all the schools
Foundation is that he loves Jesus and believes that Lutheran schools are the best places to form Christians
Spiritual formation of students, along side with teacher a workers.
When graduate not done being formed in faith.
Expectations when meeting students-better quality people
The way that science is taught, evolution vs creation
Public schools can not share about their faith
Struggles of Lutheran Schools
Who can come
Due to price
education
Opportunities Opportunities
Have to rely on tuition and funding
Struggle to provide for students with special gifts or special needs
Break down of Church
183 congregation
All school ages
60 schools
35 districts in the Missouri senate geographical
Hearing from Mr.Albers clarified lots of questions I find myself pondering in terms of the benefits of religious based education. He discussed both the positive and negative aspects of Lutheran High School inside and outside of the classroom and how our everyday lives as Christians are impacted by the schools we attend. Additionally, I learned lots about problem solving skills that he uses in his job on a daily basis. Having him walk our class through a real life situation he is dealing with gave me insight into the types of problems someone in an authoritative position within a school deals with regularly. Overall I learned lots about private school systems that I did not previously have any understanding of, hearing from this speaker taught me a lot as a student, and as a Christian.
Pastor Eckelkamp- Serves on the board of directors for Lutheran Church: Educator, Church Leadership , Consultant
Key Points
Connect with God
Love your neighbor (Do your best work)
Serve our city
Mind Map- Tool that helps with decision making process
*Helps make decisions
*Start with a dot in the middle of a page
*Draw lines off of the dot…
*Things that we like to do or are passionate about
*Mini line coming off of the larger ones
*How to achieve this goal
*Positive on one side, negative on the other
*Others can clearly see your thoughts and can help guide your decision
*Go outside and take time to thinkVocation -What we are called to do (more than a Job)
God’s will regarding vocation is that we receive his love, his word, and his forgiveness, and that we share all of these things
Spiritual Gifts
Heart
Aptitude
Personality
Experiences
Vo(cal)ation- putting your shape into action
Everyone's vocation is of the same worth. We all need to share his love, mercy, and forgiveness
Pastor Eckelkamp taught our class a lot about vocation. Hearing from him reminded me of the security I can have in my future with the knowledge that Jesus Christ has a plan for me and for my life. Regardless of what my job is in the future, God will work it out for good because every job serves his kingdom in some way. In addition I have a new appreciation for the little things I take for granted every day. I hope to spend more time remembering all that I have and how hard someone worked to provide me with simple things like bread.
Samantha Hedberg - Regional Vice President Primerica Financial Services
Key Points
Help with finance give people a financial plan
How to start investing
Taxes
Right investment
InsuranceHow money grows:
Not linearly, it is compound interest
Learning about money early on can help you to have financial peace
-Spend less than you make
-Be creative
-Invest some money
Think about what you want to do
Why do people fail.
No financial education is the number one reason that people fail when it comes to finance
No financial game plan
No financial coachIndividual
Retirement
Account
How to Be the 1%
First, money's not everything
1% - inheritance/lottery
5% - Sales People
10% -CEO or president
10% - Doctor/attorneys
74%- Entrepreneur
Ways to Make Money
Employee
Self Employed
Business
Investor- money works for you
Study harder, go to school, get a job
Different
Find a way to add massive value to other people
Have a minimum of three sources of income
Start a part time business- you will pay the least taxes this way
Creating Work
Live below your means
Spend less than you make
Read The Automatic Millionaire
Hearing from Ms. Hedberg was life changing. I never knew the importance of money and saving to provide myself with a bright future. Since hearing from her I have started an account dedicated to saving for my retirement. I will remember that I want to be in charge of my money, not the other way around.
Mr. Gehrke- Executive Director, CEO of Lutheran
Key Points-
Raise the vision, raise the people, raise the funds
He has more authority than any other school leader in the country
Topic - Leadership and responsibility of directors
Has a a do and do not list to a given day
It’s okay to be behind the scenesCore Values -
Highly relational culture
Rooted in Scripture- boldly proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord and savior
Leaders in Christian secondary education practices
Why We exist - to serve God so he can do his ministry
Serving others and serving our community means more than achieving excellence. Aspirational Values- Things that we aspire to be as a school but have not yet acquired.
Highly relational environments make it hard to hold true to the objective.All effort fit into three categories:
Growing the School
Maximise giving
Recruiting and developing talented workers
Hearing from Mr.Gerkhe gave me a lot of insight into just how complex one must think when it comes to considering how to expand a school. There are so many different minds behind the expansion of my high school, Lutheran High School, alone. In order to even begin they must dedicate lots of time to formulating goals, they then organize these goals into categories based on their importance. It is awesome to have a group of people at my school that are so dedicated to growing LuHi and therefore growing the ministry of Jesus Christ.
Mr. Schoene- Owner of Great Beginnings and B&B Cafe
Key Points-
How God works in everyday life
Will be able to tell when God is working in you life after the events.
Discovered that he thought God took a personal interest in his life
2008-Barely made 4,000 first year of GB
2009-44,000 profit
2012-Got turned down before purchasing B&B originally
Topic Number 2 - How to run a restaurant:
Delineating what your guests expect and then meeting those expectations
Managing people to get a job done that you can not do by yourself (i.e. managing, firing, hiring, Paying Bills etc.)
Through other people
Can not do it all yourself
Improvising on the Fly
Handling people's emotions, get away from customers who are over reacting to bad service or likewise
When looking for a job, research that atmosphere of the working conditions
Attitude: someone who can represent the company to the best of their ability. Confidence is key.
Companies looking for people that they train
Try to empathize with the customers, do not let them see the stress you are feeling
Learn on someone else’s dollar before trying to run your own company
Mr. Schoene blessed us by first explaining his past, and how he can now see God working through various situations. He continued by explaining the social aspects of a restaurant and how it functions. He taught us that the face of a restaurant is it's employees. Mr.Schoene then explained how he hires the right employees. The interview process can be very tedious, it is much harder to find the right employee than one would think. Overall I learned lots of business management skills from hearing from Mr.Schoene.