Caitlin Nelson
Leadership
Foundation
The sculptural assignment pictured here was pretty open ended; we just had to create two sawhorses. I went through a lot of brainstorming and finally chose an idea. I was thinking about my involvement with Habitat for Humanity and how a sawhorse can be used for building a house, which led to me thinking about the implications and the importance of a house. So I had this vision of where I would take the project and created a strategy to reach that point. I planned out very carefully the sizes of the metal pieces that I would have to cut, where I would make my welds, what order I would weld, all in a specific timeframe. Throughout the process, I incorporated my ideas while also listening to feedback from my professor and peers to get to the final vision. I also gave feedback to my peers to help them be successful.
Habitat for Humanity
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Drawing from the planning necessary for art pieces, I led the collegiate chapter of Habitat for Humanity. I arranged fundraising events like raking leaves for professors and delivering pizza as well as building events for volunteers. For leaf raking, I e-mailed professors to spread awareness of the fundraiser, coordinated the raking locations, dates, times, purchased bags, recruited volunteers, and arranged transportation. In the spring of 2015, I was a co-leader for a Spring Break service trip to Goldsboro, North Carolina. I organized transportation, meals, and lodging for the group of ten students while maintaining the budget. Some of the events are pictured to the left.
​Perhaps not as obvious, as other skills might be, but my art courses demonstrate leadership ability. Being a leader means following through, taking input from other sources as well as integrating one’s own ideas. It means working toward a vision and growing others. It means planning, organizing, leading, and evaluating. Each project started with a plan of what I was going to do, then I put that plan into action by gathering the materials and beginning the process. There is also a large evaluative component in leadership, which was especially evident in art critiques. Each artist presented his/her solution to the assignment and then discussed with the rest of the class the successes and improvements that could be made.
