Week Four Journal

9/7: This week we studied the leadership development from the novella Binti. I enjoyed this reading mostly because it wasn’t too long and the messages from the story were short and concise. Binti is actually part of a series of novellas with the main character of the same name and Binti is the first in the series. Binti introduces the readers to the protagonist of the series. Binti is a young woman of an ethnic group on Earth called the Himba. The Himba are a traditional group and rarely stray from home. Binti is the first of her people to attend the renowned Oomza University, an intergalactic academic institution. When Binti discovers that the university has accepted her, she runs away from home and boards a ship headed for Oomza without alerting her friends or family. Despite the prejudice she faces from another ethnic group known as the Khoush while onboard the ship, Binti finds kinship amongst many academics and scholars. Then, the Meduse attack the living ship, known as Third Fish, while in transit to Oomza. The Meduse are jellyfish-like aliens known for their aggression and violent tendencies. The Meduse and the Khoush have been at war for years. The Meduse kill everyone on board the ship except for Binti and the pilot. Binti discovers that her edan, an ancient artifact she discovered when she was a child, allows her to communicate with the Meduse. The edan also protects her from their attacks. Binti realizes that her otijze, mixed clay that women of her people apply to their body and hair, can heal the Meduse. Binti manages to convince a young Meduse named Okwuthat she would be able to broker a truce between the Khoush scholars at Oomza and the Meduse. Binti is taken to the chief of the Meduse, and the chief reveals that Khoush scholars stole its stinger and exhibited it at the Oomza museum without consent. When a Meduse stings Binti, she can now communicate with them without her edan. After arriving at the university, Binti arranges for peace between the Khoush and the Meduse. The stinger is returned to the chief of the Meduse, and Okwu joins Binti at the school as a student. Binti then realizes that her hair has become a mass of tentacles and she is now part Meduse. I enjoyed reading Binti because it’s a story of both trials and tribulations and heroism. One of the most important themes of the story is how Binti uses her intellect and compassion to become a master harmonizer between the Meduse and the Khoush people. Even though she has just lost all of her friends forever, she still finds the inner strength to save the people at Oomza University from their impending peril.

9/9: One of the lessons we had to learn in our leadership development this week was what an outsider is vs. an insider. The advantage of being an outsider compared to an insider is the ability to show sympathy for someone’s misfortune, to regulate emotional and psychological states to be what the situation calls for, and to teach someone how to make or acquire what they need. The disadvantages of being an outsider compared to an insider are the possible obstacles to being able to form networks and organizations due to them being homeless, not being able to give someone they need if they don’t have the resources available to them, and speaking up about a problem or working toward a solution to a problem facing the community if people aren’t willing to take them seriously. An example of leadership by someone that would be considered an insider in Nancy Pelosi, The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Things that make her an insider include her father being a famous politician from Baltimore which introduced her to powerful politicians in the Democratic Party, past internships that gave her connections to the party, and her economic status as an extremely wealthy white woman. An example of leadership by someone considered an outsider is a local community organizer that happens to be homeless. Qualities that Make this person an outsider include their ability to make differences on a smaller, local level, their socioeconomic status as a homeless person, and a lack of influence on a larger scale which limits them.

9/9: Plan for cultivating my leadership: One of my struggles with Howard being fully online this semester is the difficulty I have parting with my past self. I graduated in 2018, unlike most of my fellow HU’24 students, and attended my local community college for 2 years. Being 17 when I graduated, I’m now 19. I felt isolated and stuck living in the same town that I grew up in even after high school. The pandemic started a short while before I was accepted to Howard and I accepted the fact that I would probably be taking virtual classes at least for the fall semester. Throughout the summer, the Howard administration assured that the campus would remain open, so I visited Washington D.C. with my mom in early August to tour the campus and the city. I’ve found it extremely difficult to part from my former self when after 2 and a half years I’m still in the same place I’ve been for nearly two decades. Even though I have trouble making friends quickly, I’ve been getting involved in local Howard student events in my area, something I hope will improve my experience at Howard when it reopens in the spring or next fall.