AAS 119: Asian American and Pacific Islander Labor Issues

ASSIGNMENTS

Leadership Development Assignment
Part I due by January 27
Part II due by February 10

This assignment has two parts.  Part I is due by Friday, Jan. 27, and Part II is due by Friday, Feb. 10.  These assignment will help students develop new leadership skills through their work on class projects and also help students understand the approach of Shared Leadership.

Part I (due by January 27):  Do the Leadership Training exercise by creating teams of two to three students from our class.  The teams should consist of students who do not know each other well; students should not form teams with students they know well.  Meet with your teammates and discuss three questions:  1) Do you consider yourself a leader?  Why or why not?  2) What is one existing leadership skill that you have?  3) What is one leadership skill that you want to develop in the next ten weeks?  Be specific.  Each student will write up and hand in the answers to the three questions for their teammates (e.g., in a team of two, each student will write about their partner; in a team of three, each student will write about their two partners).  Also at the beginning of class on Jan. 27, all student teams will make an oral presentation to the class.

Part II (due by February 10):  From our Course Reader, read  the “Student Leadership Training Booklet” (near the back of the Reader) and study the following quotation from Philip Vera Cruz.

The late Filipino immigrant labor leader Philip Vera Cruz once wrote:

“Leadership, I feel, is only incidental to the movement.  The movement should be the most important thing.  If the leader becomes the most important part of the movement, then you won’t have a movement after the leader is gone.  The movement must go beyond its leaders.  It must be something that is continuous, with goals and ideals that the leadership can build upon.”

Philip Vera Cruz’s vision of leadership is rooted in the concept of Shared Leadership that has long characterized the movements of immigrant workers.  Historically and today, one of the greatest contributions of immigrant workers to our community is to expand thinking about leadership.

For the second part of this assignment, write an essay of at least 500 words responding to the following two questions:

  1. UCLA is an elite institution of higher education, and as a result UCLA students are trained (both consciously and subconsciously) in a Western colonial approach to leadership stressing command and decision-making functions, assertiveness, charismatic style, etc.  Through our class projects, what can learn from immigrant workers about the different approach of “Shared Leadership”?  How can this approach help you, such as your work in student groups, church groups, community groups, on the job, etc.?
  2. For your committee work for our class project and for your work in our class as a whole, evaluate how well you are contributing to “shared leadership.”  For example, are you mindful of the existing leadership skills of other students in your committee and the one new leadership skill that each wants to develop through this class?  What have you done to help other students develop their new skills?  What are other students doing to help you develop your new skill?  Note: also remember that Shared Leadership does not mean the absence of leadership but rather a willingness to follow in the tradition of immigrant workers by contributing one’s talents and energies to advance the work of all.  In other words, shared leadership also means shared responsibility.