Group Members | rhspca

Sydney is a senior Communication Studies major, with a minor in Mathematics. She served as the administrative head throughout this semester-long service learning project with the Rockingham-Harrisonburg SPCA. She formatted, edited, and submitted the written assignments and planned meeting times. Taking on this role strengthened Sydney’s prioritization and critical thinking skills. Her mind was challenged to think in different ways in order to make executive decisions for her group. Working with an organization with values that aligned to her own made her become aware of the type of company she would like to work for in the future.
Strengths: Sydney enjoys working with others and because of this, she pursues leadership positions within a group of people. She recognizes and values the opinions of her group members. She is very trusting and takes others’ feelings into consideration by thoughtfully choosing words when speaking. Sydney also has an active imagination and seeks out creative endeavors whenever she can.
Weaknesses: Sydney oftentimes lacks momentum within a group setting and her immense trusting of others can be perceived as being naive. This lack of momentum hinders Sydney’s ability to pay attention to details when trying to reach a goal. She doesn’t lose sight of the main objective, but oftentimes gets sidetracked by these details.

Who We Are

Caitlin is a junior communication studies major with a concentration in organizational communication and a minor in Theatre. She took on the role of promotion through social media of the Howl-O-Ween event. Taking on this role provided her with a deeper understanding of each platform used.
Strengths: Caitlin is a very detail-oriented and organized person and this was useful in collecting information in meetings. She has worked in many group settings before with members varying in age so this would be beneficial for the group throughout the semester providing strong communication skills. She tends to be very open and express her opinions easily, which helps accomplish the goals the group needed to meet throughout the process. Caitlin tries to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard, which in meetings was a strength. Another strength is her belief in simplicity going a long way if it is backed up by facts.
Weaknesses: One of Caitlin’s biggest weaknesses is staying on task and focusing on the one issue in front of her. This was an issue in group meetings especially when she had a lot going on outside the project causing her to struggle with motivation. Caitlin is more sensitive to stressful situations, but when angry she remains calm. This proved to be her other main weakness because if outside factors were stressful then she would become overwhelmed and stop voicing her opinions as easily in meetings about the event.

Heather was the primary contact person for this project. She was in charge of confirming information about all events and setting up and organizing things like proceeds nights. Her main person of contact was Taryn Bromser-Kloeden, who is the Adoption/Rescue Coordinator, as well as the main coordinator of events at Chili’s, to take care of things like proceeds nights, and the financial head of the SPCA.
Strengths: Heather was extremely goal oriented and good at big picture thinking. She was very organized and good at keeping all of the other members of the group involved and updated on any changes as well as relaying any questions that the group or an individual had to the proper higher up. She is very level headed when things go wrong or something changes at the last second. This came in handy when one of our main issues with our main contact and source of information arose. Heather is also very resourceful and found many ways to work around the groups issue of having absolutely no budget for the event that we had to execute.
Weaknesses: Heather has a hard time asking for help at times and in turn takes on too much at once. This puts a lot of stress and pressure on her sometimes causing her work or motivation in other areas to suffer. She also loses focus every so often and needs the help of others to return her focus to the tasks at hand.

Kamila is currently pursing a degree in communication with a minor in Spanish. She served as the groups research head by collecting information needed for every member to accomplish their individual parts. She also made the display board for the Howl-O-ween event and helped out Sydney and Caitlin when they needed a hand.
Strengths: Kamila has an active imagination and often seeks complexity in her interests. She enjoys sometimes inventing ideas and plans while focusing on the details. Kamila is also service oriented and easily adapts to the interests of the overall group.
Weaknesses: Kamila needs stability, therefore making her sensitive and prone to worrying and stress. While also needing a decent amount of time to rebound from a stressful situation. She is also an ambivert, meaning she balances quiet solitary time with being in the thick of the action.