Be Fully Expressed. Be the Spark.

This weekend I attended a conference called Spark of Awesome in northern Minnesota. Yes, I drove through a blizzard—literally—on my way home, but it was worth it. I got to meet an amazing group of women from around the country, including the extraordinary Danielle LaPorte. I’m back in Michigan with some new revelations about myself, my work and my life. We all need pauses in our regular lives to carry ourselves higher. Perhaps that’s what spring break provided to you.

I think folks—my scholars, my friends, my family—know that I find Danielle’s work utterly inspiring on many levels. It’s the reason I started weaving her work into our work with our McNair students. From feedback I’ve received so far, I think you guys are enjoying this exposure and opportunity for exploration.

Danielle and me

I spent an entire day with Danielle and we covered a lot of things. Did we ever! Looking over my many notations, the one speaking most to me is this concept of self expression. Danielle said, “Being fully expressed is the greatest gift I can give my child.” Taking this further, being fully expressed is the greatest gift we can give any (and every) person we come in contact with.

We are in the business of self expression—on a scholarly and intellectual level and on a personal level. It takes great courage to express yourself. We all do it in varying degrees. I know that I often hold back out of fear. What I’m coming back with from this experience is the desire and resolve to live each day fully expressed. I’m not sure what that might look like exactly for me each day, but I want to find out!

It was funny, at the conference, others were referring to our group as the “sparkly people” and at breakfast I heard someone say, “oh, that’s the sparkler group.” To this I say---SWEET! I love being part of the sparkler group. To me, living fully expressed means being confident in myself and being willing to show my spark. So, I challenge you to let your spark out so that others can see and benefit---from YOU. Be the spark. Be fully expressed every day. I guarantee you will grow and change in some unexpected and remarkable ways…

Introducing our New McNair Scholars!

We are pleased to announce our newest cohort of scholars who are setting off on their McNair journey. Each scholar is developing an original research project with a faculty research mentor and learning about the process of research in their field. This summer, the scholars will complete their research projects and devise their plan for applying to graduate school. Stay tuned for the McNair Fall Research Symposium to hear about their findings and see this awesome group emerge as future Ph.D.’s. None of this would be possible if we weren't successfully awarded another five years of funding from the U.S. Department of Education. We are very grateful for the opportunity to continue this important work with our McNair scholars. See CMU's official press release here.

2013 McNair Cohort

Bruce Barnes, Sociology 

Amanda Clark, Biochemistry 

Andy Deery, Neuroscience 

Jim Dunn, Biochemistry 

Matt Forbes, Political Science 

Rhianna French, Psychology 

Rob Fritchman, Sociology 

Shantell Johnson, Psychology 

Nicole Lynn-Bell, Biology 

Leah Mays, Math 

Ashley Pollock, Geography 

Amanda Sleezak, Health Sciences 

Jayson Smith, Biology 

Tara Vancil, Biomedical Sciences 

Mickey Wong, Linguistics

Core Desired Feelings

During one of our first sessions together we talked about how we want to feel. Danielle LaPorte walks you further through the process in Fire Starter Session Three. Today I'd like to revisit those core desired feelings---I LOVE seeing the many fantastic words being used to describe feelings our group aspires to.

Here are several highlights:

• Fearless
• Strong
• Genuine
• Beautiful
• Charged
• Content
• Imaginative
• Inspired
• Confident
• Valuable
• Engaged
• Focused

So we ask ourselves---what do I need to do, have and experience in order to feel---X?

What do I need to do, have and experience to feel X---on a daily basis?

What do I need to do, have and experience to feel X---on a weekly basis?

What do I need to do, have and experience to feel X---on a monthly basis?

The goal is implement small actions in order to make our desired feelings a reality for ourselves as much as possible.

Check out this link---McNair Core Desired Feelings---to see what our group strives for each day.

(right click and "save image as" if you wish to grab the image for your computer, etc)

:-)