How a Veteran and Gold Star Family Member Found Growth By Trusting the Process

This blog reflection was written by Rosanna Powers, USMC Veteran, Gold Star Sister, and Cohort 4 Spartan Leadership Participant halfway through the 7-month program.?

Travis Manion Foundation’s premiere Spartan Leadership Program connects purpose with passion to hone and leverage the leadership of our nation’s heroes. The 7-month program offers an innovative way for veterans and families of fallen heroes to learn and embrace the framework of TMF Spartan Leadership, which begins with self-development and culminates in building a lasting legacy of service.

Three months ago, I started off in Atlanta at the Spartan Leadership Program (SLP) Cohort 4 kick-off through the Travis Manion Foundation (TMF). My path to this very moment started more than a year before when the first seed was planted in my head to even apply. I had just finished an Operation Legacy Service Project and was content in keeping it simple. I put a lot of thought into SLP before I even applied. The basic things in life like work, home-life balance, and all that will never perfectly work so, it became clear that the time for me was now. I knew, that if I was going to apply, I would be fully committed to success. I mean, one of my most relied upon quotes from Parks and Recreation character Ron Swanson is, “Never half-ass two things, whole ass one thing” and that has really served me well so far. I knew I could whole-ass this thing.

I applied to the program and jotted down all the dates before work or life could come in the way. I found out about my acceptance when I was working at a booth for TMF at the Student Veterans of America Conference. I was talking endlessly about TMF and how just being a Spartan has empowered me and hopefully leading all these collegiate Veterans to want to follow my lead and get involved with TMF. I coincidently worked the booth with a recent SLP graduate, was it really a coincidence? The stars could not have aligned more perfectly. To hear his passion for his Community Impact Project was just starting to light my fire.?

Circling back to Atlanta, the hardest part at first was putting faces with names and stories, I mean 30+ new people and trying to decipher who worked for TMF, who was in my cohort and who was from a past cohort was hard to keep track of. Luckily, we had this great little book to help us study and a nice little group chat that helped us connect between our first meeting and our big expedition to Colorado. Some of the great takeaways that I am able to see now are those little whispers in my ears from the previous graduates, TMF staff and an old co-worker who told me I should do it – they were being leaders and were leading me to believe in myself and build that passion to want to do more.

How can a leadership program change you? This isn’t your ordinary class. A class is easy, self-exploration is hard. Relationships are hard. Letting this program guide you and just doing what is asked in the assignments, listening to the speakers, and watching the videos – each make a slight adjustment to challenge my views and give me a new perspective.

I could not have predicted the progress I have made (in the Spartan Leadership Program) just three months ago.

I could not have imagined all of the beautiful and inspirational humans that I have been blessed to meet. From our first intro to positive psychology to being taught in person by Tosh and even each TED talk or video has been perfectly timed to meet me where I needed it. The ideation of the community impact project with the research on the gaps in the community came at a great time. Finishing it up before leaving for Colorado aligned so well with the time in the mountains where I got a chance to breathe, connect with nature and be in thought about who I am as a person at this moment, who I want to be and learning more about relationship based leadership.

I still have another three months until graduation and still so much work to do. I am trusting the process and continuing to take all the lessons and self-reflection. My self-regulation has improved by leaps and bounds with just having a smart goal and making a few small changes over four weeks. The small changes I implemented have sustained and I am feeling more motivated than ever to finish strong and honor my loved ones through action in my community.

Applications for the 2023 Spartan Leadership Program open on September 29th, 2022. To learn more about this opportunity visit >> https://bit.ly/3RZAWrP