Name: Preslee Bonner

Hometown: Heber City, Utah.

Major: Family Life & Human Development 

Leadership Engagement Track

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Director of New Member Education

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I was lucky enough to join the Theta Sigma chapter of the Alpha Phi Fraternity in fall of 2014. Though this organization I have been able to grow into the strong leader that I am today which is something I will forever be grateful for. For my EDGE project, I used my elected year-long position as the Director of New Member Education. For this position I was able to create a 6 week course that was planned out in the way that they would be able to learn all about our organization, but also have various activities to increase bonding through their pledge class.

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This position is super important in the chapter because our new members are not able to get initiated until they have this information. I was able to go to the western leadership conference in Denver, Colorado where I was able to network with girls who had my same position. I learned better techniques to teaching our members while still making it fun and enjoyable for everyone. Conference was amazing and I honestly learned so much about myself and was able to gain a deeper appreciation for my organization which rolled over in sharing the love of it to the new members. 

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I learned so much at conference and I was able to create an amazing new member program that the girls will be able to take with them through their entire Alpha Phi experience. This project was harder than I thought it was going to be and I struggled with balancing my time and this position. I had no idea the amount of hours of planning before class started that I would have to do nor did I comprehend the amount of time would be spent in classes. This was hard to balance my two full time jobs along with this position and other campus involvements. Once I was able to figure everything out and work with my team it made everything so much easier. 

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I believe that through this project I was able to help the 6 new members start their love for Alpha Phi. I think that the first few weeks in any job or organization are vital. That is the time you need to find your "why" of joining so it was such a neat experience to watch their love and understanding of who we are as an organization grow. 

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Overall this was an amazing project. I learned so much about who I am as a leader and more importantly how much I truly love this organization. I loved teaching so much and I really loved being a positive role model on what it means to be in Alpha Phi. Long-term I would love to be a Title-Nine counselor on a college campus so I will be teaching various groups. This project helped me become a stronger leader and more importantly, I became confident in my teaching skills. I know that I will be able to use the time management skills that I acquired for the rest of my career. I am grateful I was able to push myself to new limits and take a position which has helped me in more ways than I can count.

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" I never knew how much love I had for this organization until I had the opportunity to teach 6 new members who were eager to learn. They brought back my fire and passion for Alpha Phi."

-March 15, 2017

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"This project has given me the confidence to pursue a career where I can teach other groups of other things that I am passionate about. I will forever be grateful for Alpha Phi for helping me believe in myself and for giving me the confidence that I needed to grow into who I was meant to be. "

-June 2, 2017

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