It is amazing to learn more about the mostly hidden workings of your community. It’s stunning how much one takes for granted and how much I learned about what it takes to make a community function well. I am about to graduate from a Leadership course offered by the Chamber of Commerce in Lewisville about the City of Lewisville, TX, and Denton County. Here are some of my experiences!
By the way, while editing the transcript, I realized I forgot to mention some things in the video – thus, you might want to peek at the transcript below the video (under the headline, “Some Of Our Experiences”) to get a more complete list of where we’ve been.
Transcript
Greetings. In this nugget, I’d like to talk about how amazing it is to learn about the mostly hidden workings of your community. It’s stunning how much one takes for granted and how much I learned about what it takes to make a community function well.
It was an absolute pleasure to participate in this nine-month program that the Chamber of Commerce in Lewisville, Texas offered to learn more about the inner workings of Lewisville and, to some extent, also of Denton county, which is the county that Lewisville is located in.
There are cities and communities all over the country that offer equivalent courses. I strongly invite you to participate in one of those and learn more about what’s really going on.
Some Of Our Experiences
We toured so many different places (I forgot to mention some of them in the video – and even this list is not complete).
- We’ve toured the jail, which was really a heart-shaking experience.
- We learned about how the police work
- We visited the fire department – we even got to use the “jaws of life” and some cool and life-saving tools
- We learned how the court system operates and met an incredibly passionate juvenile judge
- We met major manufacturers and toured their facilities
- We learned about the area’s development – what is going on and what is in the works
- We gained an insight into the health system and got to talk to the CEO of a major hospital in Lewisville.
- We learned about the missions of several amazing non-profits in the area.
It gave me such an appreciation of how the community really works.
We also worked on a class project and designed a community space next to the Chamber building (see the top left photo in the header image). We got it to the “shovel-ready” stage and raised some of the resources needed. The following leadership class will finish it!
What’s more, I got to meet people, some of whom I most likely would have never met. The connection is just incredible.
Thank You!
I can’t thank the organizers enough. Thank you, Lori Fickling and Lisa Vanetta! Thank you also to Dan Irvin, our facilitator, who kicked us off every time we met before our day’s adventures. That, too, was phenomenal.
Lifelong Friendships
I am looking forward to staying connected with my classmates from Leadership Lewisville and meeting the Alumni from past and future classes. I think we have forged some lifelong friendships here. That is worth a lot as well – in fact, that’s worth everything.
A Considerable Expansion Of Perspective
In reflecting on this experience, I’ve got to say that this experience leads to a considerable expansion of perspective. And that is because you understand more about how things work in the community.
It also gives you a much bigger appreciation for what people who do these jobs daily go through – and what support we can provide them to make their jobs perhaps just a little bit easier.
I invite you to learn about the inner workings our your community.
I’m Curious
Have you been part of an equivalent Leadership class in your community?
- If yes, what was your experience?
- If not, when will you do it? (insert cheeky smile)
Dr. Stephie
P.S.: I appreciate you commenting and sharing this with others. Thank you!
