I hope you all have been doing well! I have been staying busy with class projects, work and events but squeezed in a little time to blog about some exciting things I had the opportunity to do this past week.
I was invited awhile back to speak at the Ohio FCCLA State Conference. I have been a part of the organization since the eighth grade and it holds a special place in my heart. It is also an integral piece of my platform, "Creating Strong Leaders for Tomorrow". Before I had the chance to speak however, I was contacted by Ms. Pam Huston from the Ohio Department of Education. She stated that she would be featuring me and the two other keynote speakers, Kent Boyd, Ohio FCCLA Alumni and 1st runner-up on So You Think You Can Dance, and Joel Penton, OSU Football Player and recipient of the Wuerffel Trophy in a web-based article. Here is the resulting article.
Friday, I made my way down to the Ohio State Fairgrounds and again found myself in familiar territory, among thousands of students furthering their leadership abilities. I presented my speech on my leadership journey and encouraged students to always think outside the box, challenge themselves and innovate and to never be realistic. One of the fatal flaws of leadership is to accept average performance or mediocre ideas, it is required of us to push boundaries. The students response was great and I hope I ignited some desire in them to create more for themselves. Here is a clip from Joel's presentation of the crowd I got to speak to!
I had a great time getting to interact with the students afterwards and am looking forward to working more with the organization on creating leadership development modules for classrooms to use for years to come!
I will keep everyone posted on new events and information on www.twitter.com/MissMansfield20
For the time being I am focused on my last few weeks of school and graduation! Pray for warmer temperatures and have a great Easter and Passover!
Peace, Love and Happiness
Ashley Warholic
P.S. The title for this blog comes from my friend, Leo Almeida; who served with me on the Ohio State Executive Council when I was a freshman in high school. Leo was referring to my spunky spirit on the stage, in workshops and in breakout sessions when we worked together. I was known and still am thought of as the, "fearless one" and was always recruited to make a fool out of myself, specifically lip sync on stage while dressing in the STRANGEST outfits. But, what can I say, I do love to make people laugh!
