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The saying goes, “it takes a village to raise a child,” but, in a
residence life situation dependent on 50 women cooperating with each
other to run the day-to-day activities of the hall, we say, “it takes
a scholarship hall to graduate a Jayhawk.” In the scholarship halls at
the University of Kansas, women cook and clean for each other in order
to deter costs and make college more affordable. If one pictures a
grandmother's aging victorian house, only equipped with an industrial
kitchen and a dining room to feed 50, that would be Dennis E. Rieger
Scholarship Hall. In addition to their other duties, an executive
board of 16 strives to create innovative programming in order to help
residents find their passions outside of the classroom. The executive
board displays a wide spectrum of leadership styles, from the
aggressive pack leaders, to the cheerleaders, to the (sometimes)
absentees. However, every executive board needs the unique people that
get work done and without complaining. These leaders sneak up on us
and are most often found selflessly devoting their time and energy to
doing the underappreciated grunt work. Perhaps the executive board
member of Dennis E. Rieger Scholarship Hall that best fits this
description is the Legacy Chair, Megan Stahl. Megan, a sophomore from Kansas City, KS, recently put on The Rieger
Alumnae Dinner on March 31, one of the struggling programs in the hall
but one with the greatest potential. Rieger Hall opened in 2005, so
the growing alumnae pool is young, diverse, and spread-out across the
world in different jobs and graduate programs. While more seasoned
scholarship halls, dating back to the 1950s, may have a large alumni
group excited about returning to Lawrence, the average age of Rieger
alumnae means that their ability to travel back from their busy lives
for one day is greatly diminished. However, Megan went above and
beyond this year for the event. In a burst of creativity, Megan decided to hold the occasion like a
speed dating event. There were non-alcoholic “mocktails” and sets of
questions for current Rieger women to ask former Rieger women. Former
women lined up along one side of the table while Megan kept a constant
rotation to allow as much mingling as possible. This resulted in fewer
lulls in conversation and made sure alumnae were not asked the same
questions multiple times. Megan looked up recipes, questions, in
addition to managing the catering for dinner and residents who wished
to cook a special dessert. The Saturday of the vent, you could find
Megan squeezing limes, scurrying around the kitchen looking for
serving utensils, and creating a fun environment for the alumnae and
residents. All this work may sound like something any one person might do for a
program at their hall – the difference with Megan comes down to that
most over-looked attribute: a positive attitude. Her enduring optimism
about the event became infectious. This kind of leadership, the sneaky
kind that sneaks up on us, inspired our residents to become active in
the hall. In addition, many of them stepped up to help create the best
alumni event possible by volunteering to cut flowers, place food, or
cook a dessert. Further, the proof of her success is in the numbers,
and our participants increased as well as the number of alumnae from
previous years (which usually numbered around only 5, this year we had
12). While this increase may seem small, for our hall it was a
testament to Megan’s hard work and ingenuity. We are extremely lucky
to have such a dedicated woman living amongst us.
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