As campus leaders, we can all learn a lesson from Jimmy Valvano’s 1993 ESPY Speech on how he lived with cancer:
“To me there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”
Well I found what made me laugh, think, and cry as a campus leader today. Here is a web-gem of the students at Elon University in North Carolina who surprised long-time Acorn Coffee Shop worker Kathryn Thompson with a trip to Disney World for her family:
Campus leadership is not just about reserving rooms to hold events, running meetings each week, or budgeting the semester bills for your organization. It’s not about wearing your Greek chapter’s letters or student organization’s logo on your shirt. It’s not about a title or role that you take over at the beginning of Fall semester. Instead, it’s about raising the tide for your campus. It’s about aligning actions with the shared values of your organization to contribute to the greater good of the whole 
community.
In the video above, these two students wanted to give recognition to the cafeteria worker who shared her warmth and joy every day. They valued how Kathryn “welcomes everyone in and she works so hard.” Thus, they combined their actions with their values by raising funds to give Kathryn the trip that she had always wanted.
Find out the shared values of your campus organization, and act on them! So you’re part of an improv comedy group on campus. You want to give back to the community somehow. You all value comedy and making others laugh. Why not give some action to these values by volunteering to run an Improv comedy night at the local children’s hospital?
If you haven’t already had this discussion of shared values with your team, go for it. Not only will it make members of your organization feel welcomed, connected, and engaged, it will give those outside of your organization a chance to laugh, think, or have their emotions moved to tears for the day. 🙂
