Kat Matson

I started SH1 the summer after my junior year of high school. That is later than most delegates start their iBELIEVE adventure, but I was too afraid to step out and go when I first had the chance. I had never done anything like it before. My Junior year I took a leap and decided to give it a shot. My friend, Mallory Johnson, had the best stories and encouraged me to go. When it came time to pick a location, I picked Otterbein. It was hours away from where I lived and I decided that if I was truly going to break out of my shell, I needed to try a new place and surround myself with people I had never met. This was a test for me, to see how I could handle not knowing a single person. It would force me to stay out of my shell and not retreat. To push myself to embrace what I would learn and gain new experiences. To this day, that week at Otterbein continues to shape me, along with each week for each summer after. I started not knowing a soul, and ended knowing up near 50 new people and I have 100s of memories that still make me smile. I had changed so much. My mind was cracked open and I haven't closed it since. I learned the expected leadership skills, but I also learned the underlying lessons on how to be respectful, inclusive, encouraging, how to reach out, and how to communicate. I gained a large amount of emotional intelligence that is ever evolving, because each day I reflect on my weeks at summer workshop and think "What did I learn there that will help me here?". These skills have made my education path so much easier to navigate and they will most definitely be the core of how I teach in the future. iBELIEVE/OASL has impacted every part of my life and the memories I made there will always been some of my favorites, but nothing will ever compare to what is the magic of summer workshop.