My Lead the Pack Experience
Jessica S.
My personal background is that of an average Wisconsin resident; middle-class family,
first-generation college student, and perhaps most importantly, little experience with large
institutions. With no immediate family available to tell me otherwise, my impression of
universities after attending numerous college tours was that they were big – much bigger than
the township I lived in, bigger than my grade school, even bigger than my high school. Not only
did I think they were big, I thought they were so huge that I might not make connections with
professors or faculty. It almost seemed that universities were giant and faceless.
I applied to only a few schools, and UW – Stevens Point was not among the few. I had
determined that as an Accounting major, I wanted to go to either UW – Whitewater or UW –
Madison. I ending up being waitlisted at Madison and accepted to Whitewater. My immediate
plan of action was to settle for Whitewater even though I had high hopes of attending Madison.
As my senior year of high school progressed, I got a letter from Madison accepting my into their
Madison Connection program; this meant I could attend any of a long list of UW schools for two
years, and transfer to Madison afterwards. On the list, UW – Stevens Point stood out to me for
some reason. I immediately called to find out the date of the next campus tour and made plans
to go. I fell in love with the campus, and as I was walking through the involvement portion of
the orientation, a booth for Lead the Pack appeared. It looked interesting and I felt like maybe I
could get to know some other freshmen. Little did I know, this decision would impact not only
my immediate future, but my long term social, career, and environmental goals.
As time passed and the date grew closer to the beginning of my Lead the Pack session, I
grew anxious and really started wondering what I had decided to do. I was scared. I had not
really forced myself into meeting a whole group of new people since I had started high school.
The more I thought and worried about it, the more I started to realize that this was the ideal
way to begin college. Rather than waiting even longer, and entering an entire population of
thousands of college students that I didn’t know in September – I was able to meet 10-15
students and make some friendships ahead of time. When I started thinking of it this way, I
became a little less anxious and started becoming more excited.
The day came and I left home early to drive to Amherst Junction. The drive was about 3
hours long and towards the end of it I started to cry. Looking back I feel absolutely ridiculous,
but in the moment I felt overwhelmed and scared again. I began thinking of everything that
would go wrong. Everyone would hate me. I wouldn’t meet any friends. I wasn’t even going to
stay in Stevens Point for that long, why did I do this?
I pulled myself together, and hoped no one could tell I had just bawled my eyes out for
20 minutes. Seeing the sign for CWES, I took a deep breath and told myself I could do it. It was
just 3 days long anyways. I can still remember pulling my car up to Scott Johnson and saying,
“Hello, sorry I’m late”, as he assured me everything was fine and showed me where to park.
Once I finished unpacking and moving into my temporary home, I was warmly
welcomed to join a game of volleyball. Everyone was goofing around and laughing. It was a
great atmosphere to start getting to know people. To this day, I still remember seeing a girl on
the other side of the net that eventually became my best friend, and a cute boy on my side of
the net who I ended up going on a couple dates with. But at that moment, I was just meeting
new friends. What strikes me now, is how easy that moment felt. It wasn’t an uncomfortable,
awkward forced social setting by any means.
Over the course of the next three days, I think I gained more leadership and
interpersonal skills than I had in the last four years of my life. I did things that forced me to be
spontaneous (something I had never been good at before), to be a leader (something I was
always uncomfortable being previously), and to be relaxed (obviously something I was not good
at being). I still remember most of the activities we did at that camp, yet I don’t think I could tell
you a single thing I learned in my high school “Employability Skills” class.
It is hard to choose just a few activities to exemplify what I’m saying, but I’ll try. The first
taught me to be willing to believe that other people (even strangers) would be there to catch
me when I needed it. I mean this quite literally. We did a giant trust fall exercise in which one
person at a time would stand on top of a stump and loudly declare what they were most
worried about going into college, they then would turn their back to us, and fall backwards into
a sea of arms. The first few people went, and many of their fears were academic related. “I’m
really afraid I will fail all my classes”, “I don’t know if I’m smart enough for college”, and so on.
Without fail, everyone else in the group resounded with support. People offered help studying,
making plans to go to the library together, etc. I couldn’t believe it. None of us knew each
other! This was maybe the first time I realized asking for help wasn’t scary. All of us were in the
same boat, with the same fears, and we were eager to help each other. The next activity
showed me that my ideas and input had value. We were asked to separate into small teams and
build a boat out of cardboard boxes for a race on Sunset Lake. My team was only 4 people and
none of us knew where to start. I began forming some ideas but felt uncomfortable essentially
telling people what to do or how to do it. After a few more minutes, I quietly mentioned
something about taping one large box on top of 3 or 4 smaller ones. The other group members
were excited someone had thought of something. Not only did they tell me it was a good idea,
we all worked towards completing it. Throughout the process, if someone had an idea, the
team embraced it and added their ideas to the concept. After working well as a team, we
walked our creation to the lake and we ended up winning the race. I remember the childish
sense of pride and accomplishment still. More than the “win”, I was happy to have worked as a
team to win. It felt good knowing other people valued my ideas, and that I could help embrace
other people also. So many of these activities really taught me amazing things I may have not
realized otherwise. I am so, so grateful for my experiences at Lead the Pack for that reason.
Even beyond all the great life lessons learned, I was happy to learn faculty members of
the University cared about my success. Speaking to Scott Johnson and Tom Quinn made me
realize my previous conception of a giant, faceless institution was completely wrong. They each
really wanted students to succeed and feel connected on campus. It had literally never
occurred to me that my University might not just want my money. Lead the Pack really helped
me understand how many resources there were available to me as a freshman. Occasionally, I
still see Scott and Tom and they remember me. I do not know if I would have ever realized what
a great stake the University has in my education if it were not for them.
Once my freshman year began, I had this new found surge of confidence. I was willing to
go talk with professors about academic concerns, I was willing to introduce myself to people on
a whim, and I really enjoyed my campus. After some time, I realized Accounting was not for me,
and neither was UW – Madison. I withdrew from the UW – Madison Connections program, and
decided UW – Stevens Point was a much better fit. I switched my major to Water Resources
and found my new home in the College of Natural Resources to be a great fit.
My experience in college thus far is inarguably the result of many cumulative individual
occurrences, but the most impactful was Lead the Pack. Without that, I may have never had the
confidence to meet my professors and discover an Accounting major was not for me. I may
have never withdrawn from the Madison Connections program. And most importantly, I may
have never learned any of the leadership, teamwork, or social skills I did during those three
days. Many of my friends I have met who did not participate in the Lead the Pack program, still
seem to struggle to utilize campus resources, or to really understand their professors care
about their success and happiness. I often try to suggest things to them, or to inform them of
the resources that exist, but usually, it is fruitless. I have come to understand that what I
learned and gained from Lead the Pack is invaluable and cannot be simply summed up to
someone else. I cannot simply tell them the University cares, or that there really is someone
who would love to help them. They would not understand unless they participated in Lead the
Pack and experienced everything I had. I am so grateful for my experience and everything that
has come from it.