FFGC Wekiva Youth Camp Reflection Paper

Forrest Schield

GEB 4890 USF

Dr. Geiger

February 27, 2023

 Table of Contents

3 Initial expectations/Disciplinary skills

4 My contributions/New mission and Vision Statements

5 Mission/Vision Statements

6 Diversity/Ethical Dilemmas

7 Ethical leadership

8 Appendix

9 Preflection paper
 Initial Expectations

My initial expectations for this were a little bit on point to what I ended up doing as I have been

a volunteer for the camp before. What I was not expecting was to be doing so much logistical

work as I am usually involved with the kids, and this was more of a support role in getting

everything ready for the camp come summer. So, I would say that my expectations were a little

blown away by how much I was forced to plan a check and recheck things to make sure that

everything was where it needed to be, and we had enough of everything. So, the reality of the

whole experience was that I never understood how much work goes into just getting the camp

running and how much must be done just to keep the thing running smoothly as I was always on

the other side of things. So, this really blew me away and gave me a newfound respect for the

people who work for the camp not just during the actual camping weeks but during the rest of the

year.

Disciplinary skills applied

I used a lot of the skills I have picked up through my studies ass a business administration major

during this whole experience. I used a lot of skills I picked up with the inventorying and

budgeting aspects of the camp. I used different skills I picked up in accounting classes to figure

out how much of what item we needed and how much of it we could afford by making a

budgeting plan and reacting accordingly. I also used some management skills I have learned to

help develop schedules to make the most of the kid's days and to keep the time management on a

doable level at least when considering you are dealing with children. This was a great way to

actually use some of the skills I have picked up in my classes and get some real-world
experience in how this sort of stuff works. Making schedules and budgeting was a huge part of

what I did for the camp and my classes helped me reflect that I had a grasp of what it entailed.

My Contributions

My contribution to the community and organization was mostly a support role and helping with

the program that I am a part of. This Program is the 7th grade program and entails taking 7th

graders out tent camping and teaching them how to build fires and other wilderness necessities.

So, during this experience I checked on the inventory from last year of what things we would

need for the coming year. Whether that be more tents, sleeping bags, cooking utensils, etc. I

ordered what I thought we needed and kept all the ordering into the budget that had been allotted

to our specific program. I also checked out the camp sites to see that nothing had gone wrong

like felled trees or other natural occurrences that could cause us to switch locations. Lasty, I

helped develop new activities and schedules for our campers and how they would spend their

days and what all we would learn each day of the actual camp. We also had an open house to

meet incoming new volunteers or parents and children who are/thinking about coming to the

camp in the summer to give them an idea of what it is all about.

New Vision and Mission

Mission Statement-1

“Creating the environmental leaders of tomorrow one camper at a time”

Vision Statement-1
“At Wekiva youth camp we strive to give children a good foundation to better understand our

environment and achieve a greater understanding of the world around us to help them achieve

their goals and becomes better leaders in the long run”

Share, Feedback and Revision-1

The first person I showed my vision and mission statements to was my father- Steve Schield a

retired former city planner. He recommended that in the Vision statement that I should get rid of

the wording “in the long run” and just replace it with the word “future”. For my Mission

statement he recommended getting rid of the word tomorrow and just leaving it as “Creating

environmental leaders one camper at a time”.

Mission Statement-2

“Creating environmental leaders one camper at a time”

Vision Statement-2

“At Wekiva youth camp we strive to give children a good foundation to better understand our

environment and achieve a greater understanding of the world around us to help them achieve

their goals and becomes better leaders in the future”

Share, Feedback and Revision-2

The second person I showed my now revised vision and mission statements to was my younger

sister- Savannah Schield a Town Clerk. She recommended that I take out the word one in my

mission statement and replace it with just “a” because she said it sounds a little off with the word

one in it and I happened to agree. She also recommended that at the end of my vision statement I

should just use the words “future leaders” instead of “better leaders in the future”.

Mission Statement Final

“Creating environmental leaders, a camper at a time”.

Vision Statement Final

“At Wekiva youth camp we strive to give children a good foundation to better understand our

environment and achieve a greater understanding of the world around us to help them achieve

their goals and become future leaders”.

Diversity Expansion

I would recommend that we branch out to different states and people with different backgrounds.

Primarily the camp caters to the outdoors type of person, but I believe they are missing out on a

whole group of people. Whether this is people in big cities or just people and kids who aren't

huge fans of the outdoors I think we should be putting an effort into changing their mindsets. As

the camp is not just about nature it is about creating future leaders and teaching the kids the value

of what we have. Another good group to cater to would be people who need a fun time away

from everything. This could be adults or children who are having a tough time whether

personally, job related, or school related for children. This would give them a good way to

relieve some stress in their lives and just have fun and relax for a week instead of worrying.

Ethical Dilemmas

I think there are numerous ethical dilemmas that could arise in a nonprofit this ranging from trust

and honesty to compensation. The way this happens is that for people to believe in the nonprofit

they must trust the people in charge and the nonprofit overall. These dilemmas can arise when

someone is put in charge who may have rubbed some people the wrong way in previous jobs.

This would cause people to believe the company isn't as ethically sound as it is. Another big one
I can see rising in nonprofits is compensation. Getting donations and not actually seeing where

all the money goes plays into this as how do people know that the money is going to the

company not just the people who help fund the nonprofit.

Being an Ethical Leader

I think there are a lot of qualities that play into being an ethical leader of a nonprofit. Some of

these include Honesty, Passion and Accountability. Honesty is very important as no one is going

to want to donate or trust your company if you aren’t honest with why you are leading it or why

the company exists in the first place. I believe people inherently will not respect someone or

something it is not forthright and honest from the get-go. Passion is another very important

quality to have in an ethical and good leader really. Passion is what drives us and seeing

someone passionate about something they care about gets other people excited too.

Accountability will play a role in anything whether that is just being a stand-up person or being a

good ethical leader. People should take responsibility for their actions and own up to things when

they mess up whether it is an accident or not. Being an accountable person is a good quality

leader and just and overall person. Overall, during my service learning I realized that it takes lot

to be a good leader and that you have to have several good qualities to be a good ethical leader

when running a nonprofit.

Appendix

15.5 hours
 Forrest Schield
1/26/23
GEB 4890

Pre-flection

What is service learning and social responsibility to you?

Service learning to me would be getting hands on training or actually learning something while

performing a service. So, let's say that you are doing a type of landscaping or tree removal

service after one of the hurricanes. While performing this service you could also be learning

about the different flora and trees in our area. So, you would be learning about which trees are

problems and how to solve these problems and benefit the community right now and in the

future. Therefore, you are learning something while performing your designated service. Social

responsibility to me is to me just overall being a good person or a good citizen. Now this doesn’t

me going way above and beyond but I see the example of seeing trash on the ground as you walk

by with a trash can right there. I believe a socially responsible person would just pick that up and

put it in the trash can.

What service organization did you pick and who’s your contact?

FFGC Wekiva youth camp

Lindsay Loftin

Program coordinator
(662)-274-9938

1800 Wekiwa Cir, Apopka, FL 32712

Why did you select this service organization and what needs within the community

does the organization serve?

So, I chose this organization because I have been affiliated with them for a long time, like 20

years. I actually started the camp as a camper in third grade and have risen from camper to

counselor to volunteer over the years. The organization provides a good outlet for kids to expel

some energy during the summer and also it is a nature camp at its heart so there are various

activities and classes you could say teaching kids and adults about our environment and

conservation.

What other groups/individuals/communities (if any) could benefit from the types of

services provided by this organization?

I think loads of people could benefit whether this is just everyday people concerned about

animals in their neighborhood and whether they are harmful or not. It also provides parents with

a reprieve from stress and if they need to catch up on something that their child will have fun and

be well looked after.

Does the organization have a mission and/or vision statement and if so, what is it?

Not really a mission statement or vision statement but the motto is “Campers today –

Environmental leaders tomorrow!”.

What do you think you might learn from this project? What specific business

expertise do you anticipate contributing/developing within the service organization?

Well, I hope to learn that my volunteering could help me with business pursuits or be a good

reference for future opportunities. The last few times I have volunteered I haven’t had to do a lot

of the logistics side of things and budgeting and designing schedules and the like so I think that it

will be very beneficial to get a grasp on how some of that works.