Story 42 - East & LDP Southeast Projects
East Project
Staff Advisor: Rachel Arens
Tri-Chairs: Ashwin Mannur, Tanuskh Sharma, Katie Lewison
“The intentional positive energy within East Project sets it apart from other projects that I have participated in throughout my college career. We start each week with a gratitude wall that allows us to acknowledge and reflect on what good things happened to us within the previous week. I believe this fosters a stronger sense of togetherness and connection!”
Between 2008 and 2013, NHRI started two new projects: the Lux/East Project and Park Project. Graduates of Priceless Preteen who later attended Lux Middle School approached NHRI about continuing their leadership development work beyond Priceless Preteen. NHRI staff then decided to pair these students with leadership mentors and start the Lux/East Project in the fall of 2009.
With the continued growth of NHRI, Lux Middle School and Lincoln East High School became two separate projects in 2015. Then in 2021 Lux Project became part of the JP South project.
Today, East project has 16 mentor-mentee pairs.
Just a few of their outstanding one-on-ones
“Malachi and I met a few times over the summer since we were both in/around Lincoln! We did a bunch of stuff, including (but not limited to): getting coffee and playing pickleball! We met two weeks ago and caught up after a while, and we had a really good conversation about goals for the semester and remainder of our time in school. We also talked about our faith for a long time, and it was really good!”
“We met at Holmes Lake and talked about how to prioritize our time and involvement! We also made a game plan for the rest of the semester and outlined topics for our next two 1:1s (communication and empathy).”
“Blake and I went to Freddy’s this week and this was our first time meeting in a while. He’s liking senior year so far but is taking some difficult classes such as Calc 3. We are planning on meeting next week and looking back at our goals that we had set when we first met last year.”
LDP Southeast Project
In 2013, NHRI added another chapter of the LDP Project at Southeast High School with the help of Southeast High School Principal Brent Toalson. Shortly thereafter, NHRI became the largest leadership development organization at the University and currently serves approximately 180 college student leaders and 180 7-12 student leaders at any given point in time.
Number of mentor-mentee pairs in 2024: 21
Staff Advisor: Hailey Olberding
Tri-Chairs: Owen Crone, Libby Wilkins, Taylor Pierce
“LDP Southeast is a tight-knit project with a community of mentors focused on intentionality in our relationships. We participate in a unique weekly activity incorporating a Teapot, where two randomly paired mentors meet outside of the project to answer meaningful questions found in the Teapot, and add a question of their own when they are done to enrich future interactions. Additionally, all of our icebreakers in project focus on this same aspect of relationship building to ensure we create genuine connections with other mentors and our mentees.”
“Lydia and I met outside the union for some #fall Starbucks and shared our previous barrier breaking exercises. I shared the vulnerability course content with her and that sparked some candid conversation - I feel like we’re finally at a spot where we can have peak conversation. This week, our barrier breaking activity is to reach out to someone that we miss or look up to for coffee/phone call!”
Just a few of their outstanding one-on-ones
“Met twice with my mentee this week! On Tuesday, went to dinner with her and her parents and caught up about the summer- she went abroad! Then met with her on Thursday and took her to Yogurtini. We talked about handling difficult conversations and expressing empathy.”
“This week, Gideon and I went to the Mill and discussed goals. We talked about process, performance, and outcome goals, focusing on how setting intermediate goals can help us hold ourselves accountable. Additionally we had a productive conversation about how we want our relationship to look like going forward. Gideon also took initiative in planning our next one on one at the Sheldon art museum.”