Dinner With Our Alumni: blindHeart12

Hello all! Hope you all are doing wonderful and staying safe I am here with another Dinner With Our Alumni interview! This time with someone who has consistently worked very hard! For those that don't know, this is a short interview series where I will host interviews with our leaders who graduated from the GLDD program. The aim is to spread more awareness about the program and hopefully everyone can give it a read!

Please say hello to @blindHeart12! Heart has been a listener hear since 2017 on and off! They were blessed with some really amazing listeners who were there in their rough time, so Heart wanted to return back the same support they got here (We love people who give back to the community <3) They treasure their time with their long-term members, with whom their listening experience is like a memory and motivation to keep doing the good work! Heart was never one to explore group chat rooms until they joined the GLDD program! Even though it was stepping out of their comfort zone, they were happy to be aware of everything that goes into group chat rooms and importantly, learning of the purpose of being in a community!

What was on the menu? Grilled Cheese and Vegetable Sandwich and Cold Coffee!

Here we go:
What made you join the GLDD program?

One kind hearted friend suggested doing it. When I read the details of the program, I felt more interested as group behaviour and group development process was something I could connect with the other course I was doing and can be applied in my future freelancing work.

I see that one of the GLDD requirements was to host discussions. What did you like about that the most?

At first, I was very scared. Though script and every detail were provided through email. I started with Sharing Circle and it went well as Mods were very supportive. But we all know every session has a different experience. Later, I realised it is good to co-host and learn new things. I like the empathetic and supportive participants who were there during my learning of hosting. Who doesn't like appreciation haha, so it was fun and good to read the feedback and encouraging words by CMLs. To observe and see how lovely the leader hosts the discussion and learn from them. An opportunity to connect and know new people.

How was your experience doing the program?

- It was good with a lot of learning group behaviour. There was a time when you sent 10 hello's to people entering the chat room and nobody replied back. There was a time when you sent 1 hello and 10 people replied back asking, "How are you?"

- Insightful experience of listening to the share of members and seeing Mod managing the chatroom decorum.

- Seeing the amazing work the regular members do by being empathetic with each other and being great friends with each other.

- Experience of being nervous when facing a conflict in a chatroom for the first time

- Interesting experience of having to keep track of multiple shares when the room is busy!

Which is your favorite activity in the program?

Co-hosting session with my mentor for Positivity & Gratitude Subcommunity. Every time was a different experience and way of learning. Reading people's thoughts and knowing team mates, I enjoyed all of it quite a lot. I also enjoyed going into group support room 24/7 and sharing circle. I had the most experience in these two rooms. So much that I still visit there when I can.

What’s the one thing you learned that you will always remember?

Not to hesitate to ask for help. There are people who are ready to help, but we have to knock on a door to reach that person. Anything new will bring nervousness and it is ok to feel so. It's ok to make mistakes. It is ok to ask silly questions to know the process because only then we will give our best. Nobody judges here, everybody here tries to help us the best way they can. There are so many people out here who might not have a badge or role but unconditionally giving support. That inspires me to keep contributing to this platform.

What advice would you give to a new GLDD trainee?

If you love group chat, doing this program is much easier. But if you are someone like me who doesn't feel very comfortable with group work then all the more reason to give it a try. You will surely enjoy and will successfully complete this program with great experience and learning new things. Connect with the mentor if you don’t have one. In my case, my mentor helped me a lot. If you can connect with other course mates than that would be great motivation and fun to complete this program. At last, don’t rush, take your time.

How can mentors offer better support for the program?

As its an online program, the role of academy mentor is very important as the only person whom the trainee can connect to ask their query and get an answer in a particular time frame. They know the program better than any other person so their guidance and support are very important. They know each trainee's growth so getting feedback or regular interaction definitely helps the trainee with their growth and support if needed. Secondly, the decision to pair up with a mentor played a very important role in my case. This course was opposite to my personality so I was feeling lost or stuck a few times.

If you could change one thing about the program, what would it be?

Nothing needed to be changed as it was an valuable way of doing a program, with necessary theory provided to understand the base. I appreciate those who designed this program. I do have a small suggestion: asking for purpose for joining a program to trainee and mapping individual trainee growth and keeping interactions frequent between trainees and academy mentors.

Thank you for reading till here! I would love to hear any suggestions/question ideas that I can add to this series. If you are a GLDD graduate and would love to contribute, please PM me so we can set up our dinner! Meanwhile, please give a big shout-out to @blindHeart12 for doing this!

If you want to apply for the GLDD, please click here.