Leni:
Mr. Bishop is an amazing man and it was a great honor to speak with him. You can tell, just by speaking to him, that he leads with the will of the people in which he represents. His leadership style is not a selfish one. He carries out decisions based on the people he cares for, and never does anything that benefits himself. He is a very selfless leader – this is what stands out most to me. Mr. Bishop uses his selflessness to accomplish his tasks because he gains the trust of his people. He is the very definition of a selfless leader.
Meeting with Mrs. Rhonda today was amazing. She was very happy, very polite, and just an all-around joy to be around. Some differences between New Orleans and Baton Rouge culture-wise was probably the togetherness and comradery of the communities. New Orleans was hit very hard by Hurricane Katrina. 80% of New Orleans was under water. Baton Rouge was not hit as hard as New Orleans was. You could tell that the culture in New Orleans was more close than in Baton Rouge because the people of New Orleans lost everything together. The people of New Orleans rebuilt together.
What I took away from our visit with Mrs. Rhonda is how a disaster can bring people together, regardless of race, age, gender, or creed.
Jennifer:
Senator Bishop has amazing leadership skills that shows that he cares and strives to make a difference for the people. When Bishop would mention the people, it shows that he’s doing the hard work to help benefit the people and the community. He’s the kind of leader that truly wants to make a change not just a small change but a change that will last and make a huge impact. The time management that he has stood out to me, mostly because it can be difficult to manage one position, but to be able to manage three shows his hard work and dedication. I believe he uses his dedication to show to the people who believed in him that he wasn’t going to let them down and strive hard to accomplish everything he set out to do.
The difference I found between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is the way they talk about how they were affected by the storms/flooding. Since the people in Baton Rouge don’t really experience flooding, it seemed that they were really hit hard by the flooding.
What I took away from the time spent with Rhonda is that she really cared about her work with people and it seemed like she made her work her priority because she wanted to help those who didn’t have help or barely had help.
Jackson:
Senator Wesley Bishop had a very admirable leadership style. He was meant to be the main speaker, but he made sure to include everyone in the room. He also included people that had no part of his speaking. He added the lady that walked into the conference room into the conversation and also added the gentleman that we passed by his office. I really enjoy his time management. He makes time to show that he cares about people, while continuing to complete the task at hand.
New Orleans has a wow factor! Baton Rouge is close to having a wow factor, however they seem to go about things without a care in the world. New Orleans people are always looking out for each other. New Orleans runs at a fast pace. When we were at Mother’s in New Orleans they wanted your order snappy and got it to you fast. Copeland’s of New Orleans in Baton Rouge, on the other hand, was very patient. Both of these styles are appreciated. It depends on whether someone wants to be taken care of quickly or to be taken care of in a nonchalant way. Rhonda taught me that there is an act for nearly anything, I love how she said she would give the advice and then it is up to you.
Kristin:
Mr. Wesley Bishop’s leadership style is very focused on bettering the community and providing the best for his people. I believe his leadership was very focused on self-sacrificing and putting others before himself. In some of the conversations we shared with Mr. Bishop, it really stood out to me that he focused on listening to the people and putting his own beliefs to the back. I think he also leads by example and this was apparent when he spoke about wanting to provide laws and regulations that would help his own former classmates. He really focused on grasping and understanding the unfair laws, or laws that would bar people from success – that deserve what we all have. For example, he spoke about the man that learned a trade while in prison, but by law was unable to receive a license due to his criminal history. Mr. Bishop was very interesting and inspiring to meet with.
Noticing the cultural difference between New Orleans and Baton Rouge was very suttle and hard for me to notice just because we spent a lot more of our time in New Orleans and not Baton Rouge. But Mrs. Rhonda did provide some insight for us on that topic (her being from New Orleans and living in Baton Rouge). She spoke about how the accent was different and more “slurred” in New Orleans. She also spoke about how the food was different – she said New Orleans food is a lot flavorful in spices. So that was very interesting. I did notice that architecturally, Baton Rouge was more like home in Washington, while New Orleans had a lot more rick or older styled homes & buildings. But we did not see much of Baton Rouge to completely nix out the building designs, just the locations we were at.
Mrs. Rhonda was a very interesting lady. She brought a lot to the table when informing us about her job. But what I took away from her most was listening to her stories and understanding that we all come from different backgrounds and because of that, we see things differently. We have the right to stick up for ourselves if we are being belittled, as well as understanding were we all are coming from.
Bryan:
Mr. Bishop seemed like someone that prefers to lead by example. He’s an action –taker that does what is needed to better the community and help the people. I really appreciated the fact that his moves to become more politically influential were driven by the need to improve the lifestyles of the people of his district and not to become more powerful overall. He exemplifies everything that a good politician should show ambition towards, and I very much appreciated him taking the time to speak with us today.
As for our meeting with Ms. Mercadel, my impressions were similarly affected by her genuine interest in bettering her community. She is a state attorney, and she governs the judgment of her cases based off her genuine want to help those being prosecuted, which is not always the case for attorneys.
I also found her perspective of the differences between Baton Rouge & New Orleans to be rather intriguing and illuminating. She described Baton Rouge to be more “proper” in the way that they spoke and carried themselves. The also tend to live more spread out, and reminded her of “country folk”; an interesting difference considering their relatively close, proximity.
All in all, our discussion with Rhonda made me want to do more with community involvement, and she convinced me that I need to come back to Louisiana and explore Baton Rouge some more.
Fred:
Senator Bishop uses a very unique style of leadership, one that represents his political power as well, that being a participative leadership style. Senator Bishop is also a charismatic authority, one that involves that people and listens to them to make decisions and create reforms. A participative leader is not biased since they first listen to the people before making any changes or using their voice. This can also be called a democratic leader. What stands out the most to me about his leadership style is his inclusion of the people around him that guides his ultimate decisions. He uses this style to accomplish his tasks by gathering all the people’s requests and opinions to create a new plan to tackle down.
Noticing the differences of New Orleans and Baton Rouge was difficult. The first cultural difference I notices was the differences in enunciation and pronunciation of words, their accents differed and the speed of their speck differed as well. Baton Rouge also seemed less liberal than New Orleans.
What I took away from our visit with Rhonda was her advice, which was to always listen to other people, be patient, and not be afraid to defend our positon.
Madai:
Today we had the privilege of meeting with Senator Bishop. In addition to serving as a Senator, Mr. Bishop is also the Associate Vice Chancellor at Southern University at New Orleans. In the short time we were able to meet with Senator Bishop, I became inspired by his leadership. When he presents bills, he keeps the people he represents in mind. He wants to make sure that what he is trying to pass benefits his community. Be doing so, this earns the community’s trust. Mr. Bishop is also very charismatic and genuine which also helps him in communicating and interacting with the people he represents. It makes them feel truly cared about and heard. Senator Bishop also keeps his personal beliefs separate from his work, because I think sometimes that does not end up being the case. We sometimes see leaders pushing their own agenda instead of doing what is best for the people they represent.
Today we also had the pleasure of meeting with state attorney Rhonda Mercadel. She talked to us about her experiences as an employment lawyer, and her personal experiences with Hurricane Katrina and the floods that recently hit Baton Rouge. Ms. Mercadel grew up in New Orleans, and now lives in Baton Rouge so she spent some time talking about the differences between bot cities. For example, people pronounce words differently, the residents in Baton Rouge live more spread out, people in New Orleans are me re outspoken, people in Baton Rouge speak more slowly, and she said New Orleans food is spicier and has more flavor. It was interesting to learn about some of the difference between the two cities we’ve visited – which happen to only be about 70 miles apart.
Justin:
The first person that we met today was Senator Bishop. It was a great opportunity to spend time with him because I was able to see his passion and how he talked about working in higher education as a dream job. What impressed me more was how he also ran for representative of the state and was re-elected as a senator.
I feel that Senator Bishop was more of a leader focusing on compromising and always humble and I can tell it’s not about him, but how others help him achieve his goals. Whai I notice about him is that he often points out other individuals and talks about their achievement and what made them great and impactful. He worked with other individuals and is willing to share the spotlight with others.
To me, this is important because as a leader, we have this default picture of how they have to have confidence. What we fail to see is that true leadership is being able to gain followers because they want to follow you. Such was the case for Senator Bishop and how he devoted so much time to his followers. I feel that he does a lot of compromising and collaboration to get the job done. This is something I want to take with me because it’s important to work with others to accomplish a goal.
The second meeting was with Mrs. Rhonda Mercadel. In one of the most amazing restaurants ever, she discussed several things from her line of work, but also how Katrina affected her family. One aspect that she pointed out was the cultural differences between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. I had no idea that these two cities have significand cultural differences. It seems that Baton Rouge was more similar to a big city where it’s a lot quieter when it comes to strange interaction and also how the flavor of the food was a lot more blended. On the other hand, New Orleans has a vibrant culture and personality where the people are a lot more willing to start a conversation with people, and the food is a lot spicier. I think this has to do a lot with the Mardi Gras culture and how the New Orleans spend so much time preparing for this two-week celebration.
My takeaway from our meeting with Rhonda was when we had a conversation about the emotional toll working in a service type career. Many of us always talk about the rewarding experience of helping others but it’s equally important to be aware of the emotional input it has on the individual. I was able to seek advice from her and she told me her ways of reliving stress and selfcare which are important.