Lotty Toddy! A Month Well-Spent at Ole Miss
John Hughes, News Editor
The Trent Lott Leadership Institute, headquartered at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, focuses on the education and leadership development of high school and college students. I attended the Lott Leadership Program for rising twelfth graders over the summer—from June 25 to July 28 to be exact. Going into the program, I found myself possessing a bias against the idea of living in Mississippi for a month, but once I arrived and hit the ground running, I quickly realized how I stood incorrect. The Lott Program provides selected high school students with the unique opportunity to experience college and improve their leadership skills. In taking American Politics 101, Speech and Speechwriting, and Leadership Perspectives, the twenty of us in the July cohort bonded while learning about the fundamentals of becoming a leader in the United States today. I met individuals from as close as to the University as Oxford, Mississippi, but as far as Wiesbaden, Germany. The only student from Oklahoma and the first student from Casady ever to attend, I offered a perspective that not all of the students seemed exposed to, including the Native American experience or what to do in the event of a tornado. I effectively functioned as a college student, eating meals at the dining hall, doing laundry, and setting my own schedule.
Every day, I woke up at 7:00 a.m. as my roommate and I’s alarm signaled that we had one hour to get across campus to the Lott building, and I find myself now reminiscing about the times where we almost did not make it on time. Dr. Elizabeth Moore, Dr. Robert Brown, and Dr. Melissa Jones—the cream of the crop of Ole Miss faculty—greeted us with smiles every class and fostered a relationship with us that will last a lifetime. After class ended, the Lotties—as the counselors affectionately referred to us as—went to lunch together, played card games together, watched TV together, went to the pool together, and traveled off-campus together. Needless to say that the Lott cohort became extremely close to one another during our stay on campus. Looking back, I am eternally grateful for this experience, because it truly displayed right in front of my face what I value in life and in a leader. I found out it takes all kinds of people to make this world go around, and in order to understand them, you must be open to learning about and observing their values. The outstanding professors and helpful staff provided such an enriching experience that culminated in a week-long trip to Washington, D.C.
We departed Memphis International Airport at 8:04 a.m. on July 22 and landed at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport two hours later. I visit Washington almost every year, but this time went beyond anything I ever experienced before. The amount of activities that the Lott Program prepared for us left me in awe. In a matter of days, I attended a Washington Nationals baseball game and visited the Museum of the American Indian, the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History, Arlington National Cemetery, the National Mall, the Library of Congress, and the United States Capitol. I can now say that I spoke with former Senator Trent Lott (R-MS), Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Representative Michael Guest (R-MS), and I met and saw hundreds of other people, both who I did know of and who I did not. My words cannot do the experience justice because of the sheer awesomeness of it all, and to truly understand it, you must participate in it.
To all underclassmen, I highly recommend applying for the Lott Leadership Summer Program for rising twelfth graders if you have any remote interest in the government, political science, or public speaking.