Student Research: Connor Radil-Strengthening Community: Multiple Lenses of Belonging.

The School of Leadership and Management would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to Connor Radil on the completion of a Master's Thesis titled, Strengthening Community: Multiple Lenses of Belonging.

This thesis is available through RRU's library here: https://hdl.handle.net/10613/29474

We asked Connor a few questions about this research, and this is what they said:

What are some key takeaways from your thesis that would be helpful for other leaders?

What came through most for me is that belonging is built in small, everyday moments, the bits of connection or disconnection between people. So much of it is relational, and a lot of it comes down to how we choose to show up for the people around us. For leaders, I think that is a little humbling. There is also a difference between what we intend and how it actually lands. We can mean well and still miss, which is why asking questions and really listening to the answers matter as much as whatever we do.

How is the organization moving change forward based on your work?

I want to be honest here because the timing is complicated. This thesis wraps up alongside the end of my seven years at the school where my research was focused. I am moving to a new school in the district next year, so I cannot carry these findings back into that community right now. That part was outside my control. What I can do is take the learning with me and start by looking at how I show up. There is also something I am curious to explore down the road, student-to-student mentorship, which Dr. Michael Lickers raised during my defence.

What surprised you about your experience of the thesis process?

I expected students to point toward peer-to-peer solutions. What surprised me was that the students shared they could see where belonging was being interrupted but did not feel equipped to do much about it in the moment. What came through, for this group, was less a request for another student program and more a need for the adults in the building to help build that capacity. The other thing that caught me off guard was how much of the work was in the design itself. Doing research with youth I have a connection to meant being careful to protect anonymity and to reduce power-over, and I underestimated how much that would shape everything.

How are you applying lessons learned from your whole MA-Leadership journey?

The biggest shift is that I now bring a systems lens to how I see things. It helps me see how complicated the relational side of a system really is. It is easy to get overwhelmed by that. Once you set the bounds of the system, though, it gets a bit easier to see what might be nudged. In a system where I am an insider, the easiest place to start is usually myself. That means paying attention to how I show up for others and remembering that everyone around me is dealing with their own complicated, unique experience. An early course in the MAL journey had me write about my values, and one of the first ones I wanted to live into was love, for myself and for the people around me. I keep coming back to that. When I am clear on my values and on why I am doing what I am doing, it is easier to move forward in a way that feels honest. The students put it more simply than I can. Change what is normal, belonging should be normal. Starting with myself feels like one small part of that.