Way back in June, I wrote about my efforts to develop a leadership development curriculum. In particular, I talked about one specific program I was planning to offer this fall, that of the freshman seminar. The semester and has certainly come and is on its way to being gone - a little less than 6 weeks and it's over! Hard to believe...
The freshman leadership program that has been going on for the past 6 weeks has far exceeded my expectations. I knew it was going to be fun and exciting and new. Anything you do with and for first years always has a certain energy about it. The program has ended up being an 8-week series following the Social Change Model of Leadership, which has 8 constructs going from the personal to the shared or group: Consciousness of Self, Congruence, Commitment, Collaboration, Common Purpose, Controversy with Civility, Citizenship, and Change. They're pretty self explanatory. Simple. Easy to understand. Accessible. That's exactly what our students needed. We spend and hour and a half each Wednesday over lunch on each construct. A different guest facilitator comes in each week, introduces themselves, introduces the construct, gives a story about their own experience with the construct (in hopes of a. connecting the facilitator with the students and b. illustrating the construct a little more concretely), and then does some sort of activity which helps the students personally grasp the construct a little more. It's no great surprise that students prefer the hands-on, group oriented activities that get them up and moving - although it is interesting that the same things US college students like are the same things non-US college students like as well. We debrief, and everybody leaves the room with a positive outlook on life (hopefully...).
One of the glorious things about this program is that I have no facilitation responsibilities whatsoever. Not only does this relieve me from the pressure of needing to facilitate every week, but it also allows me to take copious notes about how the sessions go, how students react to certain aspects of the ideas or activities, and what might be good to change for next year. It also "models the model" of the SCM by exhibiting shared leadership. Always a plus.
This freshman seminar, which we've decided to call GPS (a bit of an updated take on the traditional name of "compass"), is only one small portion of what will hopefully be a much larger picture down the road. You gotta start somewhere. What's been amazing to me is how well the students are able to open up, reflect, participate as a group, and really connect with some of these ideas. We had the fortune of being able to use an instrument before the seminar which we'll follow up with a post-survey as well to look at how much of a difference this seminar has made to these students. I'm guessing it's had a big impact just from the feedback I've received from the students. The hope is to write up the experience in a publishable paper to help share the experience of one of the first-ever intentional, sustained leadership programs offered at an American university in this region. Do we see the same results as we would in the US with traditional US college student populations? Are the results even better? What's the comparison of the knowledge, attitudes, and expectations of our students coming into college vs. those in America? I find it very easy to devote time towards answering these questions. They're becoming more and more important as we continue to offer an American education as one of the major exports of our country (i.e. the US) to this region.
GPS ends by the end of October. I plan on spending November jointly preparing the plans for the Women's Leadership Program we intend to offer next spring as well as developing more opportunities for outdoor education. We might even try to do some shorter, 1 shot workshops on other leadership models, but we'll see what the interest is first. More updates to come.
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