Training Reformatted

This is what training for student leaders in campus activities would look like if I were in charge. This comes out of a basic frustration with the past training experiences I have had.

Monday - 6 days before new students arrive
10am - On-campus Housing check in opens for Student Leaders
1pm - Inspire. This would be a half hour talk consisting of inspiring the students. It would do that in three ways, describe the standard of excellence in the past, paint a picture for the next year, and tell them how they are specially chosen. Also talk briefly on the vision of campus activities for the year.  It would end a prayer of blessing over the upcoming year.
1:30pm - Leave for camp in the mountains. No mention of work at camp. Students need to learn how to take time off to prevent burn out. 
3pm - Arrive and explain the purpose of camp, to work as a team. Also pray over their time at camp.
Free time until dinner
After dinner - Group games like catchphrase and charades.
Tuesday
8am - Breakfast
9am - High ropes ground bonding exercises.
12pm - Lunch
1pm - More group bonding exercises.
5pm - Dinner
6pm - Free time
8pm - Bonfire. At this bonfire ask each person to share a significant story or detail in their life. As a Director, I would go first and set the tone with a very personal and vulnerable story from my past. As each person goes, set a brief prayer over them.
Wednesday
8am - Breakfast
9am - Leave for campus
12pm - Lunch
1pm - Have four hour long presentations on topics greatly related to the students. For example: event planning, debriefing events, acting as student leaders, how to brainstorm.
5pm - Off-campus dinner
Thursday
8am - Breakfast
9am - Craft vision statements for each group.
10:30am - Go over practical things. For example: office etiquette, resources and offices on campus, etc. 
12pm - Lunch
1pm - Groups do individual work. But for the first half of every hour the supervisors meet with one group to discuss objectives for the year based on vision statements.
5pm - All Student Leader Dinner
Friday - Day before new students come.
8am - Breakfast
9am - Groups do individual work and meet with remaining groups.
12pm - Lunch
1pm - Groups do individual work.
5pm - Off campus dinner
6:30pm - Batting cages, bumper cars, or minigolf.
Saturday - Day new students come
8am - Breakfast as a team.

Important notes:

  • Students would only be told what time to show up in the morning, no other mention of time. Not even in group exercises. For example, instead of "You have ten minutes to do this" say "Take some time and do this". This is to take away the mindset of time as a limit.
  • Fun should be sprinkled throughout with lots of many activities in normal day life. 
  • Every meal should be ate together as a team.

I took a critical look at every aspect of training and decided to be very intentional with the activities.

On my way to University President. (the next 30 years of my life)

People ask me what I want to do with my degree and I answer, "become a university President." It's a scary thought. But I feel like I have no choice. I love reading about Higher Education so much, that I can't see myself doing anything else.

I recently contacted the Arizona State University President, Dr. Crow, to get some tips on my path towards higher education administration. Dr. Crow was instrumental in the refocusing of ASU, and maybe even the whole field of universities. You can read more about his vision, "A New American University", it's pretty interesting stuff.

But so my email bounced back and forth a few times and I eventually got a scrape of advice from his Communication Coordinator that he gave to someone a year ago. I've included the text in full:

“Thank you for your e-mail and the opportunity to help you in your quest. While I don’t believe that there is a single, exclusive pathway to success in my field, there are some things that are vital to a successful career in higher education.
One is having a passion for teaching and learning. Neither begins or ends with college. You can’t effectively administer a process that you don’t understand from all perspectives: student, teacher, researcher and administrator. Find your area of passion and build from it. Read all you can about everything you can. To this day, I still teach a class and I still consider myself a learner. This is how you can best identify how knowledge delivery can be improved and tailored to the needs of students.
From the knowledge you gain, develop a vision. Something that you must work hard and creatively to accomplish. Look for opportunities to strengthen and test your leadership skills. Be willing to collaborate with others to bring your idea to fruition. By setting a goal, inspiring others to work cooperatively toward its achievement, and ultimately realizing that vision, you are testing a process that will be repeated over and over as the head of an institution.
Be willing to take calculated risks and do not be afraid of failure. Sometimes ideas work, sometimes they don’t, but you can’t let the fear of failure keep you from trying to things. It’s important not to be reckless in this respect, yet it is only through trial and error that real progress is made.
I hope that these points are helpful to you in some way and I wish you the best as you work toward reaching your goals.
Michael M. Crow
President
http://president.asu.edu
http://twitter.com/asupresoffice”

I am seeking to gain knowledge in every field that I can. I hope to come from a Community Life start to reach a Student Conduct level, then continue to Education policy, and tha\en jump to President. 

Here is my life plan (I am currently 20):

  • 21: Graduate with Batchelor's in Communication with minor in Graphic Design
  • 23: Graduate with Master's in Student Affairs.
  • 24: Work as a Community Life Director / RES Hall Director
  • 26: Graduate from the WASC Assessment Academy
  • 28: Graduate with Master's in Communication (allowing me to be a professor)
  • 33: Transition into Student Conduct
  • 35: Earn my Doctor of Education in Higher Education Policy
  • 40: Work as Dean of Students
  • 41: Earn my Doctor of Organizational Communication
  • 45: Become Vice President of Student Affairs
  • 50: Become University President

Whoa, in just about 30 years, I will serve as a University President. That's a scary thought.

Run more, Pray more, Grow more.

New Year's Resolutions are a lost art, one that most people now-a-days don't engage in. Right before all the madness of New Year's Eve, I sent out a group message to my friend group of eight people asking them about their resolutions. No one responded initially, until later did someone make a joke of their own resolution. This is what resolutions are now, either non-existent or a joke.

My own personal resolution is the title, "Run more, Pray more, Grow more". I feel like it encompasses the stage of life that I am personally at. I see bad habits trying to creep in to my daily routine, stress overflowing and an inability to solve problems. Normally I just get past it, but this year I want to put in place a foundation of stress relief: running. I can see many benefits in running; stress relief, endurance training, increase in metal will power, feeling better, etc. I just hope they can outweigh the cost of waking up early every morning.

Prayer is a huge topic that I don't think I can (a) discuss to the fullest extent in this post or (b) discuss with full intelligence on the topic. I don't know a lot about prayer, but I'm learning. This year I'm set out to seek time with God more through prayer. Both in daily life and struggles and also through dedicated time spent alone with him. 

Grow more is kind of the catch all for the resolutions. I just want to grow. I want to be a better person today than I was yesterday. This is involved in some very general areas (such as faith, principals, education) and also very specific areas (such as design, encouragement, never letting the trash pile up). This one I can use as an excuse to motivate myself when I feel like I'm not doing my best work.

I feel that we are the cusp of the ending of New Year's Resolutions. I'm not completely sold that it's a good thing. I love mine, I love doing them. It allows me to grow throughout the year and ultimately be the best person I can be. I'm all about personal growth, however. I think it works because it is more vague, while I set up tactical objectives in accomplishing this, I don't have it included in my resolution. It gives me some wiggle room.

So, let's take this to the branch. Let me know specifically what you think about New Year's Resolutions right now.

Marty Card

I enjoy University Life. I could get lost on University websites looking at the Student Life section. I love conversing about it and getting other opinions on it. 

So with that in mind, I was casually watching a video made by the Associated Students of Biola University on events they have coming up. My jaw was on the ground drooling over all the iMacs they have when they started talking about their Red Sea Card. I immediately perked up. This was a way for them to gain support for their home basketball games on campus. After all, this was my job (home athletic event promotion) and we had been in discuss about a point system where students can earn rewards.

After sneaking on to campus as a "prospective" transfer student, I met with the Spirit Coordinator at Biola. She told me some information on the program after I expressed interest in starting one on campus. 

The idea is simple. Students carry around their Red Sea Card and find a representative at home basketball games. They get one stamp for attending and two stamps for wearing their Red Sea shirt. After ten stamps, they turn the card into the office and get entered to win an Annual Disneyland Pass.

The MARTYCARD is born.

The MARTYCARD is born.

I took the same concept and applied it to our campus. We would call ours: the MARTYCARD, after out fearless mascot. We decided to expand ours to include all sports. Since we already identify one game per week to heavily promote (Game of the Week(), we would use those as our chances for stamping. Bring your MARTYCARD to a Game of the Week and receive one stamp. Wear your Screaming Eagles shirt and receive an additional stamp. After ten stamps, turn it in to be entered to win the grand prize (yet to be determined). Students can turn in as many cards as they want.

The program has yet to be released, so we'll see how it works out. I'm pretty excited for it.