LRC Blog Post

The one learning outcome I believe that I've learned the most from is the Human Skill Outcomes – self-leadership and effective group management. 

With this job, I've learned not only to interact with others, but also how to confront and solve issues that could be bothersome to an individual or a whole group. I've learned to work with others through passion, diversity and hard work. I've also learned to treat others as people and not as objects. I've helped drive the past two communities to help become a tight-knit group and help them become closer than they ever that they could imagine. 

One of the greatest values I've learned from this position is respect. Respecting your residents, respecting your co-workers and in general respecting those people around you. You may not agree with what they are saying or doing, but you can at least have the respect for those individuals. 

Aside from the personable side of the job, I've learned many other business tools and aspects that will help me be successful down the line in my career.  

I've had three of the best years of my life, and being in an LLC and specifically the LRC, has been a huge factor of it. 

-Corey Morgan- Program Assistant- Lifetime Recreation 

Demonstrate respect and develop meaningful connections with individuals

Art in the Park

As a Program Assistant, I have realized that the only way to make meaningful connections with the individuals of my community is with respect and love. This is not as simple as the point-blank statements, "I respect you as a person" or "I care about you as a person", because the rhetoric cannot be considered genuine without demonstration and proof to show the individual that your words have meaning. Even if someone believes you when you say that you respect them, that belief will not become conviction unless they can see the demonstration of respect in your words, behavior, and attitude. My understanding about what it means to be a strong leader and role model has grown with my realization that your position is authenticated through connecting what you say with what you do and how you act. Respect is vital for having a meaningful role of leadership in the community, but what seems to be even more important for translating a meaningful role into a more influential role requires consistency and demonstration.

Saturday Market

I really felt empowered as a leader this year because of the meaningful connections that I was able to make with everyone on the individual level. My stronger sphere of influence has been in smaller group settings and one-on-one conversations. The small group adventures in the beginning of the year helped me build a solid foundation with my residents on the personal level, which allowed me to more effectively network everyone together in the broader process of community building. Building meaningful connections through respect helped build a meaningful community based on respect.
--- Jesse Martin, AHRC

My experience as a Health Professions Program Assistant

I could identify my experience as a PA as many things, challenging ,exciting, frustrating at times and an adventure. But I would have to say most of all I found it educational. In this position I learned so much about people, myself, and how to work as an effective team. I worked with the most wonderful people I could think of, my fellow PAs. They have all the compassion, love and every to inspire an entire campus and to change the world. My FIR and Melissa were my mentors, they gave guidance and support. They were honest when communicating and always challenged me to be better. As for my residents they were the most wonderful, talented and crazy group of people I have met. They were all so full of potential it was mind blowing. Everyday they taught me something new. They all came from drastically different backgrounds, and perspectives on life. This taught me to listen and be open to new ideas. This also sometimes brought conflict within the community, learning how to deal with conflict and take a neutral perspective was a times challenging but a great learning opportunity.  They were always honest with me, their feedback was valuable to improve in my position and as a person. We grew this year from our experiences together and I would not have changed a thing.

One of my greatest moments in this job was the Health Summit put on by my community for the LLC. In my mind this embodied every aspect of the outcome "love of learning." For this event the Health Professions students picked categories they felt were important and relevant to everyone participating in the event. They chose hand hygiene, sexual health, CPR and healthy lifestyle. Students worked in class in the weeks prior to the event to learn about their topic and  how to present it in an interesting way to fit all learning styles. Students found this challenging but also educational for them. The students also created a website to help the retention of information presented at the summit for all who attended. When the day of the Summit came it was very exciting to see just how prepared the students were. It was so amazing to see the students that you live with and see in class each week teach a large group of people with all the confidence in the world. All participants seemed engaged and really enjoyed the activities  This was such a great learning experience for everyone involved. It was so great to watch my resident take charge and host a wonderful event.

I never imagined I would learn so much from a job. One area that I really struggled with at the beginning of the year was taking feedback constructively. This position really became easier when I changed my perception of making a mistake.  As I made mistakes with this position and received feedback I learned to look at them as learning opportunities. Learning to take feedback has helped learn to reflect and assess on my strengths and weaknesses. While I learned to reflect on feedback I received, I encouraged my residents to reflect as well. I asked them to reflect on activities, class discussions as well as their academics  It was very interesting to watch the reflection process from the outside. The residents were very perceptive to themselves and surroundings. They had great conclusions and often knew exactly what they needed, all they needed to be asked were the right questions. 

 One learning outcome from this position that  has helped me the most would be learning to assess group dynamics and make plans or changes accordingly. This was one part of leadership I did not expect to be so challenging or interesting. The community dynamics changed  rapidly over the  year  which was fascinating to watch. As the group dynamics shifted I found my residents needed different things from me as a leader. This skill will help me in all leadership positions I take for the rest of my life. 

Thanks for an amazing year,
Stephanie Northouse 
P.A. Health Professions Residential College, 
Living Learning Community 2013

GVC PA Reflection of the Year 2012-2013

     Being a GVC PA is definitely one of my best learning experiences in college. I really appreciate this opportunity to serve residents with love and compassion and grow to be a better person and leader. PA is a challenging position from day one, and I learned a lot from these challenges, difficulties,  and O! SMs. Confront problem behavior and constructively resolve problems:

     Confronting problem behaviors and solving conflicts is one of the biggest challenges for me. As a PA, confronting problem behaviors and enforcing university polices are inevitable. For example, in the spring semester I found some beers in one of my residents' kitchen when I entered their suite. Even though the residents promised that this would not happen again and asked me not to report, I still reported the alcohol incident to the RA on-call. I was surprised when I first found alcohol in the kitchen, and I did not really know how to respond and solve the situation appropriately at first. Therefore, I went back to my room to think about how should I handle the situation. First, I called my RA and let her about the situation, and then I called the RA on-call. After few hours I came back to to follow-up with this resident. Throughout the year, I also dealt with many other situations when I needed to confront some residents and having hard conversations with them. This PA position gives me opportunities to face my weakness and challenge myself to confront people when necessary. I am still working on this challenge right now, but I feel more comfortable having hard conversations with people now.

   

The Program Assistant position is an extraordinary opportunity to serve others while you grow and learn new things.  I hope that you learned about yourself and others throughout this experience.

Below are the actual learning outcomes for the position.  Read them carefully and think about what you have learned in this leadership position.

Human Skill Outcomes – self-leadership and effective group management

·         Accurately assess personal abilities; identify strengths and areas for growth

·         Understand and examine group dynamics and help manage team behaviors

·         Maintain effective communication between residents, faculty, Assistant Director

·         Create emotionally supportive community where residents feel included and valued

·         Understand various leadership styles and use them appropriately

·         Demonstrate respect and develop meaningful connections with individuals

·         Practice self-care and stress management

·         Demonstrate compassion and empathy for community members

·         Provide effective and appropriate feedback to community members

·         Confront problem behavior and constructively resolve problems

                                                                                                                                                                   

Educational Skills – ability to communicate and facilitate community development effectively

·         Use a variety of methods and styles to meet the needs of your residents as they learn

·         Relate activities to the outcomes of your LLC

·         Present information in an organized manner

·         Effectively design and use activities to meet a desired outcome (community building and educational)

·         Create opportunities where residents can reflect on learning through 1:1 or group discussions

·         Identify resources to connect residents to interest and need areas

·         Utilize university resources and procedures to implement activities (catering, reservations, motor pool, etc.) and support faculty

·         Utilize effective facilitation skills to conduct formal and informal learning/community activities

Specific Residential Community skills – ability to manage priorities and develop LLC community within a larger community and articulate priorities for specific community based on theme, i.e., business, health, engineering, etc.

·         Understand and articulate mission and objectives of the Living-Learning Communities Program

·         Understand and articulate the learning outcomes established by the faculty for your community

·         Understand and implement LLC and residence hall policies, procedures, and goals while working with community

·         Serve as role-model academically, socially, and intellectually

·         Utilize excellent judgment in decision making and problem solving

·         Understand and support emergency protocols

·         Consult and communicate regularly and appropriately with residence hall staff

·         Coordinate community and program-wide activities to promote sense of belonging and draw intentional connections across disciplines

·         Adapt to change in direction or plans as communicated by the faculty or Assist. Dir.

·         Support values of the program (Self-Assurance , Community Engagement, Intellectual Curiosity, Love of Learning, Openness and Inclusion) 

Directions for your Blog Post

1) Select one learning outcome from each category above where you feel you learned the most.
2) Choose a photo from the year that depicts this learning
3) Engage your Keirsey Bates preferences for DETAILS AND EXAMPLES (S) and then WHAT DID YOU LEARN AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN IN YOUR LIFE AS YOU CONTINUE TO GROW (N).
4) Include your name and community


Understand and examine group dynamics and 
help manage team behaviors
Melissa Wintrow, LLC

Using Steve Farber’s book, The Radical Leap, as a guide, I tried to stay in tune with the energy of our team and make adjustments as needed.  I remember two specific meetings – one prior to Spring break and one afterward -  where we used our powers of the WUP to describe the group dynamics in the communities as they approached spring break and after.  I created an activity where the PA’s could reflect on what are typical challenges the students go through after spring break.  They all shared that the groups tend to hit a lull and lack energy. Therefore, PA’s were asked to create a specific goal for their communities to keep the energy high after spring break.  As Brad Larrando stated in our Health Fair, they teach players to “1) be early; 2) do the right thing; and 3) finish.”  So we were focused on finishing.  When we returned from spring break, I noticed that the PA’s energy was low.  So, during our meeting, each person was asked to share what they love about their job.  As the PA’s started talking about what they loved, the energy started to increase.  We re-engaged in our passion and commitments in effort to do our best jobs for our students.  I could have been frustrated with the group, but I tried to accept where they were and then created an activity to get the energy up!