Tomorrow I will be retreating with my student leaders for next year. Our Global Ambassadors are an interesting combination of orientation leader plus... Since stepping into this role a year and a half ago I've been trying to define what that plus looks like. They are year long volunteers that are incredibly reliable and go-to students when our department is trying to pull a program off. But the description of the GA program is a student leadership development opportunity- that touts the university motto of ut prosim (that I may serve) with a global spin. Now that I've hired two year's groups and been through one academic year start to finish, I'm ready to implement some more changes.
I've really enjoyed learning. It's been a challenge of self control and managing my activator strength to not jump too quickly on making changes. Specifically working with the international population, I have learned about adapting to a more global time and let go of a very American by the clock schedule. I realized how much I have grown in this way when I sat this week to organize the logistics of tomorrow's retreat. From an outsider's perspective it may have looked like I was procrastinating a bit, or not preparing fully. But as I started to type out the agenda for the day long retreat it was more of a brain map for myself, reminder notes, with times loosely attached to the left side for only about half of the items- just general markers.
I reflected after last year's group retreat that students can be really amazing and implement great ideas (far better than mine) if I will get out of the way. I guest blogged about it here. So as I come into the retreat this year I am trying to be mindful of the ways that I don't give too much information, but allow opportunity for their creativity to come forward. I'm also sensitive to the internal processors when you gather a group of 30 that may not have the same chance to have their voice heard. So thinking of them in addition to highly valuing this month of reflection journey I'm on, I have two bookend times of reflection for the students to engage in tomorrow that I am most excited about. I plan to hold on to their written reflections and share them again with the students after our first semester is completed.
While I know my international students have specifically stretched me in this adaptable/unstructured time ways, I also believe that these are valuable skills to hold to amidst our fast paced consumer lives. The student leaders I've hired this year are a combination of domestic born, domestic raised (born abroad but immigrated with family before college) and international. It is such a great group of diverse experiences and life journeys and I'm looking forward to providing the forum for them to grow and learn from one another while also serving next year's incoming class.
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