A Taste of College
Are you a leader?
Do you want to be a leader?
Do you want to practice and improve your leadership skills?
APPLY NOW: DEADLINE July 22, 2011
A Taste of College:
Youth Leadership Retreat*
Skill-Building and Application in Springfield, MA
8:30 am July 29 – 9:00 PM July 31, 2011
at UMass Amherst
This is your chance to get out of town and take action to make Springfield a stronger city where all youth can excel. This is also a great opportunity for you to experience a taste of life on a college campus. This Retreat brings adult and youth facilitators together to coach each other into becoming better, more effective and successful leaders. Participants will explore questions such as:
- What are the environmental conditions for successful leadership?
- What are the warning signs of leadership failure?
- Is everyone a leader?
- When, and why, should leaders behave like a follower?
- Is leading about the leader, the group, or the goal?
- Do leaders work alone or with other leaders?
Issues that require leadership attract people with various motivations. “Leading” and “following” both involve dealing with hope & fear, belief & misunderstanding, shared and different histories, and a range of possible futures.
In order to focus attention and ground the learning experience, participants are charged with the mission of designing a series of Public Service Announcements on issues of common concern. Together, we will go through several crucial leadership steps, including:
- collecting and assessing what people know and don’t know
- challenging and confirming ideas with evidence
- defining a shared vision for the future
- making connections between knowledge and skills, needs and limits
- designing action steps
- creating and assigning responsibility for evaluation of the outcome
At the end of the Taste of College Retreat, participants will have learned new skills, made new friends, envisioned a future, and taken steps to get there.
Designed and Presented as a Learning Lab for ResiliencyTM
Co-sponsored by the Center on Communication for Sustainable Social Change
Funded by Youth First! and the Mass Alliance on Teen Pregnancy
Fiscal Agent: New North Citizens Council, Springfield MA
LOGISTICS
The Taste of College Learning Lab/Retreat begins when you board the bus from Springfield at 8:30 am on Friday July 29, 2011 and ends when the bus returns you to Springfield at 9:00 pm Sunday July 31, 2011.
Each participant is responsible for getting to the pick-up location on time (8:30 am Friday July 29) and being picked up from it, also on time (8:45 pm Sunday July 31, 2011).
More transportation details will be posted here on this website by July 20, 2011.
During the Learning Lab/Rettreat, you will be introduced to the UMass Campus by a UMasa Admissions tour guide and also visit the studio of Amherst Community Television.
- Details of the daily schedule will be announced when participants arrive.
- You will be staying two-to-a-room in Brett House, which is in the Central Residence Area of the UMass Amherst campus.
- Roommate assignments will be made by Taste of College or UMass Housing staff.
- Adult chaperones will be present overnight.
- Meals and bed linens provided. Most meals will be eaten in the Worcester Dining Hall; at least one meal will be in the Blue Wall student cafeteria.
What you need to bring:
- Toiletries
- Towel
- Clothes for three full days – be aware, there is no air-conditioning in the dorm!
- Pajamas
- A copy of your medical insurance card
- Technology (if you have it, whatever you have – be prepared to share favorite games, videos, applications, etc). A temporary wireless pass to access the campus wifi will be provided.
- Any other items you feel you will need, as long as nothing violates the Taste of College Learning Lab/Retreat Code of Conduct
Contact info:
Email (preferred): info@learningresiliency.com
Cell phone: 860 255 4371, Stephanie Jo Kent, Founder, Learning Lab for ResiliencyTM