Life Experience & Action Dimension (LEAD)
Life-Skills: Experience and Results
- Students gain knowledge—and put it to work—in four areas: understanding personality styles, building inclusive community, lifelong career management and financial sophistication.
- Activities are hands-on and interactive
- First step—taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)—gives students a tool to better understand their personality styles, which can help in communicating with others and working in groups.
- Life skills—both practical and meaningful—enable students to adapt to changing environments, make good decisions in difficult situations and pursue short- and long-term goals successfully.
Thematic Organization
Life Skills is organized around four themes and the underlying questions each theme generates.
- Understanding Myself and My Relationships: Who am I?
- Building Inclusive Communities: Who are we?
- Managing a Lifelong Career: What am I going to do?
- Gaining Financial Sophistication: How am I going to manage my money?
Applying the program to my daily life
Understanding Myself and My Relationships
All incoming students will take the MBTI, a personality assessment test, online before arriving on campus. It’s a fascinating, straightforward way to learn more about yourself. Students then participate in a Personality Style workshop during which they work on the following areas:
- Living well with others
- Completing roommate contracts
- Negotiating problems and respecting differences
- Adjusting to residence hall life
Building Inclusive Communities
- Participate in activities in residence halls to develop safe and respectful living environments
- Engage in experiences that will broaden your cultural awareness
- Get involved in a community experience--cook a meal at the Ronald McDonald House, raise money for COTS (a homeless shelter) by participating in Tent City, tutor for America Reads.
- Take part in a program that is working on solving a public problem--sustainability, decreasing your carbon footprint, recycling, voter registration.
Managing a Lifelong Career
- Attend Sophomore Symposium: Lifelong Career Management
- Participate in a workshop designed to help you strategically market yourself
- Complete a resume
- Learn about online job researching tools
- Practice business etiquette at a networking dinner
- Attend a job fair
Gaining Financial Sophistication
- Learn how to manage credit
- Learn to read and ensure a good credit report
- Understand leases and contracts for your first apartment or car
- Develop a budget
- Balance a checkbook and manage personal investments
News
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Tossing and turning in bed, half asleep, I turned over to where my sister slept about two feet away in the other twin bunk bed.