Flight Basics: Lift-Off to Success
Sophomores have the opportunity to attend a six-week, one hour seminar covering topics on leadership development, volunteerism, developing your liberal arts skills, exploring the benefits of internships and how to put your best foot forward. Space is limited to twenty-five sophomores!
As a result of participating in the Flight Basics seminar you will:
- Understand the skills sought after by employers and graduate/professional schools, and ways these can be developed;
- Identify your skills, strengths and develop the ability to articulate them; and
- Develop a self-purpose for career advancement, leadership development and civic engagement.
Seminar Logistics
Seminar meets on Mondays for six weeks from 5:00pm-6:15pm in Huffman’s Presidential Dining Room. Participants are welcome to grab their dinner and bring it to the dining room. The seminar will begin each week at 5:15pm. Participants with 100% attendance will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the seminar.
Seminar Agenda
February 6 - Kick Off
Kick Off
Offices Facilitating: Career Exploration and Development, Academic Support and Enrichment
Theme: Kick Off: Overview/What to Expect/Learning Objectives/NACE/Liberal Arts Skills
February 13 - Career Exploration & Development
Career Exploration & Development
Office Facilitating: Career Exploration and Development
Theme: Major and Career Exploration
Dive into practical ways of improving your career readiness through self-discovery and preparation! This session is focused on identifying your skills, interests, values, and strengths in relation to your choice of an academic major and future career decisions. Discover what you can do with a major and different ways you can research career fields as you continue to develop ideas and goals. We will discuss the power of networking and how you can make significant strides during your sophomore year!
February 20 - Decision Making
Decision Making
Offices Facilitating: Counseling, Academic Support and Enrichment
Theme: Decision-making
Learning Objectives: Participants will identify their character strengths, examine a decision-making model and apply it to a variety of real life situations. Students will participate in exercises designed to evaluate decision-making strategies.
*Note: Prior to this session, participants should complete the VIA Survey of Character Strengths by registering for free at http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/register.aspx. Participants should print out and bring to the session their list of Top 5 Character Strengths.
“Some persons are very decisive when it comes to avoiding decisions.” ~Brendan Francis
February 27 - Service/Community Engagement
Service/Community Engagement
Office Facilitating: The Alford Center for Service Learning
Theme: Service and Civic Engagement
This session of Flight Basics will focus on involvement in something bigger than oneself. We will explore the concept of the common good and the civic engagement it entails, both on and off campus. You will learn about how to become involved in service through the Denison Community Association, Service Learning courses, and off-campus opportunities.
March 5 - Leadership/Campus Involvement
Leadership/Campus Involvement
Office Facilitating:Campus Leadership and Involvement
Theme: Leadership/Campus Involvement
Developing as a leader might be one of the most significant and important opportunities you will have as a student. Chances are, at some point in your life, you will have the opportunity to lead; in fact, you may already have served as a leader several times. Learning and emerging as a leader is a process that takes knowledge, skills, and practice, and it requires you to be intentional in how you use your talents.
StrengthsQuest can help you develop as a leader by:
- increasing your self-awareness. Effective leaders know what they do well, and they find ways to apply their talents authentically and productively. Understanding your talents is an important step in cultivating self-awareness as a leader.
- deepening your knowledge and appreciation of others' talents. As you learn more about your own talents, you will begin to see the unique talents in others. You'll also appreciate others for the different perspectives they offer because of their talents. The best leaders understand that teams with a diversity of talents achieve the best outcomes.
- forming and maximizing teams. Although leaders need not be well-rounded, teams should be. Understanding each team members' talents is crucial to getting the most out of a team -- and in a way that honors the contributions each person can make. Understanding each team members' talents will give you new insights into how the team can perform to its full potential.
- helping others to affirm, develop, and apply their talents. As a leader who understands your own talents and how to apply them productively, you can lead others to develop and apply their talents.
Prior to the session, students will need to take a 45 minute inventory online called StrengthsQuest. Students will be assigned a code and emailed instructions about the inventory after enrollment for the program has closed.
March 19 - Etiquette Dinner
Etiquette Dinner
March 19:
Offices Facilitating: All partnering offices
Theme: Etiquette Dinner