Peer Facilitators for the Emerging Leaders Program

Learning domains: Education and Leadership

Description: In my graduate assistantship in Student Life and Leadership (SLL), the Student Leadership Institute that has been in existence in various forms for the past 25 years or so. In order to be more accessible to students, the program switched from being a class that met regularly throughout the semester to a one day leadership retreat as well as follow up one hour workshops. Our Emerging Leaders Retreat consists of three workshops that focus on personal values, goal setting, and collaboration. Within this role, I revamped our goal setting workshop to have more small group discussion opportunities,. We were interested in having individuals help facilitate these conversations and help out with the the retreat as a whole, so our department invited several past ELR participants who were actively engaged the previous year to serve as a peer facilitator. I helped develop a training for the students and acclimate them into this new role.

Term: Fall 2018

Learning Outcomes:

1. SWiBAT demonstrate appropriate preparation and planning for the peer facilitators.

2. SWiBAT describe how to incorporate the peer facilitators into the Student Leadership Institute.

Assessment Rubric: Please click image to view PDF

Reflection

For SLO #1 I would rate myself as Basic because there was some preparation for the peer facilitators, but I could have worked more closely with the students to anticipate potential issues that could arise. I prepared the facilitators by meeting with them individually and in a small group setting to review the role of the peer facilitator and how they would be able to assist during the Emerging Leaders Retreat. Afterwards, in another meeting we discussed how one of the workshops had been updated since when they participated in the program. This was an excellent opportunity for the students to ask questions and get a better understanding of why the workshop was updated from SMART Goals to Values-Based Goal setting. Prior to each ELR, I emailed the peer facilitators the schedule for the entire day and input where they were expected to support the team. Although, I did not clearly prepare them to tackle potential issues, we met after the first emerging leaders retreat to discuss how it went and how we could improve for the next one. Minor recommendations regarding language were implemented in the next ELR. For example, one of the peer facilitators suggested that we mention for an activity students would be able to either draw or jot down their thoughts about goals they were setting. This relates to Kolb’s Learning Cycle because I tried to incorporate activities that allowed for different types of learning to be used since some of the students may have been more visual than others.

For SLO #2 I would rate myself as Competent because I was able to describe how to incorporate the peer facilitators into the Student Leadership Institute and took sustainability of the program into consideration. First of all, I would continue to meet with the peer facilitators after ELR to check in with their experience as a whole believe if they could make any additional changes for the next year. Then I would work with them to help develop a marketing plan to help with both the sustainability of ELR and the peer facilitators. The marketing plan will consist of featuring each of the peer facilitators and some of the previous ELR attendees with a picture and caption. One of my colleagues went to a NASPA workshop about Gen Z that discussed that students in this era are more likely to buy-in into ideas, programs, etc. when they are influenced by real people in these roles. I would empower the peer facilitators to reach out to several students and coordinate a date to take their pictures at once if it is convenient or on their own time. This would help the peer facilitators build rapport with the students who had gone through the program and get informal feedback about their experiences. Because the peer facilitators have already established some sort of relationship with the students during the day at ELR, it would not be unusual for an individual to reach out to them. Similarly, this would help myself and the peer facilitators identify students to be part of a promotional video that could be shared on social media and our website. The video would be able to describe what ELR is, the student experience of going through ELR, and how it has helped with grow personally and professionally. After this video is created, it could be shared with various councils and during the SLI banquet.

Evidence

Please view PowerPoint training here and pictures above.