Title: Master's of Science in Higher Education Retreat
Term: Fall, 2012
Term: Fall, 2012
Description: The MSHE Retreat took place at Sacred Heart Retreat Center in Big Bear Lake, California. The two day retreat was from Friday September 14 to Saturday September 15, 2012. The description of the event is as follows: The purpose of the retreat is to support and guide the students in developing a cohort base that will sustain them through the program and their profession after graduation, and provide an opportunity for students to explore, reflect, and create a plan for success.
Learning Outcomes: In order to break free from my comfort zone and learn more about myself, the following learning outcomes were created:
In addition, here are the links to a skit I performed in and photos of the retreat:
A Disciplined Community Skit, Retreat Photos
Evidence: An icebreaker that involved learning and memorizing everyone's names helped me with my first learning outcome. In addition to the activity, I always tried to say the name of an individual before starting a conversation to better help me remember names with faces. I give myself a "4-advanced" because by the end of the retreat, I was able to remember all nineteen of the members of my cohort and the faculty of the program.
Due to previous experiences this past summer of acting as an extrovert and coming off as an unlikeable person, it was difficult for me to approach people and start conversations. I was afraid of their judgment if I came off as too opinionated or annoying. With this, I give myself a "2-basic" because I had conversations throughout the retreat but most of them occurred due to other people's efforts and I rarely tried to continue conversations. Whenever I started conversations, they were short and simple.
Through various discussions and activities, I was able to accomplish my third learning outcome. My strengths were: Includer, Communication, Relator, Restorative, and Developer. These strengths were discovered from the Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath and were discussed with partners and in a large group. My weaknesses and goals were found when I reflected on my experiences in the program, especially in the retreat. With this, I give myself a "4-advanced" because I was well aware of my strengths, weaknesses, and goals to help me become a better leader.
Reflection: Learning all the names of the members of my cohort and the faculty of the program was a big accomplishment for me because I am good at remembering faces but have difficulty putting a name to a face. I was happy with the results of my first learning outcome because it was a lot easier than I imagined, especially in the short period of time I had with the cohort and faculty members.
I was disappointed with my efforts to start conversations and continuing them because I thought I would have done better. My fears of my summer experience as coming off as too opinionated and annoying with the new people I met, held me back from accomplishing the second learning outcome. It showed that I did not learn from my experiences and I allowed them to affect me and my interactions with others. I plan to approach more of my peers and faculty members in order to build relationships with them after the retreat. It is better to be late than to never start at all.
My strengths' common theme lies heavily on assisting and serving others. Rather than having strengths which display positive qualities of myself, they stress the importance of helping others realize their strengths, importance and comfort. After having countless experiences of helping friends and family with their personal problems, I was not surprised that my strengths revolved around the betterment of others but I did not know that those were considered strengths. After discovering them, I will use them to help me overcome my weakness of a low self-esteem, a low self-confidence, and a sense of insecurity. With this, I plan to focus on my strengths which in turn would diminish my weakness and help me with my goals of doing my best to finish the program without any regrets. I strongly believe that the MSHE program will help me challenge myself and give me opportunities to learn more about myself so that I can be a better leader.
Learning Outcomes: In order to break free from my comfort zone and learn more about myself, the following learning outcomes were created:
- SWiBAT Learn and memorize all the names of the members of my cohort and the faculty of the Higher Education program.
- SWiBAT Overcome my shyness as an introvert by approaching and initiating conversations in addition to keeping the conversation flowing as much as possible.
- SWiBAT Discover: my strengths, weaknesses, and goals for the program.
In addition, here are the links to a skit I performed in and photos of the retreat:
A Disciplined Community Skit, Retreat Photos
Evidence: An icebreaker that involved learning and memorizing everyone's names helped me with my first learning outcome. In addition to the activity, I always tried to say the name of an individual before starting a conversation to better help me remember names with faces. I give myself a "4-advanced" because by the end of the retreat, I was able to remember all nineteen of the members of my cohort and the faculty of the program.
Due to previous experiences this past summer of acting as an extrovert and coming off as an unlikeable person, it was difficult for me to approach people and start conversations. I was afraid of their judgment if I came off as too opinionated or annoying. With this, I give myself a "2-basic" because I had conversations throughout the retreat but most of them occurred due to other people's efforts and I rarely tried to continue conversations. Whenever I started conversations, they were short and simple.
Through various discussions and activities, I was able to accomplish my third learning outcome. My strengths were: Includer, Communication, Relator, Restorative, and Developer. These strengths were discovered from the Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath and were discussed with partners and in a large group. My weaknesses and goals were found when I reflected on my experiences in the program, especially in the retreat. With this, I give myself a "4-advanced" because I was well aware of my strengths, weaknesses, and goals to help me become a better leader.
Reflection: Learning all the names of the members of my cohort and the faculty of the program was a big accomplishment for me because I am good at remembering faces but have difficulty putting a name to a face. I was happy with the results of my first learning outcome because it was a lot easier than I imagined, especially in the short period of time I had with the cohort and faculty members.
I was disappointed with my efforts to start conversations and continuing them because I thought I would have done better. My fears of my summer experience as coming off as too opinionated and annoying with the new people I met, held me back from accomplishing the second learning outcome. It showed that I did not learn from my experiences and I allowed them to affect me and my interactions with others. I plan to approach more of my peers and faculty members in order to build relationships with them after the retreat. It is better to be late than to never start at all.
My strengths' common theme lies heavily on assisting and serving others. Rather than having strengths which display positive qualities of myself, they stress the importance of helping others realize their strengths, importance and comfort. After having countless experiences of helping friends and family with their personal problems, I was not surprised that my strengths revolved around the betterment of others but I did not know that those were considered strengths. After discovering them, I will use them to help me overcome my weakness of a low self-esteem, a low self-confidence, and a sense of insecurity. With this, I plan to focus on my strengths which in turn would diminish my weakness and help me with my goals of doing my best to finish the program without any regrets. I strongly believe that the MSHE program will help me challenge myself and give me opportunities to learn more about myself so that I can be a better leader.
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