Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Millenial Insights

This term, I'm one of two teaching assistants in a class at the University of Oregon called Values-Based Leadership. I helped conceptualize and implement this class, and it's great to see it finally come into existence. The title sounds vague, I know, but what I prefer to call it is the Greek Leadership class. Open to new members of the University's fraternity and sorority community, this small class is helping freshmen begin to understand how they can be leaders in their chapters and on campus, by investigating their own personal leadership styles, exploring other styles, and discussing issues for our community. I have seldom met such an impressive group of 18-20 year olds. No, seriously. They blow my mind with some of their insights and comments about what leadership is.

That's why I'm so excited to see how they develop over the next 7 weeks. We have assigned to them a final project of a 3-5 minute documentary video about some issue that pertains to the Oregon Greek community. Today, we helped them brainstorm a list of topics, and seeing their wheels start turning was fantastic. To give them an idea of what such a video could look like, our director showed this video from Kansas State University. While it doesn't directly talk about Greek Life at all, it is A) a unique way to present information, and B) gives some quality insights into today's millenial students. Check it out below, and I'll post class updates from time to time.

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