HDF 190: FLITE (FIRST-YEAR LEADERS INSPIRED TO EXCELLENCE)

URI MINOR IN LEADERSHIP STUDIES, CENTER FOR STUDENT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

CORE REQUIREMENT FOR THE LEADERSHIP MINOR

LEARNING CONTRACT

Goal: To identify and utilize my Strengths in an organizational/interpersonal setting that

aligns with the mission, vision, values and sponsored programs and activities of URI’s
Center for Student Leadership Development.

Plan: My good friend Sydney Chabot is involved with the Student Organizational
Leadership Consultants, an organization I’ve been wanting to get involved with on
campus. The mission of SOLC directly connects to my top five Gallup strengths of woo,
communication, positivity. includer, and arranger. SOLC organizes retreats to help
organizations promote a positive attitude within them, improve internal and external
communications, and build an inclusive community. This semester I am planning to
begin attending SOLC meetings, shadow a retreat, and hopefully work to get to the point
where I can become an active shadow or even co-facilitate, whatever time permits. My
overall goal for the semester is to get as involved with SOLC as possible and utilize my
strengths and values to contribute to the organization.

Evaluation: I began attending SOLC meetings and becoming more involved with the
organization this semester which not only gave me an opportunity to use and develop my
strengths and values, I got to make new friends, strengthen existing relationships, and
have a lot of fun in general. I admittedly was not able to get as involved with the actual
facilitating of SOLC as I would’ve liked, but my experience this semester has been very
enlightening and makes me excited for what the three years hold for me as to how far I
can go within SOLC. Attending meetings proved to be very much enjoyable. My
positivity strength along with my woo strength helped me to quickly feel comfortable
within the group. Admittedly, I was nervous to walk into an environment where
everyone already had established relationships with each other and I was an outsider, but
I went in with a positive attitude, excited about what SOLC had to offer, and so far my
experience has proven to be nothing but positive. Sydney Chabot, as well as all the
HDF190 peer leaders, helped to welcome me in with open arms, and some even verbally
expressed their excitement for me joining the group.
My woo strength very quickly came out, and I began establishing relationships
with people in SOLC very quickly. At my first SOLC meeting we played Whiz-Bang,
which I actually ended up winning. I am a bit competitive, so I wanted to win for that
reason, but I also knew the longer I stayed in the longer an opportunity I had to bond with
the other people playing. It gave me more of an opportunity to win others over in a
sense, make myself known to the group, all of which helped me additionally to feel a
sense of belonging in the group. I vividly remember Matt Wulbrecht, who had facilitated
the game, coming up to me afterward and formally introducing himself to me and
congratulating me on the win, and now Matt and I say hi to each other any time we see
each other on campus.
I was able to shadow the Alpha Chi Sigma retreat on Sunday April 7, 2019 from
5-7pm. Jason Alexis and Ray Schrager facilitated the retreat, Bailey co-facilitated, and
Michael James Breen and I both shadowed, since it was both of our first retreats. I
shadowed Ray specifically, and during the debrief for Caught or Not, the activity she
facilitated, my includer strength became noticeable. Caught or Not was intended to be a
fun group bonding activity, and it actually ended up working to reveal tensions that the
group had not been acknowledging. Ray and I were both shocked as members began
expressing their concerns about feeling excluded during the game, which they related to
the exclusion they also felt at chapter meetings and within Alpha Chi Sigma as a whole.
Although I was not even directly involved in the facilitation of the activity, I knew my
includer strength was coming out because I immediately began thinking of ways for the
group to create a more inclusive environment. Throughout their discussion, members of
the fraternity discussed ideas they could personally implement to promote inclusion
within the group and this included ideas such as making chapter meetings a more open-
forum setting, restarting the previously established suggestion/question box, and creating
more opportunities for involvement.
Every aspect of the retreat tied into my communication strength. Retreats require
communication and teamwork, which happens to be one of my values, amongst the
whole facilitation team. We met prior to the retreat to create the schedule for it, had a
group chat to maintain communication leading up to the day of the retreat, and the day of
the retreat we met in SOLC office right before the retreat was scheduled to start to
confirm our plan for the evening. It was a judgment free zone, we were all very open to
asking and answering all questions, and I believe part of the reason we were so successful
was because of the dynamic we had as a team. In their post-retreat evaluations, some
anonymous members of Alpha Chi Sigma expressed that they felt this retreat went much
better than retreats they have had in years past. I’d like to believe this is partially
attributed to the facilitation team. We created an open environment for the participants,
making them safe to discuss their concerns which proved to be very beneficial for the
group. This retreat was planned as an opportunity for the brothers of Alpha Chi Sigma to
enhance brotherhood, which did in fact happen, many members stated how much fun
they had, especially with Bailey’s “Captain’s Coming” game. What ended happening
though was that in addition to this fun, the environment we as facilitators created allowed
participants to feel comfortable enough to communicate these deeply embedded
grievances that they had, and it gave them an environment to discuss ways to address
these concerns and improve the brotherhood.
At this retreat in particular I really saw the relationship leadership model come
into play, and I think this model applies to a lot of what SOLC does. As defined by
Komives, McMahon, and Lucas, the relational leadership model is the intersection of five
principles: inclusion, empowerment, purpose, ethics, and process-orientation, all of which
ties into the work of SOLC. As we specifically saw with the Alpha Chi Sigma retreat, it
is extremely important to create an inclusive and empowering environment for retreat
participants. As a facilitator you want everyone to be involved, and make sure everyone
has the right to be heard and feel included. Additionally, everything SOLC does has a
purpose. All of the retreats have a specific goal that the group going through the retreat
establishes. In the case of Alpha Chi Sigma, they wanted to have fun and promote
brotherhood. With every retreat, SOLC and the facilitators specifically are committed to
fulfilling the purpose of the retreat for retreat participants, everything we do is for them.
It is important to remember that this is all a process, with every retreat SOLC does, how
we achieve the outcome is just as important, if not more important, than the outcome
itself. You can achieve your goal, but it is the steps that get you to that goal that really
better you as a person. Lastly, throughout everything SOLC does, it is important for
members and facilitators to remain ethical. IF you don’t have good morals, it will create
a bad environment for retreat participants. All the inclusion and empowerment you
worked to promote will be obsolete if the facilitator is not ethical. The facilitator has to
set the example for retreat participants and be invested in the success of the group. Every
one of these elements of the relational leadership model I saw exhibited by every member
of SOLC, and even more so at the Alpha Chi Sigma retreat.
The Alpha Chi Sigma retreat made me so excited for what the future holds for me
within SOLC. At our facilitator debrief after the retreat, everyone told me and Michael
James that although we may have only been shadows at this retreat, we showed qualities
that proved we would be perfect candidates for co-facilitators. I specifically remembered
Ray commending me for the way I was not afraid to interact with the participants from
Alpha Chi Sigma. Just watching the retreat gave me an opportunity to envision myself in
the role of facilitator, and it allowed me to think about what I would do if I was in the
facilitator role. I am looking forward to continuing to work with SOLC in the future, and
am excited to see how the organization continues to help me further myself as a leader.

Evidence: Below is the agenda from the Alpha Chi Sigma retreat I shadowed on April 7,
2019, and further below that is an image of leftover paper hands from the full values
contract that the facilitators used to write notes to each other after the retreat. Here are
two that were written out to me.