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The "Donning" of a New Academic Year
"These activities provide them (the dons) with skills and problem solving techniques to use throughout the year," says Casey Phillips, one of five live-in professional college dons at Trent and an organizer of Team Challenge Day. While most of the week in-training was spent in the classroom learning about among other things, conflict mediation and resolution, listening skills and crisis response, these activities taught student dons how to work together as a team, and to communicate intuitively. In another of the 10 activities, student dons paired up; one partner was blindfolded and together they searched for so-call dakkai eggs (small water balloons). The catch? Only the blindfolded partner could pick up and retrieve the eggs. In this case, student dons had to trust each other and communicate creatively. "The student dons learn a lot about themselves this way," says Mr. Phillips, who debriefed with his group after each activity, talking about why and how things worked, or in some cases, didn’t.
Joann Warren, a returning Otonabee College don, says the skills the student dons have developed this week will encourage a consistent approach to their work throughout the university. This is the second year student dons have worked together with full-time live-in professional dons in residence. "It’s (being a student don) an absolutely marvelous opportunity for students at Trent," says Mr. Phillips. Posted September 3, 2003 |
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Some serious team-building
skills evolved out of some serious fun, as 32 student dons joined in
Team Challenge Day,
as part of their weeklong
training to become student supports in residence. They worked together
to solve what organizers termed "difficult situations" --
like the balancing of 10 people on not much more than a square-foot
wooden box.
The
role of a don includes programming and community building in residence,
which involves challenging students and encouraging
them to explore.
Not so coincidentally, that too, was the purpose of Team
Challenge Day.