Springboard! Session 13: So What?

What is Springboard!? Click here.

Today’s learning outcomes: Presenting, Examining Values and Self-Assurance.

Today we asked the freshman student's to synthesize their college experience and answer the question, "So What?" In addition to seeing the freshmen’s honed presentation skills during this, their last speech, it’s also a chance to hear what life lessons they’ve learned thus far.

Last year this speech was called “Pay It Forward” and the freshmen were asked to think of it as if they were speaking to an incoming student. Though the name has changed, the effect was the same. Last year I wrote,

The part I find most interesting about it is that these speeches were basically an echo of the “Been There, Done That” speeches that the coaches gave earlier in the semester. All the speeches asserted the importance of going to class, meeting with advisors, taking advantage of campus resources, etc… In reflecting on this, I don’t think the Freshmen failed to listen to us [the coaches] in the beginning, rather they lived and learned, and then Springboard! forced them to examine it. Everyone knows you should go to all your classes, you should keep in contact with your advisor, you should take your papers to the writers lab… But we’re human and “shoulds” and “dos” are not always the same. The difference with a Springboard! participant is the realization, whereas many other students may never sit back and try to pin-point or understand why their grades or experience were not as great as they would have liked them to have been. Thus, one of the main goals and accomplishments of this program is increased retention rates.

After the speeches concluded we rewatched them one-on-one with our freshman, filled out the twenty-some point assessment grid and then we even went back and watched speeches from earlier in the semester. Hannah, who I am matched with, has always been amazing; nontheless, it was inspirtaional to see her progression today!