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Making a Difference Globally and Locally:
Integrating Off-Campus Experience and Life/Career Planning
A workshop outline from Chris Oatis-Skinner, Director of the Career Center, Carleton College
I. Welcome and Workshop Overview (5 minutes)
- This experiential workshop will help you articulate what you have learned about yourself and about what is needed in the world today
- We will build from sharing stories from your off-campus experience to identifying skills illustrated by these stories and brainstorming ideas for next steps along your path leading to meaningful life/career options.
- Please introduce yourself and tell us where you went when you were off-campus.
II. Remembering and Sharing from Experience (20 minutes)
- A. Guided Relaxation Exercise: Focus on your breathing for a minute. Imagine yourself in a peaceful setting. As you begin to remember your off-campus experience, what aspects stand out as important or learning opportunities for you? Pick a particular role, event or incident to illustrate what you did or learned and begin to remember the details of what you did and what was most meaningful to you.
- B. Sharing in Small Groups of Three: Decide who will share their story first, who will be the interviewer and who will take notes for the person sharing. Spend five minutes with each person, listening to their story, asking questions (i.e. How did you go about that? What did you do next? Etc.) to draw out details (especially actions and skills usually described by verbs in the active voice), and recording skills the person demonstrated during their experience.
III. Thinking and Acting Globally and Locally (30 minutes)
A. Overview of Integrative Life Planning Model (ILP)
- Developed by Dr. Sunny Hansen, University of Minnesota, from her book Integrative Life Planning, 1997, and from the course "Integrative Career/Life
Planning"
- The design or color themes which are integrated into tapestry design can be a metaphor for visualizing the tapestry of our developing lives in the 21st century. The design, texture and pattern of our lives is influenced by how we deal with the following six themes or critical life tasks through which we realize that everything is connected and impacted by everything else:
1. Finding work that needs doing in changing global contexts.
2. Weaving our lives into a meaningful whole.
3. Connecting family and work.
4. Valuing pluralism and inclusivity.
5. Exploring spirituality, meaning and life purpose.
6. Managing transitions and personal change.
B. On global and local levels, what needs doing in some part of our world? This next exercise can help you address the first theme: finding work that needs doing in changing global contexts. This approach helps us to reflect on observed current realities and begin to develop possibilities for contributing our skills.
For your own reflection, take five minutes to begin to write down some of your observations and what you learned from your off-campus experience about what needs doing in our world today. Try to identify one thing that you could do now to contribute your energy and to
continue to develop your skills at the local level (5 minutes).
C. Share in Small Groups of Three: Taking turns, for 5 minutes each, briefly explain which world needs you wrote about and share a step you could take now to contribute your energy and learn more. Then invite the group to brainstorm with you additional ideas (i.e. volunteer work, internships, ongoing learning, and/or career preparation and jobs) that would help you prepare even more to address this world need (15 minutes total).
D. Affirm a next step you will take in the next six months to continue to explore and build on what you have learned through your off-campus experience, and write it down for yourself (5 minutes).
IV. Wrap up and Feedback (5 minutes)
With the whole group, share your next step or one thing you realized/learned/ or relearned from your reflection and sharing during this workshop (5 minutes).
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