I’ve been eyeing up the Penn State Emerging Leaders Program (PSEL) for a few years now.
I’ve always managed to miss the application deadline.
When the deadline snuck by me again last year, I made a point to put a note on my calendar so I wouldn’t miss the opportunity yet another time. I’m so glad I did. I think…
The kickoff meeting for the Program happened at a bad time for me (is there ever a good time to trek downtown State College in January?) We had planned a long weekend in the Poconos to ski with friends, but postponed leaving town so that I could attend the kickoff event. I thought “It’ll be fun, it’s just the intro meeting!” I expected a nice easy “My name is…and I work for…” meet and greet, but what I got was a host of homework and immediate looming deadlines. Not exactly how I wanted to start my vacation, but I diligently wrote everything down and promised myself and Vera, my supervisor, that I’d complete the tasks upon my return to my desk on Monday. I then tried not to think about it too much over the weekend so that I could enjoy myself on the slopes.
When I sat down to do as promised on Monday, however, I was unable to find my notes from the kickoff meeting. Apparently, that page of my notebook was sacrificed for the sake of a game of Balderdash on the ski vacation. I struggled to remember what I could of our “to do” list, knowing that at the very least, that we had a blog assignment of some sort! Luckily the Christina Helms, the PSEL leader, was gracious when I asked for help. I was embarrassed to ask what our tasks were; not really the impression I was hoping to leave on the first week of the Leadership Program!
I think I’m all caught up on my tasks to date, however, I must admit that I need to read the Kolb’s information in a less frantic manner so that I can actually digest the information and understand what my scores mean. I’ll write more on my results from the Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory in the next post. For now, I’m trying to figure out a way to fit the 100 hours of PSEL work in, and still do my job to the best of my abilities. I’ll find a way, I know, it’s just a bit daunting at the moment.