A LEAP forward: The CEO’s 6-part mini-workshop series

After a year’s absence, the Career Engagement Office (CEO) has recently restarted its six-part LEAP mini-workshop series to develop professionalism in both interviews and the workplace.

LEAP stands for “Leadership, Engagement, Awareness, and Professionalism” and was first started two years ago by the CEO’s Assistant Director for Community Engagement Andrea Knies.

“When I first started at New College, I talked to a lot of alumni, about what we can provide for students that would help them be better prepared to share their talents and skills with the world,” Knies said. “And time after time, alumni have said, ‘it’s these really simple soft skill things, but no one’s sharing this information,’ and I said, ‘Well, the information’s out there on what you should do.’ And someone said, ‘it’s not telling them what to do, it’s telling them why to do something.’”

According to Knies, LEAP was developed based on the concept of why people do certain things, rather than what they do. Therefore, every LEAP session is backed by research and scientific articles and information that is aimed at making sure students understand the why behind certain skills and how to share them with the world.

Each session is also facilitated by several representatives from different departments on campus who have unique experience with their chosen topic and are able to present it both enthusiastically and effectively.

“Each of these people brings a certain amount of expertise from their background, second, it’s more interesting, and the third benefit – it’s a big part of why we designed it this way – is coming to all the sessions introduces students to different people on campus that it’s really good for them to know,” CEO Career Coach and current organizer of LEAP Michelle Flint said.

All LEAP topics, dates and facilitators are posted online on the forum and Students List. Flint also encourages students to take part in fellow CEO program Job Quest as a way to supplement many of the concepts learned in LEAP.

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