Leadership CEHS: Developing Ideal Graduates through our Student Organizations

We want our students to succeed > In their profession. With their community. For their own growth. 

For many students connecting with at least one student organization makes all the difference for creating a community and having a sense of belonging. A highly effective student org will also aid building life-long connections and finding resources to support their member's future. Our project builds on basic premise: 

If we help our student organizations be more effective, 

we help develop our students. 

The CEHS Watson Center for Student and Career Development is partnering with our EHS Student Council to craft Leadership CEHS -- a multi-stage initiative to invest in the development of the leadership teams for our student organizations. Why start with our leadership teams? Because we know that the student exec team is one of four leading factors for aiding the overall efficacy of a student organization. It's also a leading factor that directly influences many of the organization's operations, such as projects and events, visibility, group cohesion and member engagement. 

Leadership CHES

Stage 1: Leadership CEHS Launch Retreat

• Before the retreat, all participating student execs teams will complete the Working Genius assessment, a tool that helps individuals understand their natural talents related to work and provides a framework for how work gets done within a team. 
• Debrief Working Genius results
• Background training on what things help student organizations be more effective
• Each leadership team will develop 2-3 SMART goals for the year for their team and for the improvement of their organization’s effectiveness. 

Stage 2: Individual team consultations 

• Facilitated by staff from the CEHS Watson Center for Student and Career Development and a CEHS Student Council leader. 
• Meet with each leadership team to clarify questions, determine progress, and provide consultative guidance in the initial action steps of the team’s goals.  

Stage 3: A program-wide progress and encouragement meeting. 

• Help students evaluate how they are developing as leaders and how they are helping their organizations develop. 
• Participants will share successes and challenges encountered to date and will collectively celebrate and problem-solve. 
• Alumni who are former CEHS student leaders will also be invited to participate and facilitate the reflective assessment activities. 

Stage 4: A concluding student leader reflection and recognition session.

• Participating student organization leaders will reflect on their personal development and the development of their organization throughout the program. 
• Alumni mentors involved in the program-wide progress and encouragement meeting will also be invited to attend. 
• Students will report by organization on their noteworthy outcomes and learned lessons. 
• All participants will be recognized for their commitment to and involvement in Class 1 of Leadership CEHS and select participating student organization leaders will be recognized for their exemplary growth and contributions to their organizations throughout the process, based upon nominations from and selection by their peers. 

Stage 5: A student organization awards program and celebration. 

As an accompanying benefit of having student organization leaders participate in Leadership CEHS, student organizations whose 

• Student leaders who complete Leadership CEHS will be eligible to apply for recognition as an “Outstanding CEHS Student Organization.” 
• Two divisions – a small membership division and a large membership division – and will recognize the “outstanding student organization” in each division that has both increased their organizational effectiveness during the academic year and facilitated opportunities for members to develop the four ideal graduate competencies of professional preparedness, engaged citizenship, ethical leadership and personal responsibility. Organizations competing for the “Outstanding CEHS Student Organization” awards will be invited to a festive celebration where accomplishments of their organizations are recognized, and award winners are announced. Each recipient student organization will receive an award stipend to be applied toward activities of the organization in the following year.