Charting the Journey: Life Entrepreneurs Program

Elon University - July 20, 2009

Note: this synopsis is based on a longer paper currently in preparation. For more information please contact Catherine King, Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, Elon University (kingcath@elon.edu).

Calls are frequently made for colleges and universities to better prepare their graduates to live meaningful lives, successfully integrating their talents and passions (Baxter Magolda, 2001). The Life Entrepreneurs program designed by leadership developers Gergen and Vanourek aims to promote such self-authorship by helping students discover who they are and where they want to go in life, and develop short and long term strategies for getting there. The program is targeted to students in their sophomore year of college, so that participants can use their remaining time in college to work toward aligning their personal and professional goals with their core identity.

Thirty-two Elon University undergraduates, primarily sophomores, were selected to participate in the Life Entrepreneur program in the winter and early spring of 2009. The participants were divided into three cohorts, each co-led by a faculty member or staff person and an upper-class peer leader trained by professional facilitators. Gergen and Vanourek’s (2008) Life entrepreneurs: Ordinary people creating extraordinary lives was used as a text. The group participated in a 3-day retreat, in Laurel Ridge, North Carolina, which involved large group and cohort-based discussions and activities with a focus on identifying strengths and passions, being alert to opportunities, taking measured risks, setting goals, thinking strategically, and practicing the art of reflection and renewal. After the retreat, the participants met in cohorts weekly during winter term, and enrolled in a one-credit Transition Strategies courses led by the cohort leaders during the first half of the spring semester.

The participants were interviewed by two faculty members not otherwise involved in the program prior to the program and approximately five months later after the transition strategies course was completed. The following summary of findings is based on those interviews.

Prior to the program, participants indicated that they were looking for support on short and long term planning and help clarifying their goals. Following the program, participants reported that the retreat and the use of the text were both highly effective, in part due to their interactions with author Christopher Gergen. When asked about how the program had influenced their planning for their time in college and beyond, the participants indicated that their motivation to make the most of their time in college had been strengthened. Many emphasized that they were doing a better job staying focused on high priority activities, others reported a greater focus on aligning their current activities with their plans for the future, and many mentioned the value of taking academic and social risks. Relationships were also emphasized, as many participants indicated they now placed greater value on their relationships with parents, friends and others, recognizing that relationships are an important part of a balanced life. Additionally, many participants’ responses reflected a greater sense of ownership over their planning process, indicating that they were making plans for their own future based on their own sense of what was important, rather than blindly following recommendations from others.

The contrast between the ways in which the students discussed themselves and their plans for the near and long term future before and after their participation in the program made it clear that their experience of the Charting Your Journey Program had facilitated their development toward self-authorship. Their description of the way they now negotiated conflicts between different roles, responsibilities, passions, and the expectations of others reflect a growing ability to construct their own identity, goals and values through an intentional integration of their own desires and the reasonable demands of important others in their lives. Crossroads can be uncomfortable moments of disappointment or even trauma. But they can also be opportunities, invitations, and even small epiphanies. The Life Entrepreneurs program appears to fulfill Baxter Magolda’s suggestion that college staff and faculty should provide good company for the developmental journey our students are on (Baxter Magolda, 2001).

References
Baxter Magolda, M.B. (2001). Making their own way. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Gergen, C., & Vanourek, G. (2008). Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating
Extraordinary Lives. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.