December Newsletter – Center for Transformation

Upcoming Programs

Deliberative Dialogue: “Is December Truly the Most Wonderful Time of the Year?”

A Panthers for Peace/Center for Transformation Collaboration

Wednesday, December 13th at 7p.m.
CFT, Lamson 003

The period between Halloween and New Year’s Day is commonly referred to as “the happiest time of the year”–but is it really? Between gathering with distant family members for the holidays, to the financial burden tied to the social construct of buying gifts to show your love and appreciation, and heated arguments about which holiday should receive the most attention on the radio, in TV commercials, and through in-store displays, there is a lot of pressure, anxiety, and stress for some people! Not to mention final exams and needing to leave your on-campus home and friends for over a month! Let’s gather to talk about why people have different perspectives of this season and brainstorm ways we can support one another through our various experiences!

Careers & Communities Student Showcase of High Impact Learning Project

Thursday, December 21st, 2017 from 11:30a.m.-1:00p.m.
HUB Hage RoomAll are welcome to attend this presentation led by the students in Jayashree Arasu’s Career Exploration course.

Careers and Communities are intertwined. When professionals are invested in solving their community issues, we have a win-win situation of creating local jobs as well as nurturing a sustainable community. Come listen to our students who have researched about careers, which will help resolve some of the difficult, but current issues, surrounding our communities. This event is publicized as an example of a High Impact Learning Experience on PSU campus.

Help Transform the Holidays for Local Children

We’re looking for help wrapping up the Angel Tree Program, sign up to help us with the gift collection process, we’ll be collecting gifts on December 11-12th, and wrapping everything up on Friday evening. See below for dates, times, and links to sign up! Many thanks to everyone who is helping to provide gifts for approximately 300 children throughout our community!

Angel Tree Gift Collection: December 11-12th, Center for Transformation (Library 003) http://bit.ly/2B0uaxU

Gift Wrapping Party: December 15th, 4-7pm, Center for Transformation (Library 003) Sign up here: http://bit.ly/2AUknZY

Please reach out to Molly Cassidy, mcassidy1@plymouth.edu if you have any questions or would like to participate!

Roots Leadership Retreat

The CFT invites students who either currently hold a leadership position on campus, or are thinking about starting a new leadership role to a three-day leadership retreat on January 25th, 26th, and 27th. Please contact Jess Dutille at jadutille@plymouth.edu for more information.

Apply to be an Alternative Spring Break Advisor

The Alternative Spring Break Program is currently opening our search for ASB Trip Advisors this year! We are excited to be planning trips with a variety of focuses hurricane clean up, building homes, environment and habitat restoration, and community building. Please visit this link where a more detailed description of Trip Advisor responsibilities and expectations are included. The program is requesting that all applications be in by Thursday, December 14th. Please contact Casey Krafton, at cakrafton@plymouth.edu if you have any questions.

Faculty Round Tables

We are in the process of attending faculty department meetings to discuss the roles of each member of the Center for Transformation and to solicit topics for an upcoming series of teaching & learning round tables. These faculty guided round tables will be open to all members of the PSU community and will be held bi-weekly in the CFT starting in the spring semester. We will cover a variety of topics based on faculty need and interest. To help keep everyone energized and happy, coffee and tea will be provided, feel free to bring a snack to share.

Speaker Series

To help inform, guide and energize PSU’s transformation, we will be hosting a monthly speaker series. The series will begin in January and continue through the spring semester and beyond. Drawing both from within the PSU community and without we will invite speakers who are both informative and engaging. These speakers will discuss topics of immediate interest such as student retention, student engagement, and leadership models as well as broader areas of concern like open education and accessibility.

January Jamboree
January Jamboree 2018 is our next big opportunity to come together as a community to share and learn from one another. This year’s Jamboree will take place on January 17-18, 2018, and will be themed around the book “The Undergraduate Experience.” We hope you are able to participate!

A Look Back

This Past Month in Student Programming

Our sincere thanks to Dr. Maria Sanders and Chris Lee for presenting our student workshops in the CFT this past month!

Dr. Sanders presented the Resiliency and Responsible Risk Taking Workshop on November 29th.

Chris Lee presented the Sustaining Students Through Crisis and Failure Workshop on December 5th.

We are so proud of the 220 students who have engaged in high impact learning experiences and programming though the CFT this fall semester. We thank them for the positive contributions they have made throughout our broader community.

Happy Holidays from all of us at the CFT!