Connor Curtis

HDF 415
Professor Robert Vincent
April 26, 2016
Learning Contract
Goal: To identify and utilize my Strengths in an organizational/interpersonal setting
that aligns with the mission, vision, values and sponsored programs, such as the
FLITE 415/190 class, and other activities of URI's Center for Student Leadership
Development.
Activity: BRIDGES Retreat Planning and Executing the Retreat
Annotation: On the weekend of February 12-13, myself and three other students,
along with our team of advisors, led the BRIDGES retreat for student leaders at the
University of Rhode Island. BRIDGES, an organization founded in the late 1990s, is
a weekend-long retreat with the goal to bring together different student leaders
from each part of campus to connect and discuss topics of inclusion, diversity, and
campus climate. In addition, the attendees had the chance to discuss what can be
done to improve the campus climate and what the first steps of that change will be.
The planning committee had been meeting once a week for almost a year, and our
responsibilities included recruiting student leaders to attend the conference and
also student leaders to facilitate at the conference, reserving space for the
conference, planning out the agenda for the weekend, and facilitating activities and
discussion during the actual event. While at the retreat, I lead the group in
boundary breaking discussions on the first evening, and also helped to facilitate
discussion around RELI (Responsibility, Equality, Language, Inclusion) action items
to help spark ideas about how to create a better campus climate.
I chose this as my learning contract because this retreat aligns with the
mission and values of the Center for Student Leadership Development (CSLD) in
several ways. Firstly, the facilitators at the retreat ran various activities that used
the Kolbs model of Experiential Learning to help open the floor for dialogue on
campus climate and inclusion. This corresponds with the CSLDs mission of
[providing] developmental opportunities for all students to become informed,
inclusive, effective, and ethical leaders in the global marketplace through the
implementation of learner-centered academic, experiential, and co-curricular
programming. It also relates to the CSLDs values of inclusion, ethical and valuebased learning, along with relationship-building. The participants in the retreat were
not all affiliated with the CSLD, however by attending this retreat each participant
was able to contribute to the CSLDs mission, which also extends towards the larger
campus population.
I used my strengths and values to help me as I carried out this learning
contract. My strength of Adaptability was a big part of being on the planning
committee, as we ran into many obstacles while planning the retreat, from

reserving space and adjusting the budget to training facilitators and confirming
attendees. I was able to think quickly on my feet and help find solutions for the
group without becoming overwhelmed in the process. My value of Humor and my
strength of Positivity were also key, as they helped me to keep the group in a good
mood and focused on the task without taking things too seriously, and also helped
me to relate to the students who attended the retreat by creating quick
relationships that allowed them to feel comfortable talking to me. Finally, I saw my
strength of Connectedness as my biggest strength during this experience. Seeing
members from different parts of campus come together to talk about the bigger
picture and how we can help the campus as a whole allowed me to see how to
connect each person and help them to make a difference, while trying to bring more
people to work together and use their individual strengths to complement one
another and work to one main goal.
Evidence: BRIDGES group photo, meeting minutes, executive summary