Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Residential Recycling



There are only a few more kinks to work out, but we will be hopefully have our extended recycling program introduced next week. Yes I know that this is the week before finals and there will be a lot going on, but this is will serve two purposes. First we will be able to catch a lot of the "end of the semester" trash that can be recycled, and second, this can be a quick introduction before Facility Services and Residence Life step up the recycling promotion once January Term begins.

If you think of any great ways to help promote recycling on campus, please share it with your fellow staff members.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Developing Relationships


We are now at midterm of the Fall Semester and many of our new students have developed the friendships and social groups that they may keep for the next four years. I think that it is great that our freshmen are making friends, I am a little concerned that many of them may be a little too exclusive at this point of their time in college. I say this because I am already hearing from students who have decided on their apartment groups for next school year.

Although I have no specific research to prove the next point, I do believe limited friendships can be one of the biggest reasons why students decide not to return as student. Here are three reasons: first, I think that some students leave because our students are not reaching out to them and befriending them (especially obvious with our transfer students). Second, some students do not like the person they are become, because of their friendships; these students believe that they cannot pursue new relationships due to pressures from, or proximity to current friends and these students will leave campus and blame it on the school rather than hurt their friends. The third reason results from the changing nature of personalities and friendships; as students develop as individuals or they tend to draw closer to particular friends, and other friendships can become less significant; causing frustrated friends who sometimes leave the institution rather than develop new friendships.

As Residence Life staff we should be cognizant of the development of tight friendships, cliques, and even couples who tend to be isolated from their peers. Our job is to nurture relationship development and that should not end in September. Yes, our programming options and events can be used to expand student perspectives, intellectually and socially. However, this should also be the goal in informal settings, by taking time to introduce students to others in the lobby, the cafeteria, or other opportunities that develop. Leaders should take every opportunity to build stronger bonds with people and among people they lead. This is a practice we should develop now, and take with us beyond our time in Residence Life.

Imagine the relationships that could be developed if this was practices within our churches.

Friday, October 05, 2007

Biblical Leadership


When most people think about Spirituality, leadership is not always the first thing that comes to mind. On second thought, this should not be the case since everything about who God is and who we are in God's eyes should be about leadership. God is the ultimate authority and God grants us authority here on Earth. Because of these two truthes, as believers, we should understand leadership, study leadership, and aspire to lead.

Here are some ideas about addressing leadership from a biblical perspective:

1. Bring residents together and make a list of various leaders in each of your lives. Encourage each resident to make a list of leaders that impact them and to pray for that list together and afterwards on a regular basis.

2. Have a group Bible study on a leader or various leaders in the Bible (ie. Nehemiah, Joseph, Jesus, Peter, Abraham, Joshua, Esther etc.).

3. Have a speaker come in to talk about the importance of Mentoring and Discipleship. Challenge each of your residents to cultivate these types of relationships with other students, faculty and staff.

4. Discuss the importance of godly leadership within a Christian marriage and family. How should a godly woman lead their family; how should a godly man lead
their family.

5. Have a prominent Christian leader in their field come in to talk about bringing their faith into the workplace. Have them discuss the value that their faith and scriptural truths have on them and their leadership.

6. Have a week (or month) that is devoted to servant leadership opportunities. Have residents look for ways to serve their fellow students or other people at MVNU or in a surrounding community.

7. Have someone come and talk to your residents about how to share their testimony in a way that focuses on God's work in their lives and gives Him the glory.

8. Have your residents do a spiritual gifts test or another type of strengths test that helps them understand how they can better serve the Kingdom.

9. Discuss education and knowledge and its value in christian leadership. Ask: What is God's opinion of an individual's education or the gaining of knowledge? When (if ever) do educational goals conflict with God's will?

10. I would like to see it this last topic can be discussed in the comment section of this blog: Discuss the current trend of how Christians are choosing not to serve in leadership roles. Is this biblical or is this rooted in some other philosophy? Talk about reasons why this may be happening and what impact will this have on ministry in general.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Questions for Leading.

Leadership is a very broad concept (which I eluded to in an earlier post). What are your initial ideas when you hear the word leadership? What can you narrow down the concept of leadership to? What aspects of leadership do you enjoy the most? In what venues? About what topics?

Friday, July 27, 2007

Passive Leadership Programs

The idea behind a passive program is that you find information on a subject or possibly present objects that could be easily figured out or interpreted, which could educate people through a single sighting or multiple sightings. For example if you want to do a passive program on healthy eating, you might put together a bulliton board with a variety of definitions regarding specific terms related to healthy eating (i.e. Trans Fats, Fiber, Calories etc.) with information on healty excercise, a food pyramid, and maybe some Q & A or other expert advice.


Here are some quick ideas for Passive Leadership programs:

1. Daily or Weekly Leadership Quotes.

2. A bulliton board with a variety of different leaders and their biographies. Look to do a variety of leaders and consider including Government leaders, Christian leaders, leaders that are visible Minorities, Recent leaders, Past leaders etc.

3. Read a book on leadership and write a summary of the book and include any numberical lists that might be interesting to read (i.e. John Maxwell's 21 Inrefutable Laws of Leadership or Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.)

4. Put together a blank bulliton board with cut out letters that for your residents to write their favorite leadership quotes, or even who they look to as leaders.

5. Create a list of Bible verses that have to do with leadership or could be used to help become a strong leader. Print off this list and post it for people to see (rooms, apartments, bathrooms, or halls).

6. Create a cut out of a person's body and point lines to the various parts of the body that could help describe leadership qualities. Then on 3X5 cards write about these metaphic qualities (i.e. knees for constant prayer, feet for walking away from temptation, head for growing intellectually and making good choices etc.).

7. Search on the internet or talk with faculty and staff to find out their favorite books on leadership. Then you can either create a book list (say who recommended each book), consider finding out the Library's LOC number to include on this list to make it easier to find.

I hope this helps you think of how to present one of these ideas or maybe think of another thought. Remember if you have seen something or have thought of an idea that you would like to share, please reply.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Leadership Reduced // God is Green

FROM: Travis Keller

Leadership is very complex. I have read several books on leadership along with attending conferences that include "leadership" break-out sessions. It is intriguing to read and hear all the different perspectives and ideas that surround the buzz-word topic. I have discovered that my own leadership is flawed if I do not experientially demonstrate any concept or behavior that I wish to communicate.

I have been accused lately of being a "tree-hugging-hippie" because I am a non-violent activist who has taken up reducing, reusing, and recycling. Sarah, Kyla, and I have bins in our kitchen area for the recycling of plastic, metal, cardboard, and paper. When a bin fills up I take the materials to the Knox County Recycling Center on Columbus Road. I hope my attempt to "live green" leads others to do the same.

As lovers of creation, the staff of Oakwood Hall is planning to initiate a large recycling campaign. Many automobile manufacturers and social organizations encourage people to "Live Green" by reducing oil usage and automobile emissions along with caring for streams, lakes, and rivers and preserving the natural habitat of creatures. I would contend that followers of Jesus should follow the lead of said associations not as conforming citizens but as worshipers of our Creator. God is green. He has entrusted humanity to care for ourselves and the rest of creation. We are to control our consumption and reuse our resources as stewards of Creation and as leaders.

May we reduce leading others to our own demonstration.
Live Green.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Leadership Programming

Reslife Staff,

Last year our new programming model had a great start with many of our RAs planning and presenting a number of great programs. Next year should be an even better year for our programming plans, we want to learn from this past year to help in our planning and training.

One of the areas where our staff members had a tough time was choosing and presenting a 'Leadership' program. We are committed to developing Leaders and teaching Leadership, so next year instead of eliminating Leadership from our programming model, we want to develop a greater understanding of Leadership and how to plan for these events next year. So over the next month, I would like to talk about Leadership programming to get each of you thinking about all of you programs next year.

This week I would like to talk about "Responsible Citizenship".



Believe it or not Responsible Citizenship can be a great area to look for Leadership subjects. Here are just a few ideas to consider or to spark new ideas for programming for Leadership or other programming areas:

1. Getting involved in Student Government or the Student Newspaper to benefit MVNU and MVNU students.
2. Living a life of integrity by speaking honestly, not gossiping, or not cheating.
3. Not wasting or taking Cafeteria food (Ask Todd how much this cost Pioneer and eventually students).
4. Impacting people through volunteering.
5. Learning to use a schedule or day planner (Talk to Academic Support for help).
6. Responsible use of electricity on campus (how does this impact costs).
7. How can MVNU students become mentors (Youth ministries, Big Brothers/Sisters etc.).
8. How to be a successful student by being a respectful student (let me know if you want to talk about this one).
9. Good stewardship and fiscal responsibility for college students.
10. How college students can reduce, reuse and recycle at MVNU and in Mt. Vernon.

Please respond with ideas of you own, especially if you have ideas regarding number ten. Enjoy the rest of you summer and check back soon.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Extreme Makeover: Resumé Edition



Yesterday I worked with my brother on his resumé. After a couple of hours of updates and editing I think that we were both pretty happy with the end result. This process gave me the idea for a great program for College Students who are beginning to look at their career search with resumé preparation.

There are a variety of ways this could be presented, but I envision having a student or two dig out an old resume and then a person experience with resumé preparation or someone that reviews a lot of resumé would pick it apart and build it up to become more attractive and readable. Along the way the presenter should explain the changes and offer suggestions that might assist the audience.

This could be a fun way to teach resumé preparation with a currently popular theme. The tough part would be finding ways to continue to implement the theme through the program. If you are interested in help with this type of program, talk to Elaine Blair our Director of Career Services.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Room Rush


Every year the most anticipated day for Residence Life, after move in day (and for some when RA positions are announced), is Room Rush.

On April 4th, 2007 we will be holding our annual event where students can sign up in housing groups to be placed in their 2007-2008 housing assignments. Students can sign up in groups of 2, 4 or 6 and they can also indicate housing preferences.

Our staff tallies the number of academic credits for each group and figures out the average credits. Then groups are put in order and are placed into housing, based first on greatest number of credits and then on preferences.

Housing assignments are usually posted within two weeks of Room Rush. Posting day, to the surprise of some students, ends up being more anticipated than Room Rush. This is one day where the campus divides into two groups of people: those that like ResLife, and those that do not.



If you would like more information about Room Rush or Residence Life at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, please call us at 740-392-6868 ext. 4600.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Interviews, interviews, and still more interviews


This week starts our annual interview marathon for next year's RA staff. We will be looking to hire students that will be strong leaders, good students, compassionate Christians, and selfless servants. This is usually a difficult yet enjoyable time. We love meeting new students, talking more personally with current RAs, and looking forward to what the Lord has planned for 2007-2008. We know that there is a lot of need for prayer over the next few weeks, so here are some of our requests:

1. Pray for peace for our candidates. This process can create a lot of nervousness and we know that it can be frustrating for students we have to turn down.

2. Pray that God will give us wisedom.

3. Pray for our collective patience. These four days can be long and monotonous for our staff and by the last day of individual interviews we are not alway at 100%. We want to give each student the attention and fairness that they deserve.

4. Pray that we can put together the best teams that can serve our residents in the best way possible.

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. We know that this is an important task and we are excited about what is ahead.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Student Video

Here are some of the Cedar guys and a Redwood guy putting their talents to good use: