Building Community
Kayla Gaudette
Summer 2019
Dear CPLC,
The only way I can think to synthesize my thoughts is to form a thank you letter. Not to be outside the box or a renegade but because I am sincerely grateful for what you gave a young professional desperately trying to find energy for restoration. I found that with you!
You see CPLC you helped me find my people! I’m the first to preach that students need to find their tribe but somewhere along the way I forgot that as a human I too needed to find members to navigate the paths of this working world with. You provided a networking opportunity far more valuable than one housed anywhere else because the proximity of these resources will long outlast the content found in conversation.
The commitment felt freeing, which rarely happens. Ever signed up for something and left with a to list larger than the one you went in with? Felt depleted when you left? Not with you CPLC! Sure I left workshops with things to do but these were my OWN to-do lists and they always contained things that got me really excited about the work I’m doing at PSU.
I sat among brilliant individuals this summer with my Tackling a Wicked Problem hat on but I was also able to take elements from the sessions and apply them to my role as the Director of Operations in Health and Human Performance. My role encompasses 90% of the faculty chair role excluding full time personnel so on average my brain is sifting through 8-10 topic areas. One of which includes facility management in the Human Performance Center. The discussions on open pedagogy and labs got me thinking about the stage we set for faculty and students with our classrooms and offices. These structures, while malleable, set the tone for how the interactions will go. If PSU is to be known for their Cluster based pedagogy then how cool would it be to have the standard classroom set up be that of collaboration and those who want to have lecture based would have to move the desks? If PSU is to be known for creating students to thrive in the 21st century then how incredible would it be to constantly analyze our curriculum to make sure it’s aligning with market trends?
CPLC you didn’t just hold my attention in person but online too! Weekday evenings I found myself substituting my favorite book or TV show to troll your Twitter feed and immerse myself in the plethora of online resources at my fingertips. One article would lead to a Ted Talk which lead me to a Podcast and then to an article and then holy crap it was 11:00pm and I needed to wake up for work the next day. I share this “follow the breadcrumb” process because it shows that I was, and am, fired up to self-regulate my own development. Since when did we sit back and just expect that we’d be handed a training manual, given the strategy or be developed?
Do I continue to stay involved with you? HECK YES! If you’ll have me. This is turning into a love letter of sorts. I hope to someday LEAD a session at one of the summer workshops but mostly, I look forward to being surrounded by open minded individuals who are taking the time to have the tough conversations.
Thank you for all you’ve done and yet to do.
Your friend,
Kayla