This Year’s Course: For the Love of Learning
This year, and in response to the pandemic, SAGE is offering a special Fellowship program centered on a single call to action:
How can we help students recover from a tough year at school?
No matter where you live, you know students, families, and educators are going through a difficult time. The pandemic caused school shutdowns and challenged students – and the systems that serve them – in ways never imagined. This is particularly true for students facing hunger, homelessness, abuse, and other traumas that adversely affect their ability to learn. As the events of last year made too clear, all of these challenges are exacerbated by racism.
This year’s Fellowship focuses on how we, as community members, can:
• help students recover, rebuild and thrive; and
• help community groups rebound so they too can support our students, teachers, and schools.
Read on to learn about this year’s course.
We invite you to join us and become a SAGE Legacy Fellow
Phase 1 (Sessions # 1 to 5)
SAGE welcomes you to the fellowship, reviews fellowship agreements, and provides a fun and engaging way for fellows to meet each other. Fellows have an opportunity to ask questions prior to the upcoming program launch and to get ready.
We introduce a simple approach to problem-solving called Human Centered Design and then illustrate the approach with a hands-on activity where you innovate your own solution to a community problem. Together, we also learn how to frame a public problem so that people can act on it, and how to organize our efforts to identify and learn from the people most affected. We conclude this session with guidance and recommendations for fellows to perform their own empathy interviews to better understand our call to action.
Share what you have learned from your interviews and gain tips on how to organize the information you collected to further define the problem(s) you want to address. Get creative by brainstorming with others possible solutions to the issues you care about.
Work with your peers and use evaluation tools to vet and decide which ideas move to the next phase of the program based on stakeholder feedback. Develop a prototype of your selected idea and build your plan to "test" your idea (and the assumptions behind your idea) by getting feedback and input from other people.
Create a pitch of your project idea and an implementation canvas to present out to the group of fellows. Gain more feedback on your idea and decide on the next step.
Some Fellows may decide to volunteer on an existing project that is managed by someone else. Other Fellows may decide to continue into Phase 2 of the program and to lead their own self-directed project. All Fellows will be encouraged and supported to develop projects in support of schools, districts, and nonprofit or government groups.
Phase 2 (Sessions # 6 to 12)
SAGE welcomes you to Phase 2 of the program and invites you to further develop your project with our community of peers, coaches, advisors, and partners. Reflect on what you learned since the start of the program and identify new capabilities you want to develop when leading your project. Share your toughest personal growth challenge and practices to overcome these challenges. We conclude this session with guidance on how to hold on to your curiosity and to practice generative listening as you develop your project.
Reflect on your history and experiences to create or affirm your Highest Goal (Purpose Statement) and to clarify how your project leverages your strengths and reflects your personal purpose. Learn a powerful self-coaching practice called Transformational Problem Solving to overcome obstacles and lead with heart. Conclude with an exercise to help you experience greater well-being and personal vitality while leading your project.
Share the challenges you experience as a leader and where you would value more support. Practice turning breakdowns into breakthroughs. Gain tips on how to remain nimble while still making important project decisions in uncertain times.
Clarify and affirm the practices that strengthen your confidence and motivate you to lead your project. Learn a framework to help you identify and engage others in your project by building trust and good workflow agreements. Declare next steps to advance your project.
Reflect on the possibilities that have emerged as a result of you and your project. Focus on your near-term actions to achieve a major project milestone or renegotiate what’s possible. Share strategies to influence others involved in your project by aligning interests, building trust and resiliency, and shared accountability.
Some Fellows may decide to volunteer on an existing project that is managed by someone else. Other Fellows may decide to continue into Phase 2 of the program and to lead their own self-directed project. All Fellows will be encouraged and supported to develop projects in support of schools, districts, and nonprofit or government groups.
Share your project successes and lessons learned that will continue to guide you to lead your project and to influence others. Reaffirm strategies to promote your own personal well-being and vitality so you can remain energized to give forward throughout your life. Stay connected through SAGE’s Alumni Network.
Celebrate your project successes with our community of peers, partners, friends, family and other volunteers. Generate energy and momentum for your important work and make declarations for the future.
*Must be logged in as Fellow