Students at Elizabethtown College have continually challenged themselves to live by the College’s motto of “Educate for Service.” Although that experience does not look the same for every student, it may include being a part of the many leadership opportunities available, bettering themselves through community work or diversifying their perspective. With the introduction of the Blue Print Program this fall, there is now a way to both recognize students that have already been taking advantage of opportunities offered by the College and incentivize these further to get more students to participate.
The four disciplines that are the core of the Blue Print Program are well-being and connectedness, civility and curiosity, leadership and service and equity and diversity. To get a basic certificate in one or more of the domains, a student has to complete 100 units in that discipline. Then to get the Blue Jay Blue Print Award, one must complete at least 400 units with minimum 100 units in each of the domains. ‘Units’ are assigned based on the activity that the student completes and how many learning objectives have been completed. Some units have already been preassigned, while others would have to be brought up for conversation. For example, being a student employee would be worth 20 units per year of employment and being a participant in an awareness building activity would be worth three units.
In addition to earning the appropriate number of units, students will participate in reflection circles that will occur over one hour with a maximum of 10 participants where they will discuss their time and varying experiences in the program.
Dean of Students and Title IX Coordinator Nichole Gonzalez had this to say about the benefits of the talks: “It is really important that students aren’t just doing things for the sake of doing them. We know we’re offering these incentives, but we want students to take a moment to look back and think about some of these activities and reflect upon them with others because the real value is when you can articulate meaning. If someone is participating in a service program, say they’re volunteering at a soup kitchen, if they walk away from that just feeling good, they’re not doing it the right way. They need to reflect and make meaning of it.”
If a student does get one of these certificates, not only will there be a formal recognition in April from the Student Life Division at the annual Student Award Ceremony, but they will be able to put it on their job application. Instead of listing everything individually, which may make the application look messy and unprofessional, the certificates display formal recognition from the College as well as completely cover all of one’s achievements.
After being informed of the program, first-year Curstin Carpenter thinks that “it’s an interesting idea, and it ties into the school’s motto really well. [I] Wish there was more publicity about the program, and possibly an info session for more in depth discussion.”
Luckily for students who are interested, there will be an information session where the team behind the program will answer any clarifying questions. For commonly asked questions, they even have a FAQ section at the bottom of the page for information on the program: https://www.etown.edu/programs/blueprint/index.aspx
Students will also be able to start their progression in the Blue Print Program this semester using the link on the above page. However, if students do not feel that they are ready quite yet, they can start in the spring or anytime before they graduate.
