Retreat Held for First-Year Graduate Students
First-year graduate students had the opportunity to build a graduate class identity at the One Pardee: First-Year Graduate Student Retreat at the Fitchburg Art Museum on September 24, 2016.
The day-long retreat included team-building activities facilitated by Paul Hutchinson, Lecturer at the Questrom School of Business. Hutchinson has worked with over 40,000 participants in teambuilding and leadership programs since he began practicing experiential education in 1996. Hutch’s recent professional work has focused on utilizing emerging technologies to enhance experiential learning, from GPS-based urban adventures to virtual teambuilding on-line.
The retreat also featured a talk by Orville Pierson, who served for 19 years as Director of Program Design and for Lee Hecht Harrison, a career services company with 300 offices worldwide. He led the team that created programs and materials used globally by over a million unemployed job seekers.
Pierson’s talk was aimed at helping students cut through the myths and misunderstandings of networking and finding comfortable and effective ways to use networking in a job search.
Amb. Robert Loftis, Director of Graduate Studies, held an informal question-and-answer session with the first-year students over lunch.
Officers of the Pardee Graduate Council also attended the retreat, which provided first-year students further opportunity to learn about how to get involved in the graduate student community at the Pardee School.