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TCU 360

TCU 360

All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

Students discuss religious topics in a small group. (Photo courtesy of tcuwesley.org)
Wednesday nights at TCU’s Methodist campus ministry provide religious exploration and fellowship
By Boots Giblin, Staff Writer
Published Mar 27, 2024
Students at the Wesley said they found community on Wednesday nights.

Habitudes uses images to teach leadership skills

Habitudes+uses+images+to+teach+leadership+skills

A new leadership seminar is combining creativity and curriculum in an effort to teach students how to lead themselves before leading others.

The four-week seminar started on Oct. 26 and will be every Monday from 6 – 8 p.m. There’s a second session on Fridays from 2 – 4 p.m.

The seminar is built around Habitudes: The Art of Self-Leadership, which teaches students how to use leadership skills by connecting the concepts to images.

“It shapes these sorts of ideas in a new way. We come from a culture very centered around images, especially with Instagram and Facebook,” said Alicia James, senior political science major and Habitudes facilitator. “We’re always surrounded by advertising and the such, so it makes sense to use images to learn about ourselves as leaders.”

Students study two to three images per session. After learning about the images, they reflect on them and create personal relationships between the leadership concept and the images.

Dede Williams, the director of the TCU Leadership Center, said this seminar differs from others because of the framing of the curriculum.

“Other seminars jump ahead and ask the question, ‘How can I lead?’” Williams said. “This one is only, ‘How can I lead myself?’ You have to understand how to lead yourself before you can lead your peers to an end goal.”

Andrew Nash, the hall director for the Tom Brown Pete Wright and Sandage/McCart Apartment Communities and a Habitudes facilitator, said the curriculum pushes students to understand their leadership skills through reflections.

“It really forces you to reflect on your thoughts, beliefs and actions to determine if you’re the type of leader you want to be,” Nash said. “College is a time of self-reflection and self-discovery for so many people. Doing things such as Habitudes will make you reflect on whether or not you’re on the path you want to be going down.”

Each program session is led by two upperclassmen student facilitators and a hall director. The Monday trio works with about 20 TCU students in the group, while the Friday facilitators work with about 10 TCU students.

The facilitators said they were excited to get to know a new generation of TCU students, with James saying she hopes to build relationships with those younger than her. Nash added that he wants to become a resource to those at TCU.

“I’m glad we were able to add this in this semester because almost all of our other leadership seminars were at a max and we kept increasing the numbers,” Williams said. “There’s a lot of growing popularity in our leadership seminars, and by adding [Habitudes], the popularity will grow even more.”

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