Facilitation and Evaluation of SPLASH:

Gender and Leadership Workshop

Women’s Center at Virginia Tech

SPLASH Leadership Speaker Series

Project Report Prepared By

Yellow Team: Sunny Side Up

Alexandra Hoffman, ajhoff@vt.edu

Nate Johnson, natej5@vt.edu

Nina Compton, ninac10@vt.edu

Lauren Catalano, lcat44@vt.edu

Lance Kyle, lanceek@vt.edu

Melanie Merrick, merrickm@vt.edu

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

LDRS 3304: Elements of Team Leadership

Spring 2013

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Facilitation and Evaluation of SPLASH:

Gender and Leadership Workshop

Table of Contents

Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2

Needs Assessment…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…. 3

Problem Identification………………………………………………………………………………….……………..3

Relationship with the Issue………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

Project Description ……………………………………………………………………………….……………………………..5

Project Site. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….......6

Project Planning Schedule & Team Organization. ……………………………………………………….6

Resources & Needs. …………………………………………………………………………………………………...7

Reflection of Course Concepts………………………………………………………………………......................11

Unit 1: Characteristics of Teams……………………………………………………………………………….11

Unit 2: Teamwork Processes…………………………………………………………………………………….12

Unit 3: The Emotionally Intelligent Team………………………………………………………………...13

Unit 4: Issues Teams Face………………………………………………………………………………………..13

Unit 5: Teams in Modern Organizations…………………………………………………………………..14

Appendices……………………………………………………………………………………………...............................15

Appendix A: Team Background……………………………………………………………………………….15

Appendix B: Team Contract…………………………………………………………………………………….19

Appendix C: Reference……………………………………………………………………………………………21

Appendix D: Project Proposal Evaluation Rubric…………………………………………………..…21

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Facilitation and Evaluation of SPLASH:

Gender and Leadership Workshop

Executive Summary

The purpose of our service-learning project is to produce verification of our ability to apply and

synthesize various concepts of team dynamics in a real world application. This project addresses a real

need expressed by the Women’s Center and SPLASH. The learning side of service-learning will be

accomplished through incorporation of course concepts in the project and through reflection on how

course concepts explain the success or failure of the project. In some cases, the course concepts will be

observable in the project itself; in all cases, the course concepts should be observable in the process we

use to complete the project. This assignment aligns with each of the course learning objectives:

● Demonstrate knowledge and understanding in specific team leadership competencies: team

communication, team management, and effectiveness in creating and leading teams;

● Assess and analyze effectiveness in team management, task accomplishment, and project

management;

● Demonstrate knowledge of comprehensive team dynamic theories;

● Obtain working knowledge of motivation and motivational techniques relevant to team

leadership; and

● Engage in effective team interactions and communications.

Project Objectives

Our mission is to first, comprehend how gender can both improve and hinder leadership at different

times. We will use this knowledge to serve the Virginia Tech community and the Women’s Center by

facilitating a gender and leadership workshop. The following were our project objectives:

● Challenge students to become more self-aware of how they personally believe gender affects

leadership.

● Help students identify real world applications for what they have learned in the session.

● Evaluate the effectiveness of the workshop by surveying students on what they have learned

and experienced before and after the workshop.

Major Activities

Our team has worked in conjunction with SPLASH, Speakers on Leadership and Skill in an Hour, and the

Virginia Tech Women’s Center to facilitate a Gender and Leadership workshop. To accomplish this task

we worked on several primary activities. First, we obtained the resources necessary to advertise and

promote the event. Then Alexandra collaborated with fellow her fellow presenter from the Women’s

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Center, Hannah Jones, to finalize the presentation format and content. All group members attended the

event on Wednesday, March 27 in Squires. During the presentation we contributed comments

throughout the presentation and also facilitated discussion groups at the end of the presentation about

how we can each effect change on individual, organizational, and community levels.

Outcomes

The event was well-attended with nearly fifty students present, so our advertising efforts were

moderately successful. We collected nearly thirty pre-surveys, but were less successful in collecting post

surveys as only six students responded. From the data collected, there was no significant statistics

showing that there was an increase in awareness of gender and leadership issues. If more students

would have returned the post surveys there might have been a different outcome, but that cannot be

determined at this time. A better location could have also made for a better turnout. The Brush

Mountain Room in Squires is not the most easily accessible room and is hard to find. If more people

were in attendance the likelihood of more post surveys is probable. Also, with the students in

attendance, there was lower engagement than we would have liked. Oftentimes students are afraid to

speak up in fear that they will be countered by another student’s opinions or even rejected. Many of the

questions directed to the audience had to be facilitated by our group members and therefore might

have interfered with the unbiased thinking of the students. Having put a higher importance level on the

return of the post surveys, and maybe a better location we might have been more successful. But on a

positive note, we do believe this event made more people aware about the SPLASH leadership speaking

series and we hope that we raised some awareness of gender and leadership issues as well.

Needs Assessment

Problem Identification

Gender and leadership are two topics that have gained vast amounts of attention over recent years.

Gender stereotypes are generalized beliefs about the characteristics and qualities attributed to men and

women in society (Eagly, 1987). With these gender stereotypes, it is inevitable for a person to be

treated different based on gender when in a leadership position. Gender-role stereotypes are common

in society and are encouraged through socialization from early childhood from things such as mass

media, parents, peers, and schools (Miller and Budd, 1999). If you think back to a Disney Princess movie

you can have a picture of some of these stereotypes. Take the classic Cinderella for example. Cinderella

is depicted as a female whose job is to cook and clean. Her knight in shining armor, Prince Charming, is

stereotyped as the strong man who needs to save Cinderella.

History also gives us perfect examples of how gender stereotypes influence leadership. Across the

world, political leadership is seen to be dominated by men versus women (Mitra & Sikdar, 2008).

However, this fact is interesting because according to recent studies women have been found to score

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better in 15 out of the 16 leadership competencies researched (Zenger & Folkman, 2012). As depicted

in the table, women scored higher in the overall effectiveness in leadership (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Overall effectiveness in leadership based on gender

Even though these stereotypes have been taught to us from a young age, our team believes these

stereotypes can be adjusted. There also seem to be a great deal of mixed messages when it comes to

leadership and gender. With the help of the Women’s Center and SPLASH a workshop to educate a

group of Virginia Tech students should help start to disband some of the stereotypes and answer

questions regarding this issue.

Relationship with the Issue

One of our team members, Alexandra, serves as the Virginia Tech Women’s Center undergraduate

intern. She has had the opportunity to learn first-hand some of the issues women deal with in

leadership roles. She brought this issue to our attention during a class meeting. All of the team

members seemed to show the same concern Alexandra has expressed and feels compelled to help raise

awareness on-campus about the unique intersection of gender and leadership. We were able to agree

that the discrepancies between leadership and gender are things we are interested in learning more

about and would like to share what we learn with our fellow peers.

As all of us were in the Residential Leadership Community during our freshman year, we have all had

some information presented to us. In Leadership 1015, each class studies a unit on Women in

Leadership, yet that coursework is the only exposure most of us have had with the issues. We are

excited about learning more information about this topic, for gender and leadership will always be

relevant when working in teams now and when we enter the workforce.

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Project Description

Our team feels charged with the mission to better understand how gender can both enhance and hinder

leadership at different times. We believe by aiding the Women’s Center in facilitating this Gender and

Leadership workshop, we will in turn learn more about the topic for personal benefit and have the

valuable opportunity to teach aspiring leaders about this very relevant issue. We believe in educational,

awareness-raising workshops such as the SPLASH speaker series because they inspire leaders to

reevaluate their values and inherent biases, increasing their self-understanding and making them a

stronger leader. Solving the problems associated with gendered leadership begins with conversations

about where our current belief system about how men and women lead differently has derived from.

Tackling such a deeply rooted problem takes a combination of smaller steps at varying levels and we

believe that starting with ground-level conversations on an individual level is an effective way to begin

reforming how young leaders view the gender difference among strong leaders.

Primarily, we are taking an educational approach to address the issue. The Gender and Leadership

workshop facilitator needs assistance facilitating small group discussions with groups of students

attending the session, so we will be helping our peers challenge the way they view gendered leadership.

In the small groups, students will be sharing their personal experiences about how their gender has

affected how they lead or how gender has influenced how they view the way that another person leads.

These experiences could be from a personal level or on a global scale. Within this educational approach,

we hope students will not only learn from the workshop facilitator but also from each other within our

small group discussions.

A potential issue we could face while teaching our small group would be presenting opinion-based or

misleading information about gender and leadership. We understand that in order to be meaningful

facilitators and cultivate the right discussions, we must be trained in gender and leadership. To ensure

we have an accurate understanding of how gender affects leadership, the workshop facilitator will meet

with us prior to the session to train us on strong conversation points and how to prompt students to dig

deeper into their potential biases.

The second major component of our service project will be to craft and implement means of evaluating

the effectiveness of the Gender and Leadership workshop. As a group, we will develop an assessment to

chart how much students grow from what they learned and experienced from attending the workshop.

We will create a pre-test that participants will take prior to attending the workshop and a post-test to

assess how their views about gender and leadership have changed. This assessment is critical to the

future development of this workshop for the Women’s Center and will provide the university with

concrete data on how our campus culture perceives gendered leadership. This tool can also double as a

way to evaluate how effective we were in facilitating the small group discussions and reflection time.

We expect students to leave with a deeper, more meaningful view of how gender and leadership are

uniquely interrelated.

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Project Site

Sponsored by the Virginia Tech Student Centers and Activities within the Division of Student Affairs, the

SPLASH speaker series is a university-wide initiative to help emerging leaders develop their skills and

understanding of effective, purposeful leadership during their undergraduate experience. SPLASH

stands for ‘Speakers on Leadership and Skill in an Hour’ and workshop topics continuously vary to

highlight a spectrum of leadership philosophies, perspectives, and practices. Students who attend

twelve or more workshops throughout the year earn a Leadership Seminar Series (LSS) certificate and

are recognized at the annual University Student Leadership Awards each spring.

The Student Centers and Activities has partnered with the university Women’s Center to give a SPLASH

workshop addressing Gender and Leadership. This particular edition of the SPLASH speaker series will

strive to explore how gender affects how we lead and try to help participants assess how their own

gender can be an asset to their leadership style. Primarily, we will be working with the Women’s Center

and the Gender and Leadership workshop facilitators to market, execute, and evaluate the session.

Project Planning Schedule & Team Organization

The Gantt Chart pictured below in Figure 2 was created to organize our project timeline. An enlarged

version of this chart is also provided in Appendix E for easier readability.

Figure 2. Service-learning project timeline.

Be sure to describe the organization of your team, identifying who was responsible for which aspects of

the project. As you do this, it may be helpful to reference the team background (Appendix A) and the

team contract (Appendix B).

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Resource & Needs

Be sure to outline resources that were acquired for the project. Provide sufficient detail so that

someone who wanted to replicate the project would know what is required:

• Project supplies purchased or donated, including the actual or approximate cost.

• Relevant resources loaned by group members or the partner organizations.

• Efforts taken to secure the resources.

Project Supplies

● There is a limited amount of supplies needed for this project. Most of the project

requirements will be met by the hard work of team members.

● The cost of any advertising supplies will be minimum because the event is already sponsored

by the Student Centers and Activities branch within the Division of Student Affairs.

● The dining hall cards already prepared by the SPLASH organization need to be distributed to

the dining centers.

● There will also be flyers and advertisements that need to be posted.

● A university presentation room will need to be reserved in order to facilitate the talk.

● Related resources already possessed by the group are Facebook, blogging, Residential

Leadership Community resources, and Virginia Tech listservs.

● Pre- and post- surveys will need to be created and effectively distributed to those who attend

the presentation.

● Paper and printing services for the pre/post-surveys will be provided by the Women’s Center.

Expected Contribution

● The majority of the work will be a collaborative effort by group members.

● The distribution of flyers for select dining halls will be done individually.

● Making and analyzing the data from the surveys will be done collectively.

● Posting messages on social networks about when and where the event is being held will be

done as a team.

● We will all be in attendance ahead of time for the workshop to help set up the space.

● Each member will be responsible for facilitating one group during the workshop. Depending

upon how many students attend, we may facilitate in pairs.

● We will work together outside of class to develop the pre and post surveys.

Project Outcomes

Our project goals were to challenge students about their perceptions of gender and leadership, apply

our knowledge from class to executing a successful presentation, and evaluate the effectiveness of our

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presentation in teaching others about gender and leadership. The successfulness of our first goal is

measured by the pre- and post-survey data collected. Our second goal’s outcomes are measured by our

team member’s perceptions of the project success, our relationships with one another, and our

adherence to the team contract. The third goal is measured by the quality of responses we received

through the surveys and whether the surveys were effective methods of quantifying the learnings of

those who attended the presentation.

Evidence of Goal Achievement

Our first task-related goal was to challenge students about their perceptions of the effects of gender on

leadership. Our advertising for the event was extremely successful because we had between forty and

fifty people in attendance. The diversity of the presentation audience, as pictured in Figure 3 below, was

also a benefit because it allowed for more creative and varied open discussion topics. The facts in Figure

3 were gathered from the pre-surveys collected.

Figure 3: Presentation Attendance by Class

However, our goal to teach others about gender and leadership applications in their own lives may not

have been completely achieved. Based on our pre- and post-survey results, similar percentages of

students still believed after the presentation as before that gender has a neutral impact on leadership in

their personal lives and a moderately significant impact on leadership nationwide. This is evidenced by

the data in Figure 4, which shows that despite the low number of post-survey participants, the trends in

perceived significance are the same before and after the presentation.

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(a) Pre-Survey (b) Post-Survey

Figure 4 - Perceived Impact of Gender on Leadership

It is worth noting that a single presentation is very unlikely to change attendant’s long held beliefs about

the impact of gender on leadership. The ultimate purpose of the goal was to challenge their perceptions,

raise awareness of the issues, and think critically about the subject areas. In this way, our presentation

was very successful. Yellow Team members lead discussion groups at the end of the presentation to

help participants brainstorm ways in which they could effect change on individual and societal levels.

The survey data from Figure 5 shows that there was an increase in the discussion of leadership topics

with others after the presentation, which indicates task success.

(a) Pre-survey (b) Post-Survey

Figure 5 - Discussion of Gender and Leadership Topics with Others

Analyzing the success of our team related goals is best accomplished by referencing our team contract,

found in Appendix B. Our first goal was to build and maintain social connections among team members.

This was accomplished through in class activities, GroupMe group texting, and presentation planning

activities. At the end of the project, all team members agreed that this class has renewed our faith in

working in teams because we have all enjoyed this group project tremendously. Our second goal was to

earn a good grade in the class. In retrospect, this goal is a little vague, but we were all extremely

satisfied with our Project Proposal grades as well as our other team-related grades in the class. With the

completion of all of our necessary tasks for the class, we are confident we will receive satisfactory

grades in the class. Our final team goal was to apply what we learn in class to our team. The applications

to course concepts section analyzes the specific course concepts we applied to our team project, but

one that particularly stands out was our team’s use of Emotional Intelligence skills. Our team utilized

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Postive Mood and Zest throughout all the project planning and execution, which ultimately contributed

to our project and task success.

For our third goal of evaluating the effectiveness of our presentation, the pre- and post- surveys were a

good idea, but more work can be done on the survey process in the future. We collected nearly thirty

pre-surveys and adequately evaluated participant’s knowledge of gender and leadership topics before

starting the presentation. However, post-surveys were distributed by email and only five surveys were

completed by participants. This goal would be better achieved if we had a more accurate perception of

presentation attendants’ perceptions of gender and leadership after the presentation.

Recommendations for Future Projects

We believe as a whole our project went very well. However, that being said there is always things you

can improve to make it better. We strive for excellence in everything we do as a group, our group

cohesion allows us to all work together and achieve all the goals we set for ourselves. But we did have

some issues that we did not anticipate. We collected the pre-surveys in order to calculate the data send

out the post surveys we were unable to read the handwriting of some of the participants email

addresses. Also some of the students did not put their email addresses on the surveys so we had a large

group of participants that could not be contacted to take the post survey. In future projects it would be

better to save some time after the presentation to take the post survey while the students are all

present.

Another situation we had during the presentation was that not many people were participating in the

open discussions. By having all of our members of our group there we were able to better help

encourage interaction, but it was still limited. Some recommendations for future projects is to offer

incentives for participation. This might help increase the participant’s involvement in the presentation.

Also in the in the future we could have a more interactive power point that boosts participation.

In the future to better promote the SPLASH talk we could set a table in Squires or on the Drillfield to

spread awareness and increase attendance. We did put out note cards in all of the dining halls and

spoke to leadership classes. But, the tables would allow us to reach people outside of the leadership

community that might not be familiar with SPLASH or the RLC.

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Reflection of Course Concepts

Unit 1: Characteristics of Teams

Highlight connections to the unit objectives:

○ Sundstrom (1999)

■ We defined our group as a project team because we were formed to complete a

specific task within a defined period of time.

○ Measure of Project Success

■ We measure our success if we had high event attendance. We knew that most

of the people attending would be from the RLC but we wanted other people to

come out. At the actual event we were satisfied with the attendance, we

seemed to have a mix of people from all different backgrounds and age groups

attending the event for different reasons. We also would measure our success

with the results we gathered form the pre and post survey. We wanted to make

sure that when the participants left our presentation they had more knowledge

on the topic then before. From the results we gather we seemed to accomplish

this.

○ Measure of Team Success

■ We would measure this by maintaining social relations. This was very important

to our group success. If none of the members got along then it would have

created problems and would have made the project less enjoyable. We wanted

to make sure they we were all friends because this would directly relate to how

well our project went. We also had an individual benefit to the team success. If

our team was not successful then we maybe would not get the grade we want

in the class. So we all made sure we did our best to make sure we got the grade

we wanted.

○ Hackman (1990)- Clear goals

■ We made sure that in our group that there were clear goals to keep everyone

focused on the same thing. We also had defined tasks within the group.

Everyone was always assigned something to complete so each member always

understood what they needed to do. Our group also had adequate resources to

complete the project. With all seven of us we had more than enough people to

complete the task but we also had outside help with this project such as the

Women’s Center.

When appropriate, cite the unit readings:

○ Levi (2011): Chapter 1 Understanding Teams

○ Levi (2011): Chapter 2 Defining Team Success

○ “The State of Teams” (Martin & Bal, 2007)

○ “Student Perceptions of Groups & Teams in Leadership Education” (Coers & Lorensen,

2009).

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Unit 2: Teamwork Processes

Highlight connections to the unit objectives:

○ Promote the stages of group development

○ The stages of group development went relatively easy for our group. We got to know

each other and established a team relationship relatively quick. We all were on the

same page about each member's responsibilities within the group and knew that we

had to hold each other accountable if a task was not completed. All the members

worked very hard on the project and we never had a problem of someone not

completing the assignment, which allowed us to perform well on the project. All of the

team members got along great and there were no arguments or disagreements about

the project or the team goals. Skipping the storming stage allowed the group to move

on to the other stages and complete our project relatively quick.

○ One of the reason I think our team was able to be so successful is because of everyone

cooperation. With having an athlete on the team we knew that she would miss a lot of

the classes and that sometimes she would not be able to help in the team process. We

understood her situation and had no problem with her missing class as long as she

always completed her tasks. Nina did a great job of contributing ideas to the group as

well as always having her task completed on time. Even though we were very

cooperative, we need not lose sight of our team goals. In the book it states that “A

team can be too cooperative. It can become so focused on maintaining its internal

social relations that it loses sight of the team goals” (Levi pg. 84). This did not relate to

our group. While maintaining social relations was important we did not let that get in

the way of completing our goal.

○ Also there was no competition between any members in the group. No one person

wanted to control the group and make sure everything was done a certain way.

Alexandra and Melanie took the lead in this project and the rest of the members had no

problem with that. We all still had the same ideas and goal the team wanted to

accomplish so there was no need for competition between us.

○ When appropriate, cite the unit readings:

○

○ Levi (2011): Chapter 3 Team Beginnings

○ Levi (2011): Chapter 4 Understanding the Basic Team Processes

○ Levi (2011): Chapter 5 Cooperation and Competition

○ Levi (2011): Chapter 6 Communication

○ “Enriching our Understanding of Student Team Effectiveness” (Deeter-Schmelz,

Kennedy, & Ramsey, 2002)

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Unit 3: The Emotionally Intelligent Team

Highlight connections to the unit objectives:

○ One of the most important aspects to our group was positive mood. Everyone always

had a can do attitude and helped encourage the other members of the group. Always

having a positive made working the team much more enjoyable and translated into

having good social relationships with the team members. Zest was also important. This

is having a positive sense of urgency, and always remaining focused on the team’s

purpose. This describes our team because even though we were always positive this did

not distract us from our overall goals for the project.

○ In emotional awareness, our team used graceful response. Our team made a group chat

on all our phones and we were able to stay in constant communication throughout the

project. However, this was used for other purposes rather than the project. Whenever

one of our members made an achievement, such as Nate and Alexandra getting into

grad school or Nina winning a softball game, each member took the time to

congratulate them. This really helped build our social relationships and group cohesion

by showing them we were interested in success outside of the group project.

○ One of the few conflicts our team faced was deciding what our project was going to be.

At the first meeting in class we all just came together and started throwing out random

ideas. This was not productive to our team because no one seemed excited about the

topics being said. The way we resolved this was having everyone think of a topic

outside of class and bring it to the next meeting to discuss. The next meeting was so

much more productive. All the ideas were great and we were able to pick one.

Collaborative communication really helped our team get over this conflict and proceed

with the project.

Unit 4: Issues Teams Face

○ Impact of Conflict (Levi 2011)

■ Little conflict could have limited our ability to faster debates over issues and

stimulate creativity. In our group we hardly ever disagreed. Everyone seemed

to be on the same page which is a good and bad thing. With little conflict our

ideas and creativity could have been much better if there was conflict however

we still felt our project was a huge success. Also this little conflict allowed us to

direct all of our attention to the task at hand

○ Problem Solving (Levi 2011)

■ Low participation during the SPLASH talk. With this low participation we had to

be prepared to keep the conversation going and also figure out inventive ways

to get the participants involved in the facilitation. One way we did this was by

having the group members encourage people to speak up during the group

discussion in the presentation.

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○ Creativity (Levi 2011)

■ Diversity needs to be managed to influence creativity. Having all of the

members from different backgrounds could have been a problem because we

all good have had different view and ideas for the project and that would have

created a lot of conflict within the group. Luckily this was not the case for our

group and we all seemed to be on the same page.

○ Diversity (Levi 2011)

■ With all of the team members being different ages, and backgrounds really

helped us in this project. Right away we saw that some people were better at

different tasks and then others and we encouraged them to use those skills.

Also the diversity helped us come up with solutions to problems that our team

faced that other members would not have thought of by themselves

Unit 5: Teams in Modern Organizations

○ Cohesion-building team (Hayes, 1997)

■ Accomplished through techniques that create unity and a sense of belonging, a

climate of mutual trust, and pride in the team. All of the team members felt

that they had an important part to play in this group. By making everyone felt

involved it really helped bring our team closer together along with having trust

in one another to accomplish our tasks.

○ Rewards and project teams (Lawler, 2000)

■ The reward our team used was to make sure that everyone gets a good grade in

the class. When first meet we all seemed to be focused on the project because

we all wanted a good grade. This made all the members remain focused on

their tasks, especially the seniors who we knew are ready to graduate. Another

reward we got was getting the message out of gender in leadership. We all felt

like it was an important topic to discuss and we glad to see that we were able to

spread the word to some people.

○ Team Culture

■ Commitment, accountability, and trust were very big within our group.

Everyone was committed to the group and its success. We all made sure we

came to class when we could and be prepared for any assignment or tasks that

were due that day. We each held one another accountable for their individual

assignments. We never had to check on each other about the assignment

because we trusted each other to complete them, which everyone always did.

Our team would always try to participate in class discussion to make sure we all

understood the concepts we were covering as well.

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Appendicies

Appendix A: Team Background

This section identifies each of the relevant expertise and experience each team member brings to the

project.

Lance Kyle: Lance is a sophomore Biological Sciences major and also minoring in Leadership and Social

Change. As a freshman in the RLC he interest in leadership began which is why he is now pursuing the

minor. For his second semester leadership class he took Sarah Hank’s class on facilitation. That class

taught him many useful skills including on how to work in a group and successfully complete a project as

a team. Those skills will be very translate into this class and help his team succeed on their project.

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Alexandra Hoffman: Alexandra is a senior Human Development major at Virginia Tech and is

additionally pursuing minors in Women’s and Gender Studies, Psychology, and Leadership and Social

Change to earn a cross-discipline education. Alexandra’s passion for studying and practicing effective

leadership was sparked during her freshman year as a member of the Residential Leadership Community

(RLC). Since then, her significant leadership experiences include serving as a Peer Leader within the RLC,

a Hokie Ambassador for the University, President of Alpha Phi Sorority, and the undergraduate intern for

the Virginia Tech Women’s Center. She plans to study social work on the graduate school level upon

graduation.

Nina Compton: Nina was a member of the Residential Leadership Community (RLC) as a freshman at

Virginia Tech. She is pursuing the Leadership and Social Change minor while majoring in Human

Nutrition, Foods and Exercise. While a freshman she took a leadership class on the Myers-Briggs Type

Indicator and Emotional Intelligence. Emotional intelligence is key in any type of team atmosphere and

she possesses many attributes of this. Nina’s Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessed her as an introvert,

sensing, thinking, and judging. That class has enlightened her not only about herself but also how to deal

with others based on their type. This knowledge will help Nina relate to each team member and to

support them in any way possible.

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Lauren Catalano: Lauren was a member of the Residential Leadership Community (RLC) during her

freshmen year at Virginia Tech. She has chosen to pursue the Leadership and Social Change minor and

has enjoyed the several courses completed thus far. Her strengths of Achievement, Adaptability,

Positivity, Individualization, and Arranger are all things she brings to the Sunny Side Up team. She has

been able to develop these strengths within her sorority, Pi Beta Phi, but it is her hope to continue to

develop these strengths while working on this service learning project with her team

Melanie Merrick: Melanie was a member of the Residential Leadership Community (RLC), and, like

several other members of her team, has chosen to pursue a minor in Leadership and Social Change. For

her Spring semester participation in the RLC, Melanie took a course on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

and Emotional Intelligence. Her application of these course concepts will be valuable for the team.

Melanie’s adaptability as well as her collaborative and problem solving skills developed by her

experiences as a Virginia Tech Resident Advisor are another main component of her contribution to the

team.

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Nate Johnson: Nate is a senior in Human Nutrition Food and Exercise. He was born in Virginia and knew

from a young age that he wanted to go to school at Virginia Tech. His freshmen year he was in the

Residential Leadership Community getting involved with leadership and community service. Sophomore

year he joined the GERMAN club and furthered his leadership experience. He has been a part of many

service projects over the years at Virginia Tech. He is currently a personal trainer and strength coach for

students and athletic clubs. He loves working with people that are willing to learn and they have that at

Virginia Tech. He has a lot of experience with promotional advertisement for personal training. Also he

has many special events for recreational sports so being able promote and execute those well will help

him with this service learning project. He has a great passion for giving back to the community that has

helped me to achieve so much. All of these different experiences will help him contribute to the team's

overall success.

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Appendix B: Team Contract

20

21

Appendix C: References

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological

Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Astin, A. W., Vogelgesang, L. J., Misa, K., Anderson, J., Denson, N., Jayakumar, U., et al. (2006).

Understanding the effects of service-learning: A study of students and faculty. Los Angeles: Higher

Education Research Institute.

Coers, N., & Lorensen, M. (2009). Case study: Student perceptions of groups & teams in leadership

education. Journal of Leadership Education, 8(1), 93-110.

Deeter-Schmelz, D. R., Kennedy, K. N., & Ramsey, R. P. (2002). Enriching our understanding of student

team effectiveness. Journal of Marketing Education, 24(2), 114-124. doi: 10.1177/0273475302242004

Eyler, J. S., Giles, D. E., Jr., Stenson, C. M., & Gray, C. J. (2001). At-a-Glance: What We Know About the

Effects of Service-Learning on College Students, Faculty, Institutions, and Communities, 1993-2000.

Hughes, M., & Terrell, J. (2007). The emotionally intelligent team: Understanding and developing the

behaviors of success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Levi, D. (2011). Group dynamics for teams (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Martin, A., & Bal, V. (2007). The state of teams [CCL Research White Paper]. Greensboro, NC: Center for

Creative Leadership.

Rhee, K. S., & Sigler, T. H. (2010). Developing Enlightened Leaders for Industry and Community:

Executive Education and Service-Learning. Journal of Management Education, 34(1), 163-181.

Ricketts, K. G., Bruce, J. A., & Ewing, J. C. (2008). How today’s undergraduate students see themselves as

tomorrow’s socially responsible leaders. Journal of Leadership Education, 7(1), 24-42.

Virginia Tech Center for Student Engagement and Community Partnerships. (2009). The Virginia Tech

Service-Learning program background. Retrieved from https://scholar.vt.edu/osp-presentation-

tool/viewPresentation.osp?id=7ECC3AAB037B815000B196D7B0E9F422&sakai.tool.placement.id=6dc94

a3d-b34c-4a72-9cad-e101e4245c8d#BackgroundOtherPage3

Appendix D: Project Report Evaluation Rubric

Written Report

Evaluation Rubric

Criteria Points Possible Qualities of an A-Level

Submission

Introduction 15 · Highlights the need

for the project,

including obstacles

and opportunities

faced by the

22

organization or

community group

that is being served

· Clarifies how and

why the team

selected the project

Project Description 15 · Outlines clear and

measurable project

goals, at both the

team and task levels

· Describes work

schedule and

division of tasks

using a Gantt chart

· Highlights

organization of the

team, including

expertise offered by

each member

· Identifies resources

and supplies

associated with the

project, including

their source

Project Outcomes 15 · Describes evaluation

procedures, as

related to each

project goal

· Discusses project

outcomes in

relationship to the

team contract

· Addresses both

task- and team-

related outcomes

from the project

· Includes evidence of

project outcomes

(such as photos or

23

quotes from

participants)

· Identifies

recommendations

that could be made

for similar projects

in the future

Attention to Course

Concepts

40 · Draws a specific

connection to at

least two concepts

from each unit of

study:

o Characteristics of

Teams,

o Teamwork

Processes,

o The Emotionally

Intelligent Team

o Issues Teams Face,

and

o Teams in Modern

Organizations.

· Includes appropriate

citations of course

texts, using APA

style[2]

Organization, Writing,

& Overall Impression

15 · Organization of

paper allows for

easy recognition of

connections to each

unit.

· Focused discussion;

complete narrative

within 5,000 words.

· Submission is free

from structural,

grammatical, and

spelling errors that

might otherwise

24

distract the reader.

Total 100