Developing Leaders and Peer Champions
The Train-the-Trainer program teaches first-year students who aspire to take on leadership roles how to support their peers in discovering and leveraging their talents identified in their CliftonStrengths® assessment. The Train-the-Trainer program helps develop thriving and strengths-based peer champions at Western.
Program Lead: Student Experience
Project Status: Complete
Parr Centre funds enabled 10 student ambassadors to design a Train-the-Trainer program, resulting in a 20-page facilitation guide on how to deliver a foundational session on CliftonStrengths to first-year students.
The 10 ambassadors developed skills in program review and design, facilitation strategies, communicating feedback, and leadership. In turn, the ambassadors were able to use the facilitation guide to train colleagues and other student leaders in Residence Life, including 50 Dons. This allowed us to scale CliftonStrengths programming to more students on campus, including more than 2,000 first-year students.
Training the 10 ambassadors had a multiplier effect, as many first-year students began their journey at Western with the message that they have unique talents that when activated will help them thrive.
Our ability to reach this many students was the direct result of funds from the Parr Centre and our resulting ability to teach student leaders to deliver the content.
In summary...
- Program launched for first-year students in July 2021.
- Consultant was hired to support the development of the integrated learning train-the-trainer program for first-year students.
- 10 first-year students were recruited as ambassadors/peer champions to support the development and delivery of the program.
- Training manual complete in April 2021.
