Personal Growth and Development as an Essential Skill
Every student enrolled at Kimball Union is immersed in an academic and residential setting that values a set of nine essential skills. Together, these skills represent the hard and soft skills requisite for a 21st Century leader. We recently presented background on Global Awareness. This week, the school explored another essential skill, Personal Growth and Development.
Faculty member Dan Weintraub introduced Personal Growth and Development with a strong endorsement. “Of the nine sets of essential skills that we have identified, this one is perhaps my favorite. I believe that Kimball Union, its students, faculty, and staff, continually accede to the ideal that education at its best is an open instatement of virtue. And what could be more virtuous than demonstrating empathy for our fellows, thinking independently in choosing the paths that we walk, taking time to reflect and assess our own decisions and choices, and striving to uphold our individual community values?”
Through course work, social programs, and extra-curricular activities, KUA graduates have learned to:
Demonstrate empathy
Think independently
Reflect and self-assess
Uphold values
Following Weintraub’s address, Sofia ’17, whose participation as a member of KUA’s Fire Brigade has helped her grow and develop as an independent thinker, spoke next.
“Fire Brigade forced me to reflect on who I am,” remarks Sofia. “I have become connected with this community and my heart races when I hear my pager go off. I have seen first-hand what kind of difference I, as an individual, and Fire Brigade, as a whole, can make.” Sofia’s development as a leader with the Brigade and her personal growth through involvement in the community has equipped her with the confidence to “know that I want to dedicate at least a part of my life to helping the greater community.”
