Dear Visitors,
We are off to another great adventure this summer to learn about personal and organizational hardiness and how it contributes to adaptive coping, courage, compensatory self-improvement, existential clarity, growth, and resilience. Students in this course accepted the challenge to learn not only in the traditional classroom context, but also to practice self care and a philosophy on life that will prepare them to climb Mt. Adams, WA as the final simulation and capstone experience of the course. Course objectives are to develop personal hardiness from a holistic perspective involving mind, body, and spirit; study and learn best practices of hardy and resilient organizations; and practice course objectives and the hardiness philosophical perspective in climbing Mt. Adams. In this journey, they will study: a number of scholarly articles on personal and organizational hardiness; Victor Frankl's story - Man's Search for Meaning; High Altitude Leadership; and Resilience at Work.
Leadership & Hardiness students began their journey in this course through learning about the foundation and philosophy on life that contribute to the construct of hardiness and other mechanisms that represent a pathway towards resiliency. Students are currently reading Flrankl's gripping account of "life in a concentration camp as reflected in the mind of a prisoner". The story is filled with realistic depictions of the experiences of camp life and how the experiences of camp life show that man does have a choice of action and in finding meaning in all forms of existence, even in the most dyer of circumstances, and thus a reason to continue living. Through readings and classroom discussions, students are engaging in an existential analysis of their own existence within the context of their families, organizations, and community. What did we learn from Frankl's story and his life at a concentration camp that has implications for leadership, personal and organizational resilience? What is the relevance of understanding existential analysis to explore meaning and growth in adversity? These are some pragmatic yet important questions to ask in authentic living, let alone in preparing for a class simulation that will stretch the mind, body, and spirit.
As visitors we invite you to join our discussions or simply follow our journey throughout this summer.
