We absolutely love our partnership with Zingerman’s! Each year they facilitate a series of workshops where our students learn how to create vision statements and action plans to help reach their goals! Two weeks ago, our students traveled to ZingTrain in Ann Arbor and created a vision statement for the end of Freshman year. Today, they learned how to develop action plans to help them achieve this vision! Zingerman’s taught us that a good action plan includes:
- What -- what is your goal / what do you want to accomplish? How will you do this?
- Who -- who specifically is responsible for the action and who else might be involved?
- By When -- by what specific time / date will it be completed?
Each student created action plans for four focus areas: Academic, Personal, Extracurricular, and Give Back. Within each focus area, an action plan was written for “by the end of 1st semester (January 19th)” and for “by the end of the school year (June 15th). Each student was paired with two accountability partners which included their mentor and co-mentee who will continue to check-in about their progress and be a support system. A few actions plans created include:
Academic: “By the end of first semester, I will have continued to study two days per week and annotate my reading assignments for all of my classes”
Personal: “By the end of the school year, I will have three new friends by going to five big school events”
Extracurricular: “By the end of the school year I will be on the AAU Basketball Team. I will practice four times a week and have good friendships with my coach and teammates”.
Give Back: “By the end of the semester, I will meet with the School President to see if he agrees with my idea to have an open gym twice per week for students who need a space to stay active.”
Zingerman’s helped our students build a foundation for how to set goals, create action plans that are measurable and detailed, and hold oneself accountable with the support of others! Special thanks to Timo and Robby from Zingerman’s for facilitating these workshops!
Photography By: Christian O’Grady
