Creator will teach students how to find their passions
On Oct. 31, Dr. Jeffrey Stamp, the chief storyteller at Bold Thinking Inc. and creator of Lay’s Oven Baked Potato Crisps, will host a visioning workshop at Concordia for high school and college students.
The workshop is designed to teach people how to think boldly and ultimately to help participants find themselves and envision their futures by recognizing their passions.
“Don’t just think, have bold thinking… It’s a skill; I’m teaching people how to think,” Stamp said.
Carly Nelson, the executive director of the career initiative, has helped with setting up the workshop.
“It is an event in which you get to participate to understand you,” Nelson said.
Stamp explained that a common problem for many people is that they have ideas, but they do not know what to do with those ideas.
“A bold thinker is someone who learns how to convert their ideas into opportunities,” Stamp said.
Stamp said this event will not be a lecture-style talk about how to improve one’s life, but an active event where participants will be encouraged to engage with one another to find out their passions.
Students will leave the talk with a sort of mission statement, Stamp said. This will help guide the search for their passions.
“We are going to ask very poignant questions to help [students] think about their vision, their path,” said Susan Geib, assistant professor of marketing.
The event is done through Bold Thinking Inc., which is a company that helps the leaders of large companies figure out what they want to do next with their company.
“Bold Thinking is a company where large companies come to us for help to create the future. No matter where you are in life, the future is always scary so they turn to people like us to help them cast a vision of what could be,” Stamp said.
Stamp said that individuals can benefit from his workshop just as much as CEOs of major companies can.
“No matter what your age is, [people think] ‘what am I going to do next in my life?’” Stamp said. “That’s the same thing as when a CEO says ‘what’s going to be next in the life of our company?’”
While Stamp said anyone can benefit from his workshops, Geib said that this event is being advertised to high school students and college students. The cost is $30, but is free for Concordia students. By registering for the workshop, attendees also receive lunch, a T-shirt and admission to the Cobber football game on the same day. The event will go from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Barry Auditorium.
This workshop is a pilot, meaning if the event is a success, Concordia will continue to host events like this. These events will be used to help current students and prospective students find their passions and figure out how to follow them, Geib said. This new way of guidance is being called BREW U.
Nelson said that she has never experienced this kind of workshop, so is unable to articulate exactly what it will be like. However, she is confident it will be a positive experience for students.
“If this [event] is a positive experience, I would love to see something like this on a yearly basis,” Nelson said. “But it is a pilot, so we have to see how it goes and see what the student response is first.”
“BREW U is about being responsibly engaged in the world, but it is more than that; being responsibly engaged in the world in the way you want to be engaged,” Geib explained.
As of Oct. 2, 56 people have registered for the event, including some alumni, some high school students and some Cobbers. Geib said that only 120 spots are available, and some of those spots will be held for high school students and for college freshmen and sophomores.
A follow-up session is scheduled for Jan. 19, 2016, Geib said. What the follow-up session will entail is still tentative.
“It is the continuity afterward where the action happens,” Stamp said. Stamp said that using his bold thinking strategies from his workshop, students will have an easier time turning their ideas into concrete goals and actions.
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