Amber Stowe | Children's Program Supervisor, Foothills Park & Recreation District, Littleton, Colorado
Through her proposed emotional intelligence impact project, Amber Stowe hopes to help the leadership team at Foothills Park & Recreation identify their current EQ strengths, set goals to increase their EQ factor and learn how to apply their newly developed EQ skills. To achieve her goal, she will incorporate the teachings of Dr. Travis Bradberry and Dr. Jean Greaves, co-founders of TalentSmart, Inc.
Currently, the afterschool program at Foothills Park & Recreation does not follow a specific social emotional learning curriculum. Stowe hopes to change this by integrating the concepts found in Bradberry and Greaves' book Emotional Intelligence 2.0. Supplemental articles and applicable videos will further demonstrate how the concept of EQ can be taught in an afterschool setting.
To Stowe, self-reflection is an integral component of any successful learning process.
Ashley Rose | Program Manager, Wisconsin Youth Company, Madison, Wisconsin
In her role as Program Manager, Ashley Rose is responsible for the management of the Wisconsin Youth Company's afterschool programs and the training of its leaders. The curriculum she implements affects hundreds of afterschool professionals who reach thousands of children.
Rose will use the book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 as the basis for her proposed "mini-fellowship," a program that will be available to the Wisconsin Youth Company's administrative staff and front line site supervisors. These individuals will complete reading assignments, learn new EQ strategies and complete pre and post-test evaluations. These teachings will be expanded upon during a "Learn @ Lunch" series and will be shared company-wide through a "Mindfulness In-Service."
Chanel Knott | Director, First United Methodist – Denton FunStop K-8 Out of School Time, Denton, Texas
FunStop employees strive to provide their afterschool children with a social and emotional skillset that they can call upon for years to come. To enhance the current teachings, Chanel Knott will organize a retreat-style workshop for the FunStop Staff.
At this retreat, the staff's current EQ levels will be evaluated, areas of personal strength and potential improvement will be identified, and, through open discussions and strategic planning sessions, EQ plans will be developed.
Prior to attending the retreat, staff members will be asked to track the type of teacher/student and student/student interactions that lead to disruptive behavior. Following the retreat, staff members will use the management strategies contained in Emotional Intelligence 2.0 to help resolve such incidents. The hope is that the number of incidents will decrease as new EQ strategies are applied.
Donna Jasak | Professional Development Director, Action for Boston Community Development, Boston, Massachusetts
By creating Community of Practice groups, Donna Jasak plans to support afterschool leaders seeking to further their emotional intelligence teachings. She will initially offer this program to her colleagues and will then extend it to OST program directors.
Topics of discussion for her proposed 10-part Community of Practice series will include a discussion of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, webinar based EQ teachings, goal setting and general leadership support conversations and course evaluations. A blog will also be created to engage other afterschool professionals in the emotional intelligence Leadership conversation.
Keep an eye out for future National Afterschool Association e-newsletters, to take look at the program proposals of other 2016 EQ fellows.
Written by Lisa Stickler, staff writer for AfterSchool Today magazine.
