Moving Into the New Semesters as Leaders

Days before the Fall 2015 semester began, the College of Engineering Ambassadors Program requested a True Colors session. I had the pleasure of meeting 20 student leaders who embraced the True Colors model and the idea of a common language.

More than half of the participants were Green leaving pairs of Orange, Gold, and Blue. One of the two Blues had a 19 out of 20 score and he was surprised, but the others in the room agreed that his dominant color was correct. One of the two Gold’s agreed that she was calendar dependent and thrived on staying organized. During the “Building Redesign” activity, the two Oranges added physical activity areas to the Engineering building that included a climbing wall.* As the visionaries of the color spectrum, the Greens were not the last to finish the activity, but did spend a great deal of time discussing ways to innovate their building.

The College of Engineering Ambassadors Program has a wonderful group of student leaders that now share a common language and understand why their fellow ambassadors accomplish the same goals but have different paths to getting there.

Submitted by —
Donna Edmondson
Academic Affairs Ombudsperson,
Academic Affairs

*Side note observation: having facilitated True Colors with many, many students, Orange groups of students gravitate towards adding climbing walls to their building redesigns.

Has your color spectrum changed over the years? How?

Describe those changes to your colleagues. Remember True Colors is a tool to understanding others and ourselves. It is a common language because we talk about it and use it to articulate our perspectives to each other. Keep it going.

Training Schedule for Student Affairs STAFF (SD 410) — Fall 2015  (Download PDF)

Training Schedule for Student Workers (SD 417) — Fall 2015  (Download PDF)

Any questions or comments? Please send us an email at VPSA@utsa.edu.