SEAHO Report - Fall 2019 - 19

SEAHO Feature Articles
how to handle different situation. Sometimes students are nervous about these, so it is good to see that is still
beneficial. Going through these surveys did let us know which areas we need to concentrate on and which areas
could be better placed earlier in training. Creating and having these assessments gave us a more formalized way
to tell what RAs were learning from training and what improvements might need to be made.

Traveling Abroad with RAs:
The Inside Scoop on the International RA Symposium
Ashley Walker, Wake Forest University
658,819 steps. 25 hours of traveling. New friends from 15 countries.
Presentations by 7 institutions from 7 countries. 6 days of leadership
experiences. Tours of 3 universities in 2 countries. 1 unforgettable experience
with undergraduate students, graduate students, and higher education
professionals. The RA symposium provided a week of international exchange,
leadership development, promising practice proposals, and discussion of trends
occurring in higher education around the globe. Students made connections,
professionals gained insight from counterparts in varying education systems,
and everyone shared family style meals with colleagues turned forever friends
from around the world.
A week at the RA Symposium in Karlsruhe, Germany was everything our
group anticipated, but more importantly, everything we didn't. We expected to
learn about different campuses, exchange practices schools engage in, share our
story, hear other's stories, engage in leadership sessions, meet many colleagues, learn about different cultures
and how they impact education, and have some fun along the way. What we didn't anticipate was the way all
those things happened. To share so many similarities in trends, to be shocked by some of the difference, have
joint 'aha moments', partake in an improv class with a cultural twist, and joke through walking tours with
our amazing tour guides of universities and towns. What a way for leadership, relationships, networking, and
learning to occur!
While the symposium itself lasted a week, preparation here
at Wake Forest began in July and excelled all the way to
departure for Germany in late September. Weekly meetings
focused on leadership were held with RAs to expand our
mindsets on leadership skills. Three primary goals were
established: RAs will be able to identify personal leadership
techniques, be able to identify areas of leadership growth,
and be able to identify a higher purpose as a leader. While in
Germany RAs were given challenge cards each night to help
debrief on the day and the experiences it brought. Challenge
cards were on the topics of reflection, action, empowerment,
self-awareness, and recognition. With guiding questions,
RAs wrote about each of these topics and discussed how they
could use what they learned that day once returning to Wake
Forest and the impact it could have on their community. Some
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SEAHO Report Fall 2019

SEAHO Report - Fall 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SEAHO Report - Fall 2019