Innovation Expert Darin Eich Presents Winter 2013 "Create Your Path" Session

 
The Rockefeller Center recently had the pleasure of welcoming back leadership and innovation expert Dr. Darin Eich for one of our newest programs, called “Create your Path”.  The Create your Path program consisted of a short video series that students watched over the winter break on their own schedules, and then a short dinner discussion back on campus to recap about the themes share their thoughts. This “flip the classroom” model allowed students to independently think about the concepts discussed in the videos, take the time to reflect on their own, and then meet together afterwards for a final discussion.
 
There were two discussion sessions given on campus. 17 students attended the earlier discussion and 7 attended the second. In addition, because of the nature of the program, there were 20 students who watched the video series at home but could not attend a discussion due to a conflict or because they are currently off campus.
 
Dr. Darin Eich has been a consultant to Dartmouth for several years and has made a professional career out of coaching innovation, leadership, and communication skills. He led these discussion groups and prepared different activities related to the videos.  Some of the activities included:
  • Strength Story, which students discussed their own paths in groups of three
  • Mapping recent past, present, and future goals and ideas with visuals
  • Sidewalk Speech experiments, which students had short one-on-one Q&A discussions about their current paths
Overall, the student response to this program was very favorable. Many of the participating students lauded the program’s flexibility, because it allowed students to complete the short video modules on their own schedule.
 
Other students appreciated the practicality of the program and the usefulness of self-reflection skills to prepare for their personal, professional, and academic future. A student commented, “this program linked the inner world of experiences, interests and talents (introspection) with the outside world of practicalities.”
 
Others especially enjoyed the networking aspect of the discussion that concluded the program. One student commented, “Peer discussions are fun, engaging, and the best way to discover resources and advice”.  Overall, the program was highly participant-engaging and perhaps will pave the way for student mentors in the program for the future.
 
It seems that this new program is turning out to be a success and becoming more popular with Dartmouth students. Darin Eich and the rest of the Rockefeller Center hope that this program will bring important resources to help students reflect on themselves to create their paths for the future.
 
You can check out Darin Eich’s website at www.darineich.com as well as articles from The Dartmouth that mentioned Create your Path recently: "Rocky Program Promotes Reflection" and "No Rhodes Scholars Named in 2012".

-By Courtney Wong '15