Garret Collins ’20 on Management and Leadership

The Management and Leadership Development Program (MLDP) is a one-term program offered three times a year that prepares undergraduate students to succeed in their management and leadership endeavors both on and off campus.

Garrett Collins ’20, a Government and French Double Major from Brooklyn, NY, took MLDP in the spring of 2018. He joined the program after hearing about it from a friend who described MLDP as an impactful experience.

Garrett began the program with a desire to learn how to interact with his professors. Although he holds leadership positions on campus — serving on the leadership council for the Political Economy Project and acting as social chair for his fraternity — Garrett sometimes found talking with his professors intimidating.

He created a Personal Leadership Challenge that pushed him to interact more with his professors, by going to office hours once a week and discussing his goals for each class. Garrett says that “breaking the ice” with his professors was initially difficult, but he progressed as the term went on; especially after the Week 6 session, “Building Relationships” facilitated by Kate Hilton '99, Founding Director of ReThink Health.

In addition, Garrett was assigned to draft a sample resume written in French for one of his classes. His professor was impressed at Garrett’s concision and style, a skill he attributes to the MLDP Week 8 session “Writing in the Workplace,” led by Ariel Murphy '12.

Because of MLDP, Garrett says that he now feels comfortable in expressing his thoughts both in person and through written word. He plans to use these traits while at Dartmouth, and he thinks they will be instrumental for starting his career after graduation.

“I want to bring that passion and competency to the creative industry,” Garrett says, referring to the media and film industries. “MLDP has helped me to feel confident in how I approach people, and that, to me, is really important.”

-Written by Tyler Malbreaux '20, Rockefeller Center Student Program Assistant for the Management and Leadership Development Program