First Term of Organizational Leadership Classes

Thus far I have thoroughly enjoyed my classes! As I will be completing my master's degree in a two-year time span, I take two classes per term (due to the Mercyhurst tri-mester system, will be changing a bit next academic year) while working my 30 hours a week for my graduate assistantship.

One class that I am taking is for my concentration in the OL program which is Higher Education Administration. The course is taught by Merry Bollheimer J.D. and is called Higher Education Law. This is the first time the class is being offered and I am super excited about it - the material is so interesting! We have learned about so many different areas of colleges and universities (such as admissions, residence life, academic support, etc.) and how to deal with different legal issues that could arise. One of my projects for this class is to research a specific law...I was assigned FERPA and I am currently preparing materials to create a mock training tool to teach faculty the rules of FERPA. I really enjoy this class as well as Attorney Bollheimer as a professor - she is so knowledgable about the class material and is very engaging and interesting in her teaching style. I will definitely take more classes with her in the future if possible!

Completing the Marshmallow Challenge

My other class is Leadership Theory and Practice, taught by Anne Zaphiris, Ph.D. who I have had for classes during my undergraduate time as she previously taught for the communication department. I am thrilled that she now teaches full time for the Organization Leadership department - she has been one of my favorite teachers at Mercyhurst, she is one of the most dedicated teachers I know, and she sincerely cares for her students and their academic success! 

Our Marshmallow Challenge tower!

Recently in this class, Dr. Zaphiris split my class of 6 students up into two groups of three and presented "The Marshmallow Challenge" to us. We had the task of creating the tallest structure that actually stood...using 20 pieces of spaghetti noodles, a yard of tape, a yard of string and a marshmallow which had to but placed at the top. Within this assignment were hidden tests of leadership and teamwork!! My group actually got along during the task, we had a goal and a plan and we worked really well together. Our tower turned out awesome at 22 inches but lost to our opponent's tower (we're pretty sure they were copying ours hehe) which stood at 24 inches! 


The best part of this is this assignment once we discussed all of the leadership components to it, we found out that our towers were taller than the average MBA students' towers ... wink wink to anyone unsure of Organizational Leadership or an MBA program, I think our tower sizes are sending you a good message here!