Please Allow me to introduce you....

Many of you reading this will already have some idea of what this project is about. A few of you will know who is involved. Even fewer will know both so I would like to take a few minutes to introduce you to the collaborative team and explain our purpose in really brief layman's terms. I am sure this will help many readers out as I understand we are gaining a following that are not tied to either Fort Hays State University (FHSU) or the Leadership Department there. I am not doing this in any particular order so don't anyone get your panties in a twist. If I have forgotten someone or gotten information wrong, PLEASE let me know so I can adjust the blog to reflect accurately.

Here is our Leadership Mentoring Program Development and Collaboration Team:

First up, we have Christie Brungardt, PhD., Instructor of Leadership Studies at FHSU and teacher of the class that brought this idea to bear. Christie is, in a word, Fantastic. I do want to take a moment and plug her passion now. She lost her beloved daughter to domestic violence and now fights on in Jana's name to establish ground- breaking laws to protect and eliminate this horrible blight on our society by encouraging and promoting a public policy response to domestic violence. You can learn more at www.Janascampaign.com.

Next up, Kathy Nordyke, grad- student, Adjunct Faculty Member, and best of all: Program Coordinator of this project! Kathy is a truly inspired woman with a passion for leadership and she really has taken this to heart, spending countless hours bringing it to fruition. She is one of the students from Christie's class that just couldn't let go of the bond we had created through discussion and learning- thus this project.

Brent Goertzen, PhD., Chair and Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies Department at FHSU and faculty advisor to this project. Brent has been our biggest Devil's advocate- really making us jump through hoops to get things right- because there is something here that is really worth doing right. He is also a great supporter!

In addition to these key players we also have the founding collaborative mentors: Keely Brown, Lisa Lutey, Julie Kelly (me!), Cami Kesinger, Melanie Kich, Lindsey Miller, Alana Riley, and Malissa Streeter, all members of that class who just couldn't walk away from the support they had found in each other.

I cannot even begin to list the additional players in this- all supportive and excited just like us. From professors to students and many in between, they are what helps this to come together.

Now, what ARE we doing and why? We realized that many virtual college students do not get a critical component of leadership studies when they are not present in a classroom. Sometimes a class gels online in discussion boards but more often than not, they don't. We realized how reassuring it was to have found that experience- in essence a peer support and mentoring- and wanted to find a way to share that with other leadership students. So, we are creating a mentoring program to achieve this.

I hope I answered a few questions, gave you a few names to remember and watch for and have piqued your curiosity to keep reading.

Next time: how do you collaborate from farms, cities, colleges, homes, and offices? We tried a few things and finally hit on success!