HDF 190: FLITE (FIRST-YEAR LEADERS INSPIRED TO EXCELLENCE)

URI MINOR IN LEADERSHIP STUDIES, CENTER FOR STUDENT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

CORE REQUIREMENT FOR THE LEADERSHIP MINOR

LEARNING CONTRACT

Goal:
To identify and utilize my Strengths in an organizational/interpersonal setting that aligns
with the mission, vision, values and sponsored programs and activities of URI’s Center
for Student Leadership Development.

Activity:
I am trying to start a chapter of Phi Sigma Pi at URI. This is a national honors fraternity
that I feel will fit well into our campus. As of right now, I am the secretary of this
chapter, that has not yet been founded. As the secretary, I keep track of all official
documents and minutes. With my strengths of achiever, responsibility, and discipline, I
feel that I am the best person for this position. The three values of Phi Sigma Pi are
scholarship, leadership, and fellowship. These are three values that are very important to
me and I hope that I can get more students involved with this fraternity in the future. As
of right now, we are in the process of planning a pinning ceremony to induct the founding
class. After that, we hope to do a service project/bonding and start recruiting for next
semester. I am excited to get to know people that have the same values that I do and take
more of a leadership role in an organization.

Annotation:
In the hopes of completing my learning contract, I decided to start a chapter of Phi Sigma
Pi on campus. As of right now, we have made a lot of progress. We completed our
pinning ceremony and are in the process of planning our induction ceremony, as well as
an event on campus. I believe that I use all five of my strengths in this process: harmony,
achiever, responsibility, discipline, and developer.

First off, I used harmony in the club meetings. I was very kind to everyone that was
considering joining the fraternity, and I made sure that there was no conflict early on. I
find it more fun when everyone supports each other and gets along. Next, I used my
achiever strength. Since I am in charge of the minutes at meetings, I make sure to make
them as neat and organized as possible. This helps whoever is reading the minutes to see
what our chapter, Eta Sigma, is talking about at each meeting. This connects to my
responsibility strength. One of my responsibilities as secretary is reserving rooms for
meetings and special events, such as induction and the pinning ceremony. I always find a
way to get a room that fits everyone, and has the materials needed. I also use discipline at
many of these meetings. We are required to learn the history and values of Phi Sigma Pi
and then take a National Exam to become inducted into the fraternity. This requires a lot
of discipline to keep up with reading, especially when I have all of my other classes to
worry about too. Lastly, I use developer. I use these mostly when working with my
President and Vice President. I am always encouraging them and supporting all of the
ideas they have for the chapter.

In addition to our successes, we have also had some rough patches. One of these includes
finding a treasurer. It took a lot of time to find a person right for the job; and that, along
with finding a faculty advisor, is what took us so long to start becoming established. We
have also had a tough time getting members to show up to meetings. This is
understandable, since we are just getting started and it is not very well-known around
campus yet. Since it is a new organization, I am hopeful that next semester we will have
more of a turnout of prospective members.

In conclusion, this experience has been kind of a whirlwind, and we are still working on
getting established on campus. However, I cannot wait to see what next year brings for
the Eta Sigma chapter and I am excited to be a leader of this progress.

Instructor Signature: ____________________________________________

Student Signature: Emma Dallaire