CPP Holds Fall Retreat for Faculty and Staff

By Brynne Irish

The College of Professional Programs (CPP) hosted the Fall Retreat for faculty and staff on November 1st, which included an awards ceremony and various collaborative, interactive, and fun activities. Our master of ceremonies was Senior Lecturer Lynnae Daniels, School of Libraries, who provided a connective thread throughout the retreat. She states that, “I was so honored to be asked to be the Master of Ceremonies for the CPP Fall Retreat. Thanks to all the hard work that the CPP Team put into the planning and organizing, this task was easy and enjoyable. This year’s retreat had great energy, and I felt a lot of camaraderie. The activities were interesting and engaging, and I enjoyed learning about the experiential learning that is being done and hearing others’ ideas.”

The awards ceremony recognized 2023-2024 Faculty and Staff Excellence Award winners as well as Team, Community Partner, and Campus Partner Excellence Award Winners (click here). We greatly appreciate their hard work, enthusiasm, and dedicated support that makes a lasting impact for our community, and we thank them for everything they do.

Following the awards ceremony, we transitioned into our first activity which was getting to know you” bingo. The bingo activity was such a great opening opportunity for everyone to connect with one another and meet people from other programs and schools. An attendee commented that the activity created a “wonderful atmosphere” and everyone seemed to truly enjoy getting to know people from other areas within the college.

The first collaborative activity was the CPP Vision exercise. We asked participants to discuss their vision for CPP in the next five years with their tablemates and write down the first 5 words that came to mind. We also asked that they consider what various stakeholder groups would say about CPP in five years, including students, community partners, faculty/staff, and the community at large. Participants used a worksheet to write down their thoughts.

One attendee shared a takeaway they had from this exercise and discussion, which was “the general feeling at our table was that we hope things will be better in the future moving forward. Especially with feeling supported by the Dean’s office and connected to CPP.” Many others shared that they “have a better understanding of the CPP vision”. Which is great to hear because our main goal of this exercise was to get people to open their minds, look into the future, and discuss their thoughts with others. Another attendee said that, regarding discussing the future, “we aren’t asked this enough…It might be a good idea to keep this kind of thinking in mind.” This feedback is very valuable because we can start implementing more reflective thinking exercises like this one into more events and meetings in the future.

The last activity of the retreat was the Experiential Learning exercise and discussion. Ten presenters from different schools, programs, and centers were asked to talk to one or two tables about a project in which they actively engaged EWU students in an experiential learning opportunity and what the results were. Participants were asked to reflect on the opportunities and challenges presented, and how they might implement their own experiential learning opportunities for students. The presenters included:

• Chris Casserino, Archaeological and Historical Services (AHS)
• Vince Pascal & Dustin Semb, Business
• Gerry Charvat, Child Welfare Training & Advancement Program (CWTAP)
• Beth Halaas, Program Evaluation
• Danielle Sitzman & Jillene Seiver, Psychology
• Bill Shaw, Professional Accounting
• Andrew Stinson, Family Resource & Training Center (FRTC)
• Abrahim Soleimani, Business
• Ashley Lepisi, Education
• Steve Bingo, Libraries

On listening to presenter Gerry Charvat, one participant wrote that they were “impressed with the variety of opportunities for our students to work with CWTAP and get real-world experience.” Many participants left the activity feeling engaged by the “insightful information learned” and thought about ways they could connect with partners in the community, develop alternate assignments for students, and get students meaningful real-world experience prior to graduation.

We look forward to seeing faculty and staff at our Spring 2025 Retreat!