Department of Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy
Adult Education
Fall 2005:Scholars for Tomorrow
Last fall Letha Mosley gathered with a group of graduate students, fellow doctoral candidates and academics for a retreat in Forest Hills to consider their ideas about leadership. Each of the attendees had applied to attend; each had been encouraged. It was the first such meeting of its kind, sponsored by the Graduate School, whose purpose was “planting the seeds of leadership,” says Dean Maureen Grasso.
At the inaugural Leadership Workshop, Mosley and 30 others had their resumes professionally analyzed, were coached on future career possibilities in academia, were presented with a “leadership book” and chatted across disciplines about possibilities for the future. For Mosley, 47, a non-traditional African-American student, it was eye-opening. Having left behind a successful career in occupational therapy at the Medical College of Georgia in 2000, she had already made an academic leap in order to pursue research.
Yet beyond netting the doctorate that was close at hand, Mosley had not considered seeking national office within professional organizations or becoming a university administrator. With the workshop behind her, Mosley says she will seek both as she prepares to accept a new position at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas.
“Now I think I’m more attuned; I’ll definitely run for office,” Mosley admits.
It’s exactly as Grasso hoped. “These workshop alums are going to look back and say the University of Georgia planted that seed with me, and that’s going to be the legacy – the value of big-picture thinking. The graduates will pay it forward.” She knows whereof she speaks. In the 1970s Grasso participated in just such a program under fellowship at the University of Tennessee.
The program opened her to “the possibility of working within higher education administration,” inspiring her to eventually leave the classroom and seek a leadership role at UGA, a nationally-recognized university.
Mosley was surprised to discover “past graduates and entrepreneurs who have actually become leaders right out of college. They also provided tidbits on leadership if you will. They provided us with a leadership book, actually.” The seminar’s agenda was filled with information, revelations and inter-disciplinary experiences, and Mosley met people she says she might never have met otherwise. Her roommate at the workshop, someone she had never met before the workshop, remains a close friend. But it was the human interaction and old-fashioned, informal straight talk that Mosley valued most.
“One of the most important things was to have a chat with the dean. She put herself out there, and said that we could ask her anything…A lot of our discussions centered around the politics of a campus, on issues of race and gender and how that ties into some of the challenges of being a leader.” Mosley adds how it surprised her to find a high-ranking administrator willing to be candid and self-disclosing.
“The fact that she is a dean and she’s putting herself at an approachable, accessible level, that was a big plus for us.”
“I really encourage people to apply and try to attend,” Mosley urges fellow students.
“The connections will be usable, and the resources one you can tap into. As a black woman coming to the university, I had heard a lot of negative things about racism, and I think through programs like this, they are trying to break down those barriers.
“This will give them (graduate students) an edge up if they are looking to be leaders in their respective fields. It will provide them with the tools to move in that direction and be successful.”
Graduate School Magazine
Planting Seeds of Leadership and Growing Inspiration for Doctoral Students |
|
|
 |