Aspire Dream BLDRS™ with Meharry Bridge 2024 at IT Creswell
Isaiah T. Creswell Middle School of the Arts partnered with Aspire’s Dream BLDRS program, along with B.R.I.D.G.E at Meharry Medical College to empower its students with essential skills and insights for their future endeavors. The workshop aimed to foster a sense of vision, integrity, and personal branding among the students.
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OBJECTIVES
Celebrating three (3) year Partnership
For the third consecutive year, Aspire has partnered with Meharry’s B.R.I.D.G.E. Program to provide an immersive experience to Metro Nashville Public Schools students. Our Objectives were:
- Cultivate a sense of vision and purpose among students.
- Identify and enhance students' strengths and conflict management styles.
- Introduce students to the concepts of personal branding and its importance.
- Understand students' perspectives on the traits of an ideal employee and company.
- Provide an interactive experience that guides students in the path of where they aspire to be in the future.
DREAM BLDRS
APPROACH
The Dream BLDRS™ workshops integrated interactive sessions focusing on Vision creation, character assessment, personal branding, and ideal employee/company traits.
Through engaging activities and discussions, students were encouraged to reflect on their aspirations, values, and professional goals. Students were then granted a field trip to meet professionals in their desired field of work in a grand finale celebration at Meharry Medical College, hosted by Aspire and B.R.I.D.G.E.
Experience Highlights
- Socio-Emotional Learning (SEL) workshops utilizing creative approaches to reveal the tools and techniques to dream building.
- 40 Students present
- Award Ceremony and Field Trip
- In-depth networking mixer with world-renowned professionals from all fields of work.
DREAM BLDRS
INSIGHT
With 40 students participating, the workshop saw a predominantly female group, with 62.5% identifying as female, 27.5% as male, and 10% not specifying their gender. The Dream BLDRS program received overwhelmingly positive feedback, with 75% of students rating their experience as 5 stars. This high satisfaction rate highlights the workshop's success in engaging a diverse group of students and delivering a meaningful and impactful experience.
- DREAM BLDRS
IMPACT
The Dream BLDRS program has clearly made a lasting impact by helping students recognize the importance of having a vision, understand their strengths, and identify key attributes for personal and professional success. This comprehensive approach has equipped students with the tools and insights needed to pursue their future goals with confidence and clarity.
- During the Dream BLDRS™: Vision session, the most common career aspiration, according to vision statements, was sports and entertainment, chosen by 32.6% of students.
- The Dream BLDRS™: Strength Character Assessment revealed a diverse range of conflict management styles, with a notable number of students identifying as gorillas (forceful management style) and rabbits (avoiding management style) at 39.4%. Additionally, 33.3% identified as owls (collaborating management style) and foxes (compromising management style), while 24.2% identified as bears (accommodating management style). During the personal branding session, Amazon emerged as the most liked brand, with interests and passions, values, and vision being the top three brand components valued by half of the students.
- In the Dream BLDRS™: Personal Branding session, When considering the traits of an ideal employee, 86.1% of students emphasized the importance of being hardworking, followed by intelligence (77.8%), honesty (63.9%), leadership (52.8%), and confidence (50%). In terms of building a company, consistency was unanimously valued (100%), followed by leadership (86.1%), audience knowledge and passion (83.3% each), and uniqueness (75%). Over half of the student population (52.8%) envisioned themselves as future college students, skilled trade professionals, or entrepreneurs.
- An impressive 77.5% of students rated the importance of having a vision at the highest level on a scale from 1 to 7, demonstrating a strong commitment to future planning.
- Among the eight vision statement career paths explored: sports and entertainment, STEAM, finance, healthcare, business, criminal justice, education, and undecided—sports and entertainment led with 32.5% interest, followed by STEAM at 17.5% and business at 12.5%.
- Notably, supportive (87.9%), visionary (78.8%), optimistic (72.7%), and communication (69.7%) were the top strengths identified by students in the "pick 4" strengths activity.
- Decision-making and integrity also emerged as significant strengths, each chosen by 45.5% of students.
