As part of the Senior Mentorship experience, students engage in a daily seminar class focused on personal development and leadership.  They read and discuss The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.  Below are some of the student reflections on The Seven Habits. 

Covey’s take on independence really spoke to me. I feel like I can relate to his emphasis on interdependence and it affirms some of the personal decisions I have made. (NP)

Someone with a Scarcity Mentality would wait for opportunities, thinking that there are only so many out there that will present themselves. But someone with an Abundance Mentality would never settle. You create your life, so you should never settle, period. There is always something out there for you that will pop up either in time or through your effort. You should never give up thinking, “oh well I messed up my chance”. Focus on personal victories rather than public victories, because what other people are doing or think of you does not affect how your life will turn out. (MT)

One thing that I’m starting to notice about Covey and his anecdotes is how he addresses mistakes and weaknesses that he made in his past. For example, he talked about his mistake of making repeated apologies to his son David and his weakness of not having enough courage to confront his right-hand man at first. I really like how he shows me that he’s human and isn’t always perfect, but he tries to apply his values (and usually has a good outcome)—as he would put it, it shows integrity, and makes me trust him. (EL) 

I think that Win/Win laid down the foundation for everything that I truly took away in terms of communication and teamwork. Understanding Win/Win and its dimensions helped me grasp the meaning of “listen to understand” and other important takeaways. (AP)

My favorite part of this chapter is "Becoming a Quadrant 2 Self-Manager." If I remember nothing else from this book, I will most definitely remember this. The process of organizing your life through roles → goals → plans is a guaranteed way to grow into the person you wish to become in all aspects of your life, surely but steadily. (AK)