cheese

Purpose
Task #1 is designed to promote thinking about the change(s) that each student may need to make to assume a leadership role today and for the future.

Pre-Work: Relating Your Experience/Expectation and Your Thoughts on the Service-Learning Project to “Who Moved my Cheese?”
Each student should read the “Cheese” book and start thinking about their leadership skills. Each student may also want to start thinking about their approach – individually – to complete the Service-Learning Project (of your choice). Your response must cover both your thoughts on project management/leadership and your thoughts on the “Cheese” book and its characters and some ideas from chapter 1 of our textbook.

How to Proceed
Read chapter one in the textbook
Your essay should include at least three reference sources from the first chapter in the textbook
Read “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Spencer Johnson, MD in its entirety
Here are some prompts provided to get your thinking started:

Could your leadership approaches to working with the people and organization of your choice be similar to the way the characters function in the book Who Moved My Cheese?
Will you be like Sniff, Scurry, Hem, and/or Haw?
For some students, the notion and the possibility of volunteering at your choice of organization to complete the Service-Learning Project may sound exciting and build individual enthusiasm for the service-learning project.
Whichever organization you decide to work with, pull your thoughts together and write a short essay explaining why you would prefer to do this project.
Include some of your past leadership experiences in completing large projects on your own at work, school, and/or home that relate specifically to this decision to do the project, and the professional and/or personal improvements that you may need to make to become a better leader of people
What advantages and/or disadvantages do you see in doing this project?
What skills and/or attributes give you the ability to do this undertaking on your own?
Do you have these skills and/or attributes? Which ones?
Describe at least three in a top-down format
Choosing to do this project on your own is not an indicator that you do not have leadership skills.
People can be individual leaders. So, do people currently think of you as “leadership material?” Why or why not?
Have you had good work, school, and /or home experiences in the past as a team leader instead of working on a project individually?
In terms of change, which character in the book do you currently identify with and why?
Explain whether or not this character is a leader. If not, what is this character lacking?
What are your leadership weaknesses?
Which character would you like to be in the future?
List and describe three possible areas for improvement in your leadership ability/skills
In terms of your future as a leader, outline the steps that you will need to change today to become a leader
It is not necessary to answer each question. However, it is important to weave your thoughts together in a cohesive essay.

Requirements
The Task #1 essay should be no longer than three double-spaced pages (this does not include the title page and the reference list). Each student must discuss how the “Cheese” book relates to their leadership skills at this time and how they might improve their leadership skills over time to become a better leader.

Your essay should include an introduction, a body, and a conclusion
Use the five-paragraph format – introduction, body with three examples, and conclusion
Your conclusion should be strong and summarize your points well
Learning is about managing multiple inputs and relating to the information in one sentence – which is defined as the introductory topic sentence of your essay
Start this task by stating your topic sentence – make a bold statement
What is the point that you want to make about yourself concerning the leadership topic of change?
What do you really want to say in the body of your essay? Use the “assert and defend” style to make your point(s)
“Assert” or “Make” a statement, provide proof to “defend” it, and do it again and again
Your essay must include thoughts and reflections on both leadership and the “Cheese” book story and its characters
Your essay (APA formatting style) must include at least three references (in-text citations) from chapter one in the textbook, Lussier & Achua (2016), and three references (in-text citations) from Johnson’s “Cheese” book
Please note that you must use APA formatting style for all your writing
If you have not already, please review Module 0: About APA and Resources
For more information on APA please visit OWL PurdueLinks to an external site.
Notes on APA:
Since this is a small paper you will not need to have the abstract section. You should have the title page. The title of your paper should show on the second page. Each page must have the page number but there is no need to have the title as a running header. In other words, APA only calls for the page number flush right in the header. APA does not call for “Introduction” as a section header. You only write the introduction without an explicit header. You You should also have the references on a new page, called References.

Please see an example hereLinks to an external site..

Grading
Please read the rubric below to learn how you will be graded for this assignment.

Grading Criteria
Criteria Total of 30 points
Cheese Pre-work: Solid exploration of the “Cheese” text with relation to personal goals. 10
with relation to the potential service-learning project 10
References and Writing Style

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