Discussion on Mentors and Life Stories

1.0.3: Discussion on Mentors and Life Stories
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1.1 Discussion Board (with a main post in two parts, plus replies to peers—all of which are required for a passing grade on this board):
Please use MS Word (with spell check and grammar-check turned on) to write out “Part 1” and “Part 2” below, and then PASTE THE TEXT of your final draft into the “Text Submission” area of the Discussion Board. (Do not attach a file or doc.)

Part 1 (Autobiographical statement): Write a two-page “life story” focused on major influences and/or changes in your life, especially mentors and people who helped guide your concepts of leadership and teamwork. Place the spotlight on people in your family, community, school, or broader life, as well as recent experiences that have pushed you to make important changes.

Please do this work in stages: Begin with a _rough_draft_ (for your eyes only) by making a list of some influential people—from childhood, teen years, early adulthood, and/or later—and then see if you can write a paragraph on at least three of them. Once you get a series of strong, detailed vignettes together, you can go back and edit your writing to make sure it flows well; we want clear communication for your readers. As you write, please avoid minute details; we don’t need “laundry lists” of dates, places, or other minutia—though you are free to mention just a few details of that sort if needed.

Remember to write to an educated general audience, as if this “autobiographical statement” or “personal statement” were an early draft of something you were submitting to apply for a job or graduate school. You don’t need to be completely formal, but it’s best to avoid slang. Also avoid any potentially offensive words or phrases.

Since this is written for a broad audience—people from all walks of life, age groups, genders, ideologies, and people of religious faiths and nonreligious backgrounds alike—please make sure your writing is broad and inclusive, not marked by phrasing that might make another person feel uncomfortable. For example, if you wish you might mention that your religious background or your worldview has been important, but please refrain from evangelical rhetoric; likewise, if you have a nonreligious skeptical background you are free to mention it, but I ask that you refrain from any rhetoric in that regard either, because we don’t want to risk alienating any large group of potential readers.

(In general, these kinds of “personal statements” are intended to get your foot in the door somewhere, so part of your grade—and my expectation for you—will be to see how well you write this for a general audience.)
Minimum word count: 600 to 700 words (several paragraphs, the equivalent of two or more pages). If you feel like you are struggling to meet the minimum length, list a few other episodes in your life that were meaningful to you (in terms of leadership or mentoring) and add a few more sentences to describe each—e.g., What images come to mind? What did someone say or do? What was the impact? Then add another sentence or two to give us a better sense of a person or persons who meant a lot to you. You can write a slightly longer biographical statement if you wish, but try to avoid repetition and lengthy descriptions as well (aim for “the Goldilocks Rule”—not too short, not too long, but just right).

Part 2 (Thoughts on the life story of Malala): A recent Nobel Prize winner is inspirational in so many ways that I wanted to start framing our OGL 360 course with her life story as well as _your_ life story. Please access links to Youtube videos, Ted Talks, or other resources on Malala by looking at the very next page within this module. Therein you will find links to videos about notable women, including Malala Yousafzai.

Access two or more of the resources on Malala. As you do, take notes, please. Once you have a firm idea of who she is, how her family has supported her, and what she has been doing lately, please write a paragraph or two encapsulating the main points of her life/experiences, as well as the significance of Malala for _you_ (whether personally or via other people you know). Not only might it be humbling to learn about such a person—such a leader, and her hopes of changing the world—but I hope her story might inspiring each of us as well. (But please, there is no pressure: We don’t need to compare our lives directly to hers!)

THEN REPLY IN DETAIL TO CLASSMATES.
BE SURE TO REPLY IN DETAIL, WITH LENGTHY EMAIL-STYLE COMMENTS to three (3) other students’ biographical comments, remarking about various details in their lives, as well as contrasting their comments with your comments on Malala.

Start your reply with a salutation (e.g., “Hi Mary,” or “Hello Don,”) and end it with a valediction (e.g., “Best regards, Stephen” or “All the best, Steve”). Begin with (a) a reaction or expression of interest in some details of their life and (b) additional questions for that student, as well as some contrasting perspectives (compare and contrast your own experiences with theirs).

Plan on writing at least three paragraphs (10 to 14 sentences) for each reply.

And note: If two or three classmates have already replied to one student, pick another student to whom you will reply. Sometimes the last student to post misses out (by not giving classmates enough time to reply), so don’t delay your initial post. (And please, reply to their replies or add additional, shorter notes as well, for full credit. We want some dialogues to be started—some authentic introductions.)

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