What is it? ThinkAchieve: Beyond the Classroom is a platform for experiential learning at UTC. Students participate in and reflect on experience-based learning. ThinkAchieve opportunities include some of the most remarkable experiences offered at UTC, in the Chattanooga area and around the world. As students participate and reflect, they gain points towards university awards and recognition, while simultaneously acquiring vital experience for life. There four point-earning categories: events, course sections, experiences, and community engagement agreements. The accumulation of 120 points and a senior synthesis leads to recognition at the graduation ceremony and becoming a Think Achieve Graduate. The list below are ways I have personally earned points.
Events
International Festival
God is Red? The Politics of Native American Christianity
Hollywood's Great War
Plagiarism - A How Not To Workshop
"Frackdown" Movie Night - Gasland
Latin Dance Competition
3D Printing Workshop
Take Back the Night
The Ape Who Went to College
Cross the Line
Study Abroad Presentation
Historical Markers in the New Library
Incognito: The Play
Live Like A Student
Hedda Gabler
Pregnancy and the American Worker
Campus Composers Concert
Josh Ennen: Turtles
Who is Creating the Knowledge in Your Textbook?
Cadek Community Orchestra
Young Frankenstein
Coloniality and Conventional Truth in Buddhist Philosophy
Courses
BIO 1100 Conservation of Biodiversity
An introduction to systematic ways in which the human mind comprehends the natural world; emphasis on studies of living systems, natural processes, and related phenomena including evolution, population biology, ecosystem properties, biomes, extinction, human overpopulation, deforestation, global climate change, preservation of species, conservation ethics and economics, public policy, and sustainability.
ESC 1510 Introduction to Environmental Science II
An introduction to systematic ways in which the human mind comprehends the natural world; emphasis on studies of living systems, natural processes, and related phenomena including a focus on local environmental problems. Topics covered include a detailed study of the history of conservation, loss of biodiversity, conventional and organic agriculture, water pollution, global climate change, and environmental legislation. The laboratory is a combination of hands-on experiment and field activities.
Experiences
LeaderShape Institute
The InstituteSM, formerly known as The LeaderShape Institute®, has been a program of LeaderShape® for 30 years. Originally developed by the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity as a means of improving campus leadership, the Institute now serves people representing a wide variety of organizations throughout the United States and internationally.
Leadership involves living in a state of possibility, making a commitment to a vision, developing relationships to move the vision into action, and sustaining a high level of integrity. The LeaderShape Institute aims to produce a breakthrough in the leadership capacity of participants and facilitators.
Curriculum
The curriculum, refined by almost two decades of repetition and reviewed by hundreds of facilitators, is split into different themes for each of the six days of a session. The themes are listed below:
Day 1 - Building Community
Day 2 - The Value of One The Power of All
Day 3 - Challenging What Is and Looking To What Could Be
Day 4 - Bringing Vision to Reality
Day 5 - Living and Leading With Integrity
Day 6 - Staying in Action
MocLead
MOC Lead is UTC's newest leadership program and is a semester long cohort program to help individuals develop their leadership skills. Semester 1, focused on the individual leader and Semester 2 focused on the individual leader in a student organization leadership role. These interactive workshops led by faculty, staff and community leaders focus on developing your core leadership vision, understanding your personal values and what motivates you to lead, better understanding your personality and communication styles, and honing your public speaking and time management skills. All these workshops together prepare you for the next step as a leader in your organization and future professional.
Session Topics
Situational Leadership
Motivation & Recognition
Group Dynamics
Planning Large Events
Conflict Management
Officer Transition
Graduation
Community Engagement Agreements
The Chattanooga School of Language
The Chattanooga School of Language (CSL), founded in the summer of 2011, offers access to more than 10 different languages. Unlike what you might find in other classroom settings, CSL teachers take a holistic approach to teaching, with interactive methods that focus on language acquisition and cultural understanding.
Their philosophy:
To truly understand a language, one must too understand the culture from which it comes. So the teachers at CSL provide a broader base for understanding these new languages by delving into cultural aspects, such as customs, food, music and film. This method is not only more engaging than bending over a textbook, but it also helps students really get in touch with a culture outside of their own. By actively growing our knowledge of language, we stand to gain a broader, more culture-rich worldview. So CSL exists to bridge cultural gaps, and it does so—one class at a time.