A Practical and Inspirational Path to Work/Life Balance

BACKGROUND Many college students do not know what they want to do with their lives, even after graduating. University alumni departments support their grads with services intended to lead to a career or an internship. It is well-documented in findings of Gallup, McKinsey, and Manpower, among others, that 70% of the workplace is dissatisfied. Many become highly stressed in their jobs. Consistently shown is that this stress can lead to physical and mental illness, dysfunctions, and addictions. In a kind perspective, it is no one's fault. Many educational institutions believe that a key measure of doing a good job is largely based on the income their graduates earn. In fairness, notions of a true “work-life balance” are relatively new, and realistic pathways to accomplish it are few. Passion Spark offers students a highly interactive, results-oriented, guided curriculum leading them to “do what you love and earn a good living,” treasured outcomes of a true work-life balance. A summary of the “how" is offered at PassionSpark.org/leaders . ABOUT THE PROJECT Challenge : Throughout the United States and Canada, a surprisingly large percentage of university graduates and alumni have not found placement in a satisfying career or internship matching their degree. How can we support university graduates, and those approaching graduation, to achieve a career placement that will be fulfilling, long term. Specific Project Objective : How to best collaborate with universities to provide Passion Spark Retreats to their near-graduate and post-graduate alumni. Potential Specific Activities of University/College Student Interns • Overall: This project is imagined as an experiential opportunity to engage the theories learned from relevant university coursework and to then manifest these learnings into specific recommendations for actual project implementation. • Political Challenge: Potential career counselor resistance to outside vendors impinging on their domain and responsibility. • Economics : Identifying which department line budget would be most appropriate or most agreeable to covering the Retreat tuition. Developing process for students to apply to their university to pay for the Retreat tuition. Developing alternative shared payment scenarios such that individual students pay a portion of their Retreat tuition. • Bureaucratic: Identifying the best approach to gain bureaucratic buy-in and approval. • Agendas : Preparing realistic and actionable agendas for moving the project forward on two fronts: 1. To support engaging with Passion Spark management to best support the projects development; and 2. To support engaging with the university’s administrators and decision-makers. • Program design: Prepare recommendations for modifications to program design, if any, to best fit the university’s structural needs, and other. • Implementation: Prepare a detailed sequential set of recommended steps for implementing Passion Spark at a university to serve either one or both of these student populations: near-graduates and post-graduates. Steps to be rooted in the actual realities present in a university, to address the challenges noted above, beginning with, for example, to whom should the first call be made, or email sent, and what initial information should be provided during this initial contact. Project activities might include but are not limited to: [Note: At the discretion of the students, as useful to accomplishing the actual “Implementation” goals noted above, will be embodied within the activities related to “ Potential Specific Activities of University/College Student Interns ” noted above.] • Describing the development of public administration in the cases of specific countries and levels of government • Comparing the major administrative, institutional, and organizational theories • Applying knowledge of the dimensions of public management and leadership • Analyzing public organizations and to make recommendations to improve effectiveness.