Widener students learn a lesson on courage
CHESTER » If a picture is worth a thousand words, a key was worth a thousand responses at Widener University’s second annual Courage Day.
The student-led event on Monday blanketed the campus with signs, launched a social media campaign, and distributed 1,000 “courage keys” to passersby after filling out a card asking “I need to find the courage to …”
“Any time you look at the key, it’s supposed to inspire you to find courage,” said Theresa Kash, one of the event’s organizers. “If you know someone that needs courage more than you do, that’s when you pass the key along to them.”
Courage Day is presented by the Apogee Scholars of the university’s Oskin Leadership Institute – recipients of the institute’s High School Leadership Award presented to students around the Delaware Valley who then elected to attend Widener. Kash, Kaylee Horchak, Dave McCann and Herbie Schulze were the principal organizers of this year’s event.
“We want to be the model for courage education for the world. There’s no other university doing this,” said McCann. “It’s hard to nail down, ‘What is courage?’ It’s manifested in different ways.”
A student-produced video promoting the event depicts the day’s theme of “courage on your own level” included images of cadets from the university’s Army ROTC, a dramatization of a student telling their mother they are changing their major, and another seeking help at the university counseling center.
“You might be 19 or 20 years old and not running into battle for people’s freedom, but play at your own level,” said Schulze. “It’s in everybody; you need to see it within yourself.”
Monitors were set up in the University Center aggregating Twitter and Instagram posts with the hashtag “unlockyourcourage” to show how members of campus were reacting to the event in real time. Nine “courage walls” were stationed throughout the campus filled with the completed “I need the courage to…” cards.
The date of the event was kept secret outside of 110 student volunteers, which Horchak believes raised students’ enthusiasm for the event and made them think deeper about the questions put before them than they would without the element of surprise.
About 50 students were out at 4 a.m. covering the campus in signs asking, “Do you have to the courage to …” followed by different questions including “to forgive?,” “to get out of your comfort zone?,” and “to stand up for what is right?” Other students were stationed at 11 tables around campus throughout the day manage the courage walls and distribute keys, which ran out within an hour at some spots.
The Apogee Scholars hope the keys, and in turn the Courage Day program, will spread outside the campus.
“We think it’s a national model that would work on other campuses and also in high schools,” said Widener President Julie E. Wollman, Ph.D.
Courage Day is one example of the culture of leadership that Wollman said has permeated the campus through the Oskin Leadership Institute. The institute, opened in 2011 was launched with funding by the late David Oskin, former chairman of the university Board of Trustees and a 1964 alumnus of its predecessor institution, Pennsylvania Military College.
“One of the signature aspects of the Widener education is that everybody has access to our leadership institute,” said Wollman. The institute features a leadership certificate program, which about one-third of university’s 3,300 undergraduates are now enrolled in at any given time.
Along with promoting the leadership institute’s goal “to inspire and prepare students to become strategic leaders and responsible citizens,” the certificate program has been embraced by faculty members and tied into their academic curricula.
“The competencies we’re trying to develop through the certificate are integrity, initiative, collaboration and decision making,” said Wollman. “We know that it’s so valued by faculty members that it’s required in some areas.”
Business students and engineering honors students are now expected to complete the program, made up of 18 one-hour seminars followed by a student reflection on what they’ve learned and a statement of personal leadership philosophy.
Some seminars are tailored to specific academic fields including business and engineering ethnics, topics which Wollman connected to the message of Courage Day. “Looking into yourself and having the courage to do what’s right … this absolutely ties into the curriculum and makes our faculty feel confident that our students are better prepared.”