Character and Caring in Leadership Retreat – The First of Many Collaborations Between the Kern Institute and Kern National Network at the Medical College of Wisconsin
On January 21st, Kern Institute (KI) student leaders and Kern National Network (KNN) student officers came together to put on "A Day of Connection and Leadership in Medicine," a retreat for current students at the Medical College of Wisconsin. This event was a pilot for future Retreats and focused on addressing current gaps regarding facilitation and application of leadership skills, specifically in relation to interpersonal connection and KNN framework values.
Fundamentals for Aspiring Leaders
by Stacy Moroz and Max Casey
The Kern Institute’s Student Leadership Committee (SLC) is a workgroup started in 2021 as part of a TI2 grant awarded to Kelli Cole (MSTP, G2) to create a Leadership Elective course at MCW. We produced seven modules catered to aspects of leadership we deemed fundamental for aspiring medical leaders to recognize and practice.
Being involved with the Kern Institute’s SLC allowed students to engage, share, and relate to people through fulfilling discussions on a range of topics from medical education to unique perspectives in leadership. The SLC grew into a space where we felt confident talking without fear of judgement, while learning to disagree in a manner that was engaging and promoted growth and .
As medical students, we may not have the expertise to carry nuanced opinions on medical advances, but we can certainly practice our communication skills, particularly in productive disagreement. The more we reflected on leadership as a group, the more we gained insight into the importance of adaptability (e.g., the way medical education has had to adapt to learning in a global pandemic) and intentionality when it comes to human connection and its role in creating caring and competent physicians.
Max: The energy from discussions held during our bi-weekly meetings through the SLC reminded me of a Grand Rounds I witnessed during my first year of medical school. The physicians confidently delivered their opinions on cases, while remaining open and attentive to their colleagues’ points of view. Watching this group mobilize and work to a common solution reiterated my desire to become a medical doctor and learn more about effective leadership and communication. There is a need for an environment conducive to learning outside of school to allow for true open dialogue. Devising a leadership retreat was born out of an idea to connect and engage with students about leadership separate from the expectations students set for themselves outside of the confines of a school environment.
Stacy: Our goal is to weave in leadership as an engaging component of medical education centered around the core pillars of the Kern Institute: character, competence, and caring. In September 2022, Max, Kelli and I were accepted to present our work on “How Leadership Training Promotes Human Flourishing” at the annual KNN conference. Max’s portion focused on how cultural shifts facilitate meaningful change and segued into a pitch for the leadership retreat. We hoped that presenting to a broader audience would garner interest and were fortunate to meet KNN Program Manager Alverno Divine, who offered to assist with deliberating logistics of the retreat in the future. We reconnected with Alverno in January after partnering with the KNN Student Officers by way of introduction through KNN Program Director, Joelle Worm, to pilot a leadership retreat day that would serve as a base from which to build a more formal retreat in the future.
We appreciate everyone that came together to make this idea reality and look forward to continue working on elements of medical education that enhance the student experience at MCW and other institutions within the Kern National Network.
What Does A Good Leader Look Like?
by Natalie Stratton
When KI Student Leaders Max Casey and Stacy Moroz initially pitched the idea of a leadership retreat to the KNN Student Chapter Officers, Saba Anwer, Iniya Adhan, and myself, we were admittedly a little hesitant. The idea was intriguing, especially as most of us started our medical education during COVID-19 restrictions and felt we lacked a sense of community with our peers. As we mulled it over, we leaned heavily on the retreat’s applicability to the KNN framework of character, caring, practical wisdom, and flourishing. Personally, I asked myself: what do I think a good leader looks like, and why do we need them?
Through continued conversation and reflection, the answer became quite clear. A good leader is an effective listener, someone heavily involved in the community they’re serving, and someone able to facilitate connections between people. As a result, they are able to gather people under common goals usually aimed at improving the well-being of the collective. Taking this into consideration, we would argue that leaders who establish the value of Caring as a central practice ultimately champion the creation of environments that are geared towards Human Flourishing. When leaders prioritize empathy in their personal interactions with others, this culture can permeate the entire group. The values of the KNN framework are therefore arguably the essential foundation for developing leadership skills. Long story short, the KNN Officers bought into the idea of, and necessity for, an event like this!
The retreat was initially meant to take place on a larger scale, ideally with the entire incoming M1 class. However, a pilot event, a trial run of sorts, was going to be much easier to facilitate for the first go, especially with only a month to plan and execute the whole thing. The initial meetings were chaotic as we tried to stay fluid with our planning and the day gradually took shape through the three following intentions we set for the event:
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Develop a sense of community between students that could be expanded on as they continued their journey in medicine
We thought about environments that regularly bring people together without requiring a lot of effort to navigate the initial awkward meeting phase. Three things came to mind: common tasks, teamwork/competition activities, and food. We spit-balled all sorts of activities, including making meals to be distributed to those in the community, making tie blankets to donate, building spaghetti noodle/marshmallow towers, everyone sharing personal recipes that would be written down and distributed in a keep-sake mini cookbook for the day, etc. Ultimately, we felt it was important to also start the day with a community engagement activity and spirit of giving back, so we partnered with a local organization, The Gathering, and made 100 sack lunches to be distributed to individuals experiencing food insecurity in the area. Supplies were selected, purchased and picked up prior to the event.
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evelop a vision on what leadership means and looks like for each individual
We hoped to emphasize the importance of community, connection, and the KNN framework values throughout the day, and largely this was accomplished through the KI Leadership Modules.
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Reconnect with the community that we will care for in a setting outside of medicine
We wanted to host this retreat somewhere other than MCW, with the dual intention of taking students out of the classroom context to meet each other as people first, while also engaging with the greater Milwaukee community. Most of our activities took place at various locations around Marquette University. Part of our goal was accomplished through our initial connection activity where we partnered with The Gathering; however, we also toured Haggerty Art Museum at Marquette University with Community Engagement Manager Christine Flemming, who facilitated some in-depth conversation around their current exhibit Basic Needs and Justice: The Pursuit of Human Flourishing. Lastly, we catered food through a local, small business with the help of our wonderful KNN PDirector Joelle Worm and her community contacts.
Most importantly, we emphasized reflection and consideration throughout the day to re-visit our goals for the event, while working to leave time to pause, chat, and connect.
Schedule:
| Activity |
Location |
Length |
Time |
| Intro |
Marquette Alumni Memorial Union, 305 |
15 min |
9:00-9:15 |
|
Sack Lunch Making
The Gathering
|
Marquette Alumni Memorial Union, 305 |
45 min |
9:15-10:00 |
| Bio Break + Travel |
Walk |
10 min |
10:00-10:10 |
|
Art Exhibition
Facilitator: Christine Flemming
Exhibit: Basic Needs and Justice: The Pursuit of Human Flourishing
|
Haggerty Art Museum |
45 min |
10:10-11:00 |
| KI Leadership Module 1: EQ |
Haggerty Conference Room |
50 min |
11:00-11:50 |
|
Lunch
Beans and Barley
Bridging Differences: Alverno Divine
|
Marquette 707 Hub |
60 min |
11:50-1:00 |
| KI Module Continuation |
Marquette 707 Hub |
40 min |
1:00-1:40 |
|
Closing
How do we move forward
|
Marquette 707 Hub |
20 min |
1:40-2:00 |
Challenges & Future Plans:
any details had to be addressed in short time (approximately one month) to be in line with applicable funding deadlines. We appreciated the help of our community partners to stay on track throughout the day.
This event was a run-through for something we hope to further develop on a larger scale in the future. The time constraint of four weeks impacted our ability to recruit students who, as we all know, live very busy lives and have concurrent responsibilities. Garnering engagement and attempting to design the day around anticipated student needs required us to be flexible in both the activities that we engaged in and the time frame during which it all took place. Other more logistical details, including considerations for things like parking, space/technology access, travel time, building access, etc. also proved challenging. Given these difficulties, we were proud to put together a complete experience!
Our plan for future direction is to build on the knowledge we gained while overcoming these initial obstacles to improve this event so that it is accessible and beneficial to a larger portion of the student body. Our goal is to host the event for incoming medical students at the start of their first year with potential follow-up later in their education.
If you have any specific questions/inquiries about this event, feel free to contact Natalie at nstratton@mcw.edu