OnCourse International

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Program Overview

Program Overview

Program Overview

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Program Duration: 12 months

Preparatory Assignments (1 month prior to program start):

  • Once OnCourse SOAR candidates are accepted into the program they are required to complete a series of preparatory assignments.  The purpose of these assignments is to initiate a self-reflective energy, to provide the OnCourse SOAR resources with crucial information about the participant, and to assess participants’ full commitment to the program. The pre-work yields a draft version of each participant’s individualized objectives. The assessments, surveys, and interviews provide a snapshot of the participants’:
    • Life story
    • Personality
    • Values
    • Intrinsic strengths and gaps
    • Areas of life that are working or not working for them

Multi-Day Experiential Retreats (Month 1, 6, & 12):

  • Initial Retreat (3 days)
    • Establish a foundation for self-discovery and personal exploration
    • Refine (from the pre-work) each participant’s unique growth areas
    • Peer group formation and launch; sharing of backgrounds, current life situation, and aspirations; first stage accountability within the small groups
    • Draft an initial plan for addressing the growth areas with explicit target dates
    • Mentor-protégé connection with 1-on-1 OnCourse SOAR young-adult guides
  • Mid-Point Retreat (3 days)
    • Take stock of current reality; make course corrections or set new destinations as needed
    • Next-level peer group sharing, tuning, strengthening, and accountability
    • Topical self-discovery exercises and core life-skills teachings
    • Intentional and tailored 1-on-1 interaction with OnCourse SOAR guides
  • Celebration and Rite of Passage Retreat (3 days)

    Participants’ parents are invited to the celebration retreat to honor the young adults’ yearlong accomplishments. Young adult participants will also have an opportunity to integrate their parents into the process and share learnings from their experience.

    • Life Plan refinement and commitment to full ownership
    • Official peer group closure with options for ongoing participation
    • Parent/young-adult facilitated encounters to clear any lingering parent-to-young-adult issues
    • The commitment (or breakthrough) to an enduring parent-to-young-adult relationship
    • The honoring and blessing of participants by guides and parents

Ongoing Support (throughout the 12 months):

  • 1-on-1 Coaching
    • Monthly, 1-on-1, video-conference coaching calls with OnCourse SOAR guide
    • Review and update customized program curricula
    • Ongoing Life Plan creation, refinement, tracking and accountability
    • Anytime access to any OnCourse SOAR resource (faculty member or guide) for support in addressing any life issue
  • Peer Support Group
    • Small group structure, modeled after Young Presidents’ Organization Forums
    • No more than eight participants per group
    • Meet monthly in a confidential session via video conference
    • All meetings are professionally-facilitated by OnCourse SOAR guides
    • A safe place for sharing, emoting, exploring … feedback, motivation, and guidance
  • Topical Life Skills Trainings
    • Video-conference-based forums and teachings by world-class experts
      • Participants have the opportunity to speak to each expert live during the group discussion. Each topical life skill training session is recorded to be viewed at the participant’s convenience  
    • All teachings are open to every participant, however, SOAR guides will recommend particular trainings based on each participant’s needs
  • Topical areas include, but are not limited to:
    • Discovering and living out your next-stage-of-life purpose
    • Constructing and implementing a plan, knowing when to stay the course and when to change direction
    • Money; earning, saving, investing, managing, giving; the role of money in your life
    • The job of finding a job
    • How to connect naturally and authentically with others
    • Effective communication and active listening
    • Emotional literacy: understanding the primary emotions; a healthy acceptance of our own and others’ emotions
    • Dealing with conflict; having direct conversations
    • The art of negotiation and persuasion; getting what you want when you don’t have control or authority
    • Drama-free living; creating and maintaining healthy relationships; managing transactional relationships; handling or ending toxic relationships
    • Building and leveraging your network
    • Understanding and managing different personalities
    • Asking for what you want and making clean agreements
    • Time management
    • How to maintain discipline and hold boundaries
    • Understanding and managing the three desires that are the source of all suffering
    • Relationships, intimacy, and sexuality
    • Specific skills for participants in long-standing or marriage relationships
    • Holistic practices; self-reflection and solitude practices
    • How to lead with confidence and follow with grace
    • How to form and lead a confidential, intimate small group