Making connections
Being at Grinnell has given me the good fortune to get to know a variety of incredibly awesome people: colleagues [1], friends, alumni, students, and even some folks who cross those boundaries. One of the privileges of my position is that I can occasionally connect students to these people and they provide the students with guidance, advice, a sounding board, or other kinds of support [2].
Once in a while, I also notice connections when both sides can provide
and receive support. In those cases, I typically send a short note.
A, meet B. B, meet A. A is [fill in Sam’s description of A]. B is
[fill in Sam’s description of B]. You two seem to share common interests.
You should talk.
I love when that approach works really well. About a month ago,
I suggested that two of my favorite empowerment
people [3] meet.
The met face to face a week or so ago. Both thanked me profusely the
next day.
I can’t wait to see what they come up with together.
[1] I count both faculty and staff as colleagues and find awesomeness in both categories.
[2] Unfortunately, not all students understand what a privilege this kind of connection can be, and abuse the opportunity, so I’ve become a bit more cautious about making general connections. I plan to work with one of my thoughtful colleagues in CLS to help better prepare students for making connections.
[3] When I describe them as empowerment
people, I mean that I think of
both as particularly successful at empowering others to achieve their goals.
Both also empower me.
Version 1.0 of 2018-02-16.