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What Are Your Top 5?

By Allison Coukos  ∣ BA Political Science  ∣ May 2018 (Expected)
This fall GW College Republicans had the incredible opportunity to work with GW Center for Career Services (CCS) as part of our Executive Board leadership retreat.  During our retreat, members of our executive board came together, took the StrengthsQuest assessment*, and discussed our different strengths with a CCS Career Coach.  The assessment had 34 different themes.  Out of these, 5 would be our individual top strengths.  On our board, we had Achievers, Includers, Woos, and everything in between.  The StrengthsQuest assessment put into words what our different strengths were and how we could use our respective strengths to further not just ourselves but our board as a whole.  The Career Services Coach worked with us to learn how to use these tools to apply what we learned about our strengths to our work on the College Republicans Executive Board.
The College Republicans leadership retreat was my first experience working with Career Services, however, it will not be my last.  The Center helped me not only better understand my own strengths but helped me understand the strengths of my peers as well.  This enabled me to understand how I could not only better contribute to College Republicans Executive Board but also how I could use my strengths to collaborate with my fellow board members on future projects.  Our key strengths were different, vastly so.  However, these differences – highlighted by Career Services – illustrated to us what made our board great. Our strengths, no matter how different, could be used to better our organization.

Everyone has different strengths.  The GW Center for Career Services team helped us understand what the strengths of members of College Republicans Executive Board were and how to better apply them.  The Center also illustrated to me how I can apply my strengths beyond my work on College Republicans Executive Board.  I can apply my strengths in the classroom, at my internships, and in other organizations.  The lessons that I learned during our leadership retreat will help me in my career development long after I leave College Republicans Executive Board and George Washington University.

*If you would like to learn more about identifying your strengths register in GWork for an upcoming “Know Your Talent and Find Success With StrengthsQuest™” assessment workshop. Upcoming sessions: Feb 27, March 7, 22 & 31, and April 4 & 17. You may also schedule an assessment appointment in GWork with a Career Exploration & Assessment Coach from the Center for Career Services.

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