Gettysburg College’s inaugural Virtual January Term (J-Term) provides students with free, hands-on programming over the winter break. Each program is designed to build upon classroom learning with crucial college, career, and life skills to ready Gettysburgians for the world that awaits.
The J-Term features dynamic offerings designed by Gettysburg’s most distinctive programs, including the Eisenhower Institute, Center for Public Service, Garthwait Leadership Center, Center for Career Engagement, and Peace and Justice Studies.
Our programming is intentionally divided into four core competencies that will help students to translate their aspirations into action and increase their personal, professional, and societal impact upon graduation. The competencies focus on networking, leadership, college and career skill-building, and advocacy.
All sessions require advance registration. Due to demand and to ensure robust facilitation, a few of the sessions will be capped. The sessions are not for academic credit. J-Term registration closes for students on January 4.
Build your Gettysburg Network
Session 1. Get Career-Ready: Expanding What You Know and Who You Know #
* Capped sessions included. Two-part program (Meetup and Prep). By popular demand, the cap for each session has been increased to 50 participants. ** These sessions have reached their capacities. There is a waitlist provided on Handshake.
The Center for Career Engagement (CCE) and College Advancement are partnering to host industry-specific panels and networking events. The meetups will bring students together with alumni, parents, and friends of the College to facilitate knowledge sharing, career engagement, and mentoring relationships. CCE will offer a prep session in advance of each meetup focused on refining one’s professional presence and personal pitch. Students will also learn key tips to enhance their networking skills.
Two meetups, one focused on Health and Science and another on Business—popular sectors represented well by our strong Gettysburg Network—are planned. Each student who participates will be offered the opportunity to engage in one-to-one meetings with the Gettysburg Network panelists, facilitated through CCE during the spring semester.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Industry trends, pathways, and issues from professionals across fields.
Job search advice and insights from recruiting and hiring leaders.
Initial connections with members of the Gettysburg Network for potential mentorship and future networking conversations.
January 12 | 5 - 6 p.m. EST | 50* Attendees
Marc Goldman, Executive Director of the Center for Career Engagement
Jamie Guilford, Associate Director of the Center for Career Engagement
Kathleen Regentin, Assistant Vice President for Development, College Advancement
Students are expected to attend the Prep Session prior to the Health and Science Meetup on January 14.
January 14 | 5 - 6 p.m. EST | 50* Attendees
Moderator:
David R. Brennan ’75, P’00, Chair of the Board of Trustees at Gettysburg College
Retired Chief Executive Officer, AstraZeneca PLC
Panelists:
Robert Pomponio ’88, Scientific Advisor, Sanofi
Tria Lee ’07, Human Resources Director, Ashley Addiction Treatment
Whitney Klacik ’04, Human Resources Business Partner, Novartis
Maggie Reilly Forestieri ’09, Recruiting Manager Life Sciences, Huron
Sheraz Sheikh P’22, Health and Wellness Regional Director, Walmart
Coordinators:
Marc Goldman, Executive Director of the Center for Career Engagement
Jamie Guilford, Associate Director of the Center for Career Engagement
Kathleen Regentin, Assistant Vice President for Development, College Advancement
The meetup will bring students together with alumni, parents, and friends of the College to facilitate knowledge sharing, career engagement, and mentoring relationships.
January 19 | 5 - 6 p.m. EST | 50* Attendees
Marc Goldman, Executive Director of the Center for Career Engagement
Jamie Guilford, Associate Director of the Center for Career Engagement
Students are expected to attend the Prep Session prior to the Business Meetup on January 21.
January 21 | 5 - 6:30 p.m. EST | 50* Attendees
Moderator:
David R. Brennan ’75, P’00, Chair of the Board of Trustees at Gettysburg College
Retired Chief Executive Officer, AstraZeneca PLC
Panelists:
Bill Heyman ’74, Chief Executive Officer, Heyman Associates
Meghan Anderson O’Neil ’07, Recruiter, Google
Munya Choga '12, Principal Solutions Consultant, LinkedIn
Greg Pinchbeck ’90, Global Head of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, Dell Technologies
Corey Huber ’07, Human Resources Director, KIND International
Melissa Reynolds ’04, Vice President, Human Resources Business Partner, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Coordinators:
Marc Goldman, Executive Director of the Center for Career Engagement
Jamie Guilford, Associate Director of the Center for Career Engagement
Kathleen Regentin, Assistant Vice President for Development, College Advancement
The meetup will bring students together with alumni, parents, and friends of the College to facilitate knowledge sharing, career engagement, and mentoring relationships.
Lead with Purpose and Principles
Session 1. Leadership Lessons with Susan Eisenhower #
Join Susan Eisenhower, Chairman Emerita of Gettysburg College’s Eisenhower Institute, the week of January 11 as she interviews distinguished Gettysburg College alumni about their career journeys and the leadership lessons they’d like to share with fellow Gettysburgians.
As the granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Susan Eisenhower offers students a unique perspective in the arena of leadership development, specifically the character and mindset necessary for today’s generation to bring about change in a complex, interconnected world.
Beyond her integral involvement with the Eisenhower Institute, she is an author, international policy consultant, and an expert on international security, space policy, energy, and relations between the Russian Federation and the United States of America.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Discover how to embrace accountability and rally others around problems that are not easily solvable.
Understand what it means to set a vision and welcome the “long game” as a leader.
Explore the importance of establishing a culture, bridging difference, and remaining true to yourself and your values.
Gain insights into the sacrifices and intrinsic rewards of serving others through a leadership role.
January 11 | 10 - 11 a.m. | Session Attendance Not Capped
Susan Eisenhower, Chairman Emerita of the Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College, will interview David Brennan ’75, P’00, Retired CEO of AstraZeneca—one of the world’s leading research-based biopharmaceutical companies. Brennan currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees at Gettysburg College.
Susan Eisenhower, Chairman Emerita of the Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College, will interview Jennifer Fischer Bryant ’82, a distinguished author and writer. Her publications have earned her two Caldecott Honors, an ALA Schneider Family Book Award, the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award, and a Sibert Honor, among other accolades. She has served as a trustee at Gettysburg College since 2017.
Susan Eisenhower, Chairman Emerita of the Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College, will interview Troy Datcher ’90, Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer for The Clorox Company. Earlier this year, Datcher was named to the 2020 EBONY Power 100, an honor that recognizes influential change agents, thought leaders, and titans of industry, including artists, business leaders, activists, and philanthropists. He has served as a trustee at Gettysburg College since 2014.
Susan Eisenhower, Chairman Emerita of the Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College, will interview Flora Darpino ’83, Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant and military lawyer. Lt. Gen. Darpino was responsible for the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, an organization with approximately 10,000 personnel. She was the first woman appointed The Judge Advocate General (TJAG) since the establishment of the Army in 1775. Lt. Gen. Darpino has served as a trustee at Gettysburg College since 2018.
The Garthwait Leadership Center (GLC) offers an innovative, two-week leadership development intensive designed for all Gettysburg students to learn and practice essential teamwork skills related to leadership, group dynamics, and decision-making.
Engaging in teams of five or more, students participate in four virtual workshops built around Harvard Business Education’s award-winning, state-of-the-art, 90-minute, team-based simulation, which uses the dramatic context of a Mount Everest expedition to learn and apply teamwork principles.
Team members communicate and collaborate in the simulation to maximize group achievement and avoid the perils that threaten the group’s ability to reach the Everest summit. Students also engage in readings, guided reflections, group discussions, and alumni-led conversations about effective teamwork to enhance the simulation experience. Students can register online individually or in teams of at least five people.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Experience how to build, participate in, and lead effective teams.
Examine how teams can improve the way we make decisions.
Consider how opposing interests and asymmetric information affect team dynamics.
Recognize how leaders shape team decision-making and performance in competitive and time-sensitive situations.
Explore how teams and their leaders deal with tradeoffs between short-term task completion and longer-term team effectiveness.
Identify how cognitive biases impair decision-making.
January 12 | 4 - 5:30 p.m. EST | Session Attendance Not Capped
Andy Hughes, Executive Director of the Garthwait Leadership Center
This session kicks off this unique team-building experience, providing important information to maximize the outcomes of the program. Teams will convene in facilitated break-out groups to get to know each other and build the foundations for success in the summit to Mount Everest.
January 14 | 4 - 5:30 p.m. EST | Session Attendance Not Capped
Andy Hughes, Executive Director of the Garthwait Leadership Center
Explore research-based theories and models on effective teams while engaging in a dynamic discussion with Gettysburg College alumni leaders who will share powerful stories about effective teamwork. This session will help your team think more deeply and intentionally about how you will work together during your perilous journey to the top of the world.
January 19 | 4 - 5:30 p.m. EST | Session Attendance Not Capped
Andy Hughes, Executive Director of the Garthwait Leadership Center
This is what you’ve been waiting for! Begin your team exploration towards the summit of Mount Everest working together to accomplish individual and team goals in the award-winning, state-of-the-art, 90-minute, team-based simulation.
January 21 | 4 - 5:30 p.m. EST | Session Attendance Not Capped
Andy Hughes, Executive Director of the Garthwait Leadership Center
Reflect on the results of your team’s efforts to ascend to the highest peak of the world in individual and team sessions. Your team will discuss the leadership lessons you learned from this unique experience and ways you can apply what you learned to real-world settings.
Set yourself up for success this new year by signing up for a two-day program on studying and time management skills, hosted by the staff in Gettysburg College’s Academic Advising and Student Support Services. You will explore how to organize your day-to-day demands to be more manageable, leverage technology to conquer habits of procrastination, sharpen your studying strategies, and still find time for leisurely activities. Each workshop will wrap up with insight from a panel of upper-class students who will share their successes and challenges in implementing these strategies.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Analyze and evaluate your current time management and study habits to create new habits that work for you.
Learn the causes of procrastination and discover ways to overcome it.
Develop planning systems for the spring semester.
Learn how to study efficiently by matching study habits with your learning preferences.
Implement effective work habits into your schedule.
January 18 | 1 - 3 p.m. EST | Session Attendance Not Capped
Jennifer Cole, Associate Dean of Academic Advising and Student Support Services
Can we really manage time? Add hours to a day? Catch up on sleep? Time management is all about self-management. It’s about you taking action every day to set your priorities, get it done, and create your own success. This session will help you organize your tasks, leverage technology to conquer procrastination, create time for fun, and reboot for Spring 2021.
The key to becoming a successful student is learning how to study effectively for any course. Whether your class is meeting in person or online, you can learn how to enhance your study skills and develop new ones. This session will help you identify your study skill strengths and areas where you can improve. Since no two students are alike, it will also show you how to create study strategies based on your preferences.
These workshops will focus on the essential career and life skills of guiding and bringing to life thoughtful and engaging discussions. Three 90-minute sessions will be offered. The first session will cover the techniques and best practices for communicating with a live audience and how to connect to and engage with an audience. The second session will focus on how to effectively facilitate discussions. The third and final session will provide tips for a successful presentation, including how to organize and create visual materials.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Consider the varying perspectives of an audience and develop the skills to effectively connect with them through your presentation techniques.
Build the key skills needed for facilitating an engaging discussion, including recognizing intent, embracing preparation, and understanding the complexity of behaviors that can occur in a meeting.
Explore the best practices for delivering information in a presentation.
Understand the varying techniques to share different types of information and media, and know the pitfalls that can distract from a presentation.
January 18 | 1 - 2:30 p.m. EST | Session Attendance Not Capped
Darryl Jones, Senior Associate Director of Admissions / Coordinator for Multicultural Admission & Intercollegiate Athletics Liaison
Rod Tosten ’85, Professor of Computer Science and Vice President of Information Technology
This session will cover the techniques and best practices for communicating with a live audience and how to connect to and engage with an audience.
January 20 | 1 - 2:30 p.m. EST | Session Attendance Not Capped
Paul Miller, Director of the Garthwait Leadership Center
Rod Tosten ’85, Vice President of Information Technology and Professor of Computer Science
This session will focus on how to effectively facilitate discussions, starting with setting the intent of the discussion through designing the discussion itself, and ensuring that appropriate outcomes are achieved for participants.
The Center for Public Service will host four engaging and provocative lectures, with time for discussion, aimed at helping students think critically about social issues around the world. Each discussion will feature one of our Immersion Project partners. Students who participate will engage in cross-cultural dialogue with experts on social justice issues, experts who have a strong record of working for positive social change in their communities. Students who have been on Immersion Projects will attest to our partners’ ability to take a narrative that is widely believed and through their own powerful story, help us to see it anew.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Engage in cross-cultural dialogue with experts on social justice issues from around the world.
Question widely held beliefs as they hear personal stories that challenge popular narratives.
Receive a glimpse of the learning that happens on Immersion Projects, and have their interest in attending future Immersion Projects piqued.
January 18 | Noon - 1:30 p.m. | Session Attendance Not Capped
In 1979, the Sandinista Revolution overthrew the oppressive 43-year Somoza family dictatorship. Join CPS and Project Gettysburg-León friend and partner, Mercedes Alvarez Valle, as she shares personal narratives to explore women in Nicaragua, their role in the revolutionary struggle, and the work for social justice.
Going from prehispanic cosmovision on gender and sexuality to contemporary LGBT+ issues in Latin America, and going from global to local, Antonio will give an overview of key issues that have shaped where we are today. He will also share how he has combined academia and activism in his local community, and how he has put into practice “the personal is political.”
In this session, Farah Cherif D’Ouezzan, founder of the Center for Cross-Cultural Learning, will challenge popular narratives about women in Muslim countries through storytelling from three generations of her family in Morocco.
In the wake of the horrific genocide of 1994, Rwanda has made significant efforts to rebuild the social fabric, and work towards peace. Part of that process has been national decisions on how to memorialize the atrocities. Panelists in this session will discuss how those decisions have helped build a collective memory that has led to a better peace.
We encourage all students to participate in Gettysburg College’s 4th Annual Peace and Justice Week.
The Peace and Justice Studies Program will team up with Gettysburg alumni and friends, the Provost Office, Africana Studies, Center for Public Service, Civil War Institute, Education, Eisenhower Institute, Garthwait Leadership Center, History, Office of Diversity & Inclusion, Office of Multicultural Education, Philosophy, Political Science, Public Policy, Sociology, Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Black Student Union, Latin American Student Association, to explore and teach students how to become engaged citizens.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Gain tools for political and community organizing.
Learn how to translate peace and justice interests into a career.
Learn about opportunities to critically engage in the Gettysburg community.
The 4th Annual Peace and Justice Week Organizing Committee includes:
Jenna Thoretz ’21, President of the Peace and Justice Student Council
Owen Keenan ’21, Co-Vice President of the Peace and Justice Student Council
Brynn Griffith ’21, Co-Vice President of the Peace and Justice Student Council
Dr. Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams, Faculty Advisor for the Peace and Justice Studies Council and Co-Organizer of Peace and Justice Week
Activist and Duke University student Victoria Pannell will offer a rousing call to Gettysburg College students on the need to become politically involved. Pannell is a 21-year-old activist from Harlem, New York. She has become nationally known for her work in fighting child sex trafficking and advocacy against gun violence. She also served as a Youth Ambassador for the Women’s March, helping facilitate marches all over the country advocating for women’s rights and social change.
January 12 | 6 – 7:15 p.m. EST | Session Attendance Not Capped
The Center for Public Service (CPS) is one of the College’s distinctive programs and a model for community engagement. Join us for a panel with CPS student leaders and some external partners to hear about the opportunities for students to get involved in the Gettysburg community.
Panelists are:
Moderator: Gretchen Carlson Natter P’15, Assistant Dean of College Life and Executive Director of the Center for Public Service.
CPS Student Program Coordinators:
Nich Vunn ’22, Economics and International Affairs double major
Gettysburg College students have been asking for the tools to become the political organizers that our world demands. Join Luis Jonathan Hernandez and Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs, who will be offering a workshop on political and community organizing. Hernandez is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Youth Over Guns, and St. Bernard-Jacobs is Deputy Executive Director of Women’s March.
January 14 | 6 – 7:15 p.m. EST | Session Attendance Not Capped
Alumni of the Peace and Justice Studies Program will talk about their current careers, how their peace and justice interests led them there, and what internship opportunities exist for Gettysburg College students.
January 15 | 2 p.m. EST announcement | Session Attendance Not Capped
For Peace and Justice Week, students are invited to participate in a TikTok Peace and Justice Challenge. Submit your creative Peace and Justice themed TikTok Videos by January 13 at 6 p.m. When you post your video on TikTok, ensure that there is some kind of Gettysburg College swag in the video, tag Gettysburg College, and tag other students to whom you will pass on the challenge.
The Winner of the Challenge will be announced January 15. The Gettysburg College student with the best TikTok video will win $100.
