"Power Hour" Empowerment Sessions

My Do Better. Think Bigger! "power hour" empowerment sessions uses highly-interactive activities, giant games, team-building exercises and hands-on manipulatives to help groups understand the value of their STEM++ skills and contributions to their families, teams and communities.

The Power Hour is a 1-2 hour session that opens with an ice-breaker that gets the entire room engaged. It is used to demonstrate the message that everyone has a talent, skill or gift that can add value to the mission of the team. Immediately following this activity, we go through the room for introductions or have the leader of the group provide an overview of the mission or purpose of the event. If the groups is not too large, we ask them to include their name, their profession or career aspiration and a fun fact about them. This helps add or reinforce another level of camaraderie among the group.

After the introductions are done, I ask the audience what their personal mission or purpose in life is? Often times, I find that many do not have an answer or struggle to pinpoint what this is. I ask them to take out a sheet of paper (highly recommended) or follow along with my PowerPoint presentation as I go through the questions they must ask themselves in order create their personal mission statement.

Power Play: We take 15 minutes to get audience members to play giant games located throughout the room or on the stage (space permitting; 10x10 space needed per game). The games demonstrate each person's need to plan, think, observe others, anticipate another's move, and ultimately achieve the goal. It also stresses the need to sometimes ask for help, to take a step back and pause, and recognize patterns in order to make the best decisions. Once done, we complete the mission statement exercise and ask volunteers to practice reading their mission statements aloud to the group. This helps increase their confidence and public speaking skills.

Power Play: We use the remainder of our time to teach the audience how valuable their contributions can be when they work together towards a common mission. They work together to organize themselves into a team, pick a goal and collaborate which determines what the outcome will be.

Deliverables: The audience walks away with a Mission Statement worksheet, a better perspective of the strengths, passions and capabilities of their peers, and a more detailed plan to fulfill their call to action.

Inspired by first responders, comic book heroes, and her military experience with the U.S. Army, Dana Jewel Harris created her "Do Better. Think Bigger!" Power of Perception motivational speaker series to bridge the communications gap between students, teachers, mentors and local nonprofits and businesses. Since 2008, she has been creating safe community engagement strategies using highly-interactive activities, games and service-learning projects that teach community stakeholders:

- How to Identify and explore local resources available within their community
- Economic and business development skills
- Project management, teamwork and job readiness skills
- Industry-recognized technical skills from a STEM++ Career Cluster
- How to create solutions and demonstrate effective leadership skills
- How to secure each badge in a digital badge collection

Our Do Better. Think Bigger! power hours are tutoring and training sessions that teach groups how to 1) identify socio-economic conditions that negatively impact their communities and 2) create innovative ideas and business solutions to address, reduce and/or eliminate them. Groups have the option to convert these sessions into service-learning projects and digital badge fundraisers to help sustain and/or rebuild their communities.

Ms. Harris has over 20 years of business development, logistics operations, and C-Level executive administration in the military, construction, entertainment, urban agriculture, non-profit management and real estate multi-housing sales industries. She was introduced to the acronym STEM while working with the GIS Emergency Preparedness Team at the Environmental Protection Agency in Atlanta, GA.

Ms. Harris has a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration& Management from American Intercontinental University (Magna Cum Laude); Sigma Beta Delta International Business Honors Society

Need a microphone or lavaliere, podium and small table.
A stage would be preferred but not mandatory as long as everyone can see me.
Handouts would need to be distributed and I need the option to arrange tables in groups for project teams.