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Workshop to focus on making career and life work during unbalanced times

By Le Ann Finger '85
January 11, 2005

Do you have difficulty realizing your dreams and goals because you are pulled in so many directions? The workshop entitled "Making Your Career and Life Work: Strategies for Unbalanced Times" will help you assess your values and priorities, identify your career and life goals and develop strategies to achieve them.

Sponsored by the college's Center for Lifelong Learning, the daylong workshop will be offered on Friday, Jan. 28, 2005. All St. Olaf Lifelong Learning programs are open to the public. The workshop format includes time for small- and large-group dialogue and for individual reflection and action planning.

The seminar will be held in the Sun Room in Buntrock Commons, St. Olaf College. Space is limited, so early registration is recommended. The cost is $295 per person. Register by calling 507-646-3043 or 800-726-6523, or register on-line before Jan. 3 at www.stolaf.edu/retreats.

The workshop will be lead by Patricia Smith, St. Olaf director of career connections, and Gary Anderson, founder and director of Career Liftoff. Smith, whose background is in education, counseling and career development, designs and leads career-planning programs for community groups and work teams. Anderson, former director of the career development center at St. Olaf, has conducted workshops for managers, pastors, homemakers, students and mid-life career changers.

Workshop participants will be asked to examine various areas of their lives including career, family, volunteer work and other priorities. "Participants will identify changes they'd like to make in their lives and develop an action plan to move in their chosen direction. The workshop is appropriate for those developing a career and life plan for the first time and those making changes later in their lives," Smith says. Before attending the workshop, participants are asked to complete the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory and write a brief autobiographical sketch.

A few scholarships are available thanks to a grant from the Lilly Endowment's Program on the Theological Exploration of Vocation. Application deadline for scholarships is Monday, Jan. 3, at noon.

Contact Le Ann Finger at 507-786-3416 or finger@stolaf.edu.