Term: Summer 2016

Description: The CSUDH Men’s Retreat is a weekend program that provides male students with a safe and supportive environment to explore values, cultural practices and healthy behavior for men. The program addresses the various issues that men struggle with such as societal expectations, family, brotherhood, sexuality, male privilege, and leadership. The goals of the retreat are to create a safe environment that supports personal identity exploration through interactive workshops and opportunities to dialogue in large and small groups. 

Learning Domains:

1. Personal Development
2. Leadership

Learning Outcomes:

1)      Students will understand the importance self-reflection.

2)      Students will understand the importance of life-long learning.

SLO	Advanced	Competent	Basic	Needs Improvement
Students will understand the importance self-reflection.	Students will be able to successfully evaluate their experiences in thoughtful ways. and  Students will be able to effectively use their past experiences to inform future decisions.	Students will be able to successfully evaluate their experiences in thoughtful ways. and  Students will be able to understand how their past experiences inform their present	Students will be able to successfully evaluate their experiences in thoughtful ways	Students unsuccessfully elvauated their experiences in throughtful ways
Students will understand the importance of life-long learning.	Students will be able to clearly describe the importance of life-long critical thinking and learning to challenge personal values.	Students will be able to clearly describe the importance of life-long critical thinking and learning.	Students will be able to describe the importance of life-long critical thinking and learning.	Students was unable to describe the importance of life long critical thinking and learning

Reflection: Men’s Retreat.

The Men’s Retreat of 2016 was such a fun experience. I had such an amazing time engaging with the students and helping to create a space where students felt comfortable to have conversations regarding sexism and homophobia. For the most part, students that attended the retreat were men of color. I was the co-facilitator for the communication workshop which was really fun. The point of the workshop was the challenge the students to address their communication style and how it affects and relates to their communication in different aspects of their life such as; relationships (platonic/intimate). It was interesting to engage in conversations with students to discuss their role in society and common stereotypes that coincide with those roles. After the communication workshop, students felt really intrigued to personally understand the different ways people communicate and how important it is for them to communicate as well. It was a great space to be as it also challenged me and my identities. It was a transformative experience for everyone in attendance. I began to reflect on my male privilege and how I must find healthy ways to navigate that space of privilege.