Helping Hands Workshop

By Tom Gresham

A group of Virginia Commonwealth University students last month teamed with their new classmates to build prosthetic hands for children injured by land mines.

The 25 students were participating in team-building exercises during orientation for the VCU School of Business’ “Fast Track” Executive Master of Science (FTEMS) in Information Systems program. Students were divided into eight teams, provided with a kit and instructed to assemble the item in a little more than an hour.

The students worked together across teams to figure out the contents of the kit and the process for assembling the hands. After the hands were completed, the students watched a video of volunteer Rotary Club members fitting the hands on children in Third World countries and training them in their use for day-to-day activities. Workshop organizers then informed the students that the hands they created also would be provided for free to children maimed by land mines.

Jean Gasen, associate professor of information systems at VCU and a faculty adviser, said the program exceeded her high expectations. In particular, she noted the exercise emphasized leadership skills, an important element of the curriculum in FTEMS. The program includes a personalized 360 degree leadership profile and individual coaching sessions.

“It just went great and you could tell the students loved the experience,” Gasen said. “I think we have an amazing group in this class – a great group of learners and a great set of people. They were very open with each other during the exercise. I was impressed.”

Each team decorated a box to contain the prosthetic hand it created, allowing team members to personalize the container and give the recipient a sense of who had put it together.

The Helping Hands Workshop is a collaboration between the Rotary Club and Odyssey Teams Inc. John Testement of RoadMaps Consulting helped coordinate the event at VCU.