ssues Related to FYRST YEAR Experience

For New First- Year Students

The Ultimate Gift

* All 12 Gifts 

* Unplanned events

* Making choices

* Setting goals

* Learning from experiences

* Attitudes

* Do not worry about the small stuff

* Reactions to change, challenge, and adversity

* Seeing commitments through until the end

* Open- mindedness

* Seeing all aspects of the world/ different settings

* Stepping outside your comfort zone

* Coming up with different ways to reach a solution

* Decision- making

* Learning styles- determining who you are & how you approach things

* Values

* Overcoming roadblocks

Questions for The Ultimate Gift

The story

* Do you think Jim Stovall had an order to the gifts or did he put them in as he thought of them?

* Do you think the quotes at the beginning of each lesson are true?

* Why was Jason Stevens given only the shortest description of his monthly challenge, instead of exactly what he was suppose to do?

* Why was the book written from the attorney's point of view, instead of Jason's?

* Should Jason Stevens have been given the monthly timeline or should he have just got the Ultimate Gift when he finally completed all twelve gifts on his own time?

* Is just the end result important or the journey also?

* Would you try for the Ultimate Gift without knowing what it was, just like Jason Stevens?

* Can you see this book as a metaphor for your first year of college or going out into the "Real World"?

* Ranking the gifts 1- 12, what do you take as the most important one? The least important one? 

* Which gift is your favorite? Why?

* In your opinion, what is the hardest gift to learn? The easiest to learn?

* Do you think that it was fair that Jason Stevens had to work for his inherence while the rest of the family was just given their portions?

* Do you believe that Jason Steven's life was empty before he took on this challenge?

* Did Jason change from the beginning of the book to the end OR was he just realizing what was inside of him all along?

* Was it right of Red Stevens to pull Jason out of his elements and instantly throw him into situations (working with Gus without getting rules of the house at first)?

* Red Stevens said to Jason at the beginning of Gift 1 "If you turn out to be more trouble than you're worth-- which is not difficult for you-- Mr. Hamilton will simply cut you off without another word." Do you think The Ultimate Gift was worth it? (Work)

* What are your work ethics? (Work)

* Is there a balance between loving money and loving people? Does it have to be equal? (Money)

* It seems like Jason Stevens’ true friends were the ones he made through this journey. Do you agree with this statement? What does this show about friendships? (Friends)

* What characteristics do you look for in a friend? How has it changed over the years/ stages of your life? (Friends)

* Do you believe the statement "Desire and hunger for education is the key to real education"? (Learning)

* What characteristics did Jason learn during the challenge of education? (Learning)

* Did Jason learn just about education in month four or was this whole process about different types of education? (Learning)

* Red Stevens stated "One of the biggest mistakes I ever made was when I gave everyone in our family everything that they thought they ever wanted." Is this true? Should families/ higher up people completely help the younger generations or should people learn to stand on their own two feet? (Problems)

* Is family heritage important or is making your own personal family more important? (Family)

* What exactly is the gift of laughter? (Laughter)

* Is dreaming important? Is it the same as goal setting? (Dreams)

* What does it take to make a dream into reality? (Dreams)

* The book stated "conventional wisdom would say that the less you give, the more you have." Is this true? (Giving)

* Do you think the Golden List works? (gratitude, pg 100)

* What is at the top of your Golden List? (gratitude)

* Is it important to live your life as if it is the last day to live? (a day)

* Jason stated that most of the activities he would want on his day seemed to be simple. If you got to choose your last day, would it be simple? ( a day)

* What would you want to do on your last day? (a day)

* Do you agree with Red Stevens when he stated "When we are living our lives the way we should, everything would be in such an order that we would not change the last day of our life from any other day'. (a day)

* "Anything good, honorable, and desirable in life is based on love. Anything bad or evil is simple life without love involved". Agree? why/ why not? (love)

GOALS

* How do you make goals setting a part of your life?

* What are the challenges of goal setting? setbacks?

* What are your short, mid, and long term goals for your education, career, and personal areas of your life?

* What goals have you already achieved? What roadblocks did you overcome to achieve them?

* What is your dream career? How can you turn that into reality?

* What are your priorities? What do they tell you about what is most important in your life?

* What defines your values? What are the sources?

* What are the motivating forces in your life?

* How do your goals promote success?

* The 3 Ps of Success are Planning, Persistence, and Positive self- image; how can you improve in these three areas?

* When working with a group of people, is it better to set a goal for the people around you or to set the goal based on the people?

Leadership

* As a leader, it is better to treat everyone as an equal or to do extra little things for the people that need it?

* Is it better to have strength or character in the people that you lead?

* What kind of people do you want to lead? What qualities do you need around you?

* Jason Steven started out for the money, not expecting to learn/ gain anything else. Does one have to have a motivating factor to become a leader?

* Are people born with their leadership skills? If not, how you acquire all the aspects needed to be a good leader?

* Is the saying "Actions speak louder than words" actually true? Or should a leader oversee the work and just pass out orders?

Campus Aspects

* What concerns do you have for campus?

* What are you most excited about?

* What advice have you been given by others that you think should be passed on?

* What do you think is going to be the most different from high school to college?

* How are you going to be able to balance your academics and social aspects?