Achievement

Responding to suggestions from our first cohort of IGERT trainees, we held a weekend retreat for our 2008-9 trainees and associates in early September 2008. The retreat was mostly planned and conducted by the 2007-2008 CHANGE cohort. The training weekend familiarized incoming students with the collaborative values of the CHANGE program, and we held special training sessions on interpersonal communication and group decisionmaking processes. Data from internal program evaluations show that this retreat demonstrated the value of collaborative problem solving while helping to build a strong identity among incoming CHANGE cohort members. As a result of the retreat, the 2008-9 cohort quickly started a group research/book project (described below as a Trainee Achievement).