By Alison Diaz-Mountford, Class 32
State Farm Insurance
On Friday, September 22nd, Class 32 had a chance to meet each other, learn more about ourselves, and hear from an engaged group of alumni. We started the day by hearing from a number of alumni about their personal stories and experiences during the program. I was really impressed with how passionate and enthusiastic everyone was about their experience and it set a very positive tone for the rest of the meeting. I know I appreciated how everyone spoke from the heart as it added a level of authenticity to their words.
We spent a good part of the day learning about the Emergenetics assessments, what they mean and what they don’t mean, as well as our group and individual results. This clearly was not Dr. Merle Riepe’s first rodeo! Not only did his expertise and deep knowledge of the topic shine through, but he knew not to give us our results until he gave us an overview of the material. We all had a chance to read through our results and also walked through several exercises in order to help us see who in the group had similar results to us and also who might be different. This information will help us all be more self-aware of how we approach situations and what we may need to be mindful of as we work with others.
The dreaded 90 second commercials…were actually really great! It’s amazing what you can learn about someone in just a short 90 seconds! Some stories were funny and some took your breath away. Some brought food and some brought sunscreen. Some wore costumes and someone sang a song. We have a very creative group in Class 32!
At the end of the day, a reception to welcome class 32 was held at a great indoor/outdoor space at the Hotel Valley Ho. It was a great way to wrap up the day! It gave us all a chance to enjoy a cold beverage with each other, meet alumni, spend some time with our mentors, and shake hands with the mayor of Scottsdale! I spoke to several alumni that night and the recurring advice I heard from everyone was “go to the happy hours” – I think we can all handle that! I’m already looking forward to our next class on October 6th!
The Scottsdale Leader 