UT Dallas Executive and Professional Coaching Initiative Pairs Students with Nonprofits
June 1, 2022
An initiative launched by the UT Dallas Executive and Professional Coaching Certificate program continues to give students real-world coaching experience in the nonprofit sector more than four years after its creation.
The venture pairs Coaching Students, in their practicum period, with leaders from three nonprofit organizations: Texas Tech University and nationally, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, and Girl Scouts of the USA.
All coaching sessions are virtual; students and nonprofit leaders never meet in person. “Much of coaching takes place virtually, so this gives students that same virtual experience.” Said Teresa Pool, who launched the initiative in the spring of 2018. As well as serving as the certificate program’s training director, Teresa Pool is also a full-time coach. This real-world experience is a requirement for all UTD OBCC program instructors.
The program worked with approximately 50 nonprofit leaders in its first year and now coaches around 90 leaders per year. Coaching sessions focus on one topic selected by the leaders who participate, and they all tend to be different. Topics include developing executive presence, time management and prioritization, and conflict management.
Coaches partner with nonprofit leaders to establish a behavioral goal that they will work toward during six sessions. They also agree on tangible measures of success.
“During each session, the students use active listening, powerful questions, and insightful observations that generate new awareness and motivation for the nonprofit leader,” said Pool. “Each session ends with action experiments that the leader has defined and committed to complete.”
Participation in the nonprofit initiative is voluntary, but 75 percent of students choose to take part in the program.
“They leave the program with everything they need to become credentialled except for the required 100 logged hours of coaching. The nonprofit partnership provides several of those required hours and gives students confidence in their abilities,” Pool said.
“I see how each client shapes us — their model of the world, their strengths, and weakness, their life experiences,” said certificate graduate Jesse Ihde. Ihde completed the Certificate Program and has now graduated with a Master’s in Leadership & Organizational Development (MS LOD) degree. Approximately 60 percent of coaching certificate students go on to complete the MS LOD program, according to Pool.
The Executive and Professional Coaching Certificate program is certified by the International Coaching Federation. Live online classes take place on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings, and class resources and assignments are accessed online via the campus eLearning website. To learn more about the program, visit: obcc.utdallas.edu
Post contains updated information to an article originally posted in UTD JSOM Management Magazine – Spring 2019, Volume 22, No. 2 – By: Glenda Vosbrugh
