Learners have direct involvement with planning and executing each class period, taking turns moderating discussion with invited guest speakers while students in the audience research and submit questions in advance of the speaker’s visit.
by Shelby Koehne
For seven years, finance professor Rob Metzger has run the “Legacy” course at Gies Business. This fall, he’s teaching it alongside Dean Brooke Elliott and the College’s namesake, Larry Gies.
Legacies are often built over a lifetime, or several lifetimes. So why make “legacy” the central focus of an undergraduate business seminar?
“Even though they’re still undergrads, we really want to push them to think about exploring different career options and how they’ll use their education to go out and do good. By doing that, they’ll end up leaving a legacy that they’re proud of,” said Elliott.
Lessons in leadership
Metzger’s course is partly named after the primary text of its syllabus – Legacy: What the All Blacks Can Teach Us about the Business of Life by James Kerr. Legacy presents a de-facto guidebook for strong and effective leadership by examining the team culture of the All Blacks, a New Zealand rugby team that competes internationally.
“I chose that text because I think it’s a great tool for sparking discussions about what it means to be a leader. It specifically references 15 different leadership principles, and I thought that structure would align nicely with a semester-long format,” said Metzger.
Metzger first came up with the concept for the legacy course when he was director of the College’s honors program. At the time, honors courses were available to students for only the first two years of their academic experience. He and others felt strongly that the honors program should be extended to juniors and seniors, to help them stay connected and improve their transition from college to their careers.
For seniors in particular, Metzger felt it was important to provide a leadership development opportunity, which is how he arrived at another cornerstone of the course’s design: active discussion with guest speakers.
Learners have direct involvement with planning and executing each class period, taking turns moderating discussion with invited guest speakers while students in the audience research and submit questions in advance of the speaker’s visit. A new speaker joins the class each week.
“I like to say that the chapter finds the speaker,” said Metzger, explaining that guests often have a unique perspective on the leadership principle and chapter they’ve been invited to discuss with the class.
Before they were co-instructors for the course, Dean Elliott and Larry Gies were frequently among those guest speakers – Elliott to discuss the importance of creating a learning environment, and Gies to talk about leadership through storytelling.
Community-wide collaboration
Even though this fall is the first time the legacy course has been taught by multiple instructors in the same semester, it’s always been delivered through community effort. Many of the guest speakers who visit the course are Gies Business alumni.
Metzger (right) said he’s seen alumni go out of their way to make the class an enjoyable and rewarding experience for students. As just one example, he said, “One of our frequent speakers is Doug Dossey (ACCY ’95), who spent a lot of time in New Zealand and knows people in the All Blacks franchise. He was able to connect our students with them. It was a unique way to make the curriculum connect to their real lives.”
Gies said he appreciates being able to share his personal stories of success and failure with students because he hopes it will encourage them to be more intentional in pursuing experiences that can lead to self-discovery.
“It's typically those experiences that have nothing to do with a linear career path, or the mistakes you make, that get you on the right track or help you find your why. If the students take one story I tell, and that helps them at some point in their life, then I've done my job,” Gies said. “But I always get more from the class than I think I give. The students help me understand what's topical today and show me when I need to think about things a little differently.”
Metzger said he thinks this year’s legacy course cohort will reap added benefits from having Elliott and Gies as instructors.
“It’s important for young people to see the way that leaders interact with other leaders,” said Metzger. “Larry and Brooke have approached this collaboration with fresh ideas and open minds. It’s been fun to work with them, and they’ve helped make the course even better.”
