StrengthsQuest for Parents
Imagine an environment where what is good, right, and healthy about you is identified, encouraged, and fostered to grow. Wouldn’t we all like to live there? PLNU strives to be such a place by identifying the StrengthsQuest talents, not only of our students, but of the faculty, staff, and administrators that comprise our campus community.
So what is StrengthsQuest?
StrengthsQuest is a personality assessment aimed at finding an individual’s top five themes of talent or strength. It was created by the Gallup Corporation, best known through its research and polling branch. Gallup defines talent as naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied. It is based in Positive Psychology which is the study of positive emotions and character traits and is focused on what is right, good, and normal about people and the environments conducive to fostering these positive traits and well-being. Students on campuses using StrengthsQuest tend to show:
- engaged learning
- higher GPA
- academic self-efficacy, or belief in one’s ability to manage their academic responsibilities
- academic confidence
- an open mindset
- intention to reenroll
- perceived academic control
How can you get involved with StrengthsQuest?
- Take the assessment yourself! You can do this by purchasing a StrengthsFinder 2.0 book HERE
- First off, ask your student to share their five strengths with you. If they don’t remember them, direct them to the portal, my.pointloma.edu, their strengths information will be under the Profile Information tab.
- As you read the descriptions of your student’s strengths, share examples from their life of how you have seen these strengths at work in them. This will further develop their self-understanding.
- When your student faces difficulty, help them think about how they could approach the problem or weakness by using their strengths.
- When your student is successful, help them recognize how their strengths played an active part in enabling their achievement.
- Lastly, celebrate your student’s strengths by sharing authentically what you appreciate about them.