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The clock struck two in the morning. Three members of my  

Management course

  project team, Josh, Alison, and Lennitt, stood wearily before our PowerPoint presentation. Thirteen hours from now, we would deliver an oral report on the status of our class project in front of our management course, a freshman prerequisite at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. After listening to the initial run-through of our presentation, our teaching assistant, Meredith, leaned forward thoughtfully: "We need a theme to tie this presentation together. Any suggestions?" A few ideas were discussed and discarded. Finally, Josh had an epiphany: "'The Real World!' That show basically describes what we've been doing." "I like that!" Meredith flashed a grin.

The next day in class, Josh stood before the hushed room and the blinking camcorder. Behind him, a logo of "The Real World" flashed across the white screen. Taking a deep breath, Josh began: "This is the story of 11 strangers, picked to form a team...."

Beyond lecture
The management course was an unusual class with an interactive way of teaching leadership and teamwork. In retrospect, I appreciated this class because of the people I met and the presentation "ordeals" that are a mandatory part of the management course. After one short semester, I learned to become more at ease before a sizeable audience. Most importantly, I got to work with 10 other freshmen on a weekly basis. It certainly made a large College community seem a lot smaller.

Tired of tedious class projects and the cycle of class-study-test? Cheer up! Not all College Classes follow that repetitive format. My management course, for example, was a class with a definite "Real World" twist, and it took the concept of class projects to a whole new level. The class, consisting entirely of freshman Business majors, was divided into four project teams. Each team was responsible for completing a service project with the guidance of a teaching assistant, who facilitated group discussions and more importantly, provided guidance to clueless freshmen like us. For my project team, 11 freshmen were assembled with the goal of teaching leadership skills to local high school students. Besides service projects, the course also focused on oral presentations and management theories. Sound simple? As the 11 of us found out, a straightforward, almost cliche, concept like "teamwork" was more complicated than we thought...

How were we going to teach leadership?
The first day of teaching was a disaster. As my teammates and I stood before our Junior Achievement class helplessly, the students paid attention to the ceiling, their hair, the floor--anything but us. A few days before, we were briefed by a Junior Achievement coordinator on the Leadership Curriculum we would use as our instructional material. Teaching what we had to teach through class discussions seemed straightforward when the director explained it step by step. In actual class, however, the four of us had trouble coaxing responses from students.

Frustrated, we met to brainstorm a better method. Still relative strangers, the first few meetings for my group were awkward. Discussing the problem, we tried to curb our exasperation and digest other's opinions. Some members rarely remained silent, while others, like me, stared uncomfortably during the debate and wondered when the right time was to edge in a word. After licking our wounds for an hour, we decided to discard the old curriculum and used interactive class activities that involved the students' active participation instead. To our relief, the brainstorming paid off; our pupils were more responsive to in-class exercises.

End-of-year presentation
In December, my whole team had to present our project to the class through a themed production. We came up with the idea to use the theme of "Saturday Night Live," and after regular discussions throughout the semester, we had developed an easy rapport. Unlike during those initial discussions, everyone, not just four or five opinionated members, provided input. We had fun, too! Realizing this was the last project we would work on together, we tackled our rehearsals happily 'til the wee morning hours. It was all planned out--Lennitt, as the "Ladies Man," would speak with a lisp and sport an afro. Taylor, as the hostess for Coffee Talk, planned to go eighties with huge shoulder pads and an over-the-top Brooklyn accent.

As we had hoped, the presentation was a success. Despite all the stress, we had a blast. Maybe someday we'll even do a reunion show!

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