Presenters for Soft Skills ProgramOn Friday, April 8, 2022, IUP Professor David Piper and Administration and Leadership Studies students Shintrika Hudson-Weibel, Tedd Cogar, and Rich Muth facilitated sessions on soft skills at IUP Punxsutawney

The program was conducted in partnership with the Punxsutawney Area School District that bused high school juniors to campus. Below is a description of the program.

Professionalism in Work and Life

Understanding the importance of basic soft skills will give you an edge in life, starting with your next teacher or first job interview, or interaction with any other individual or group. Soft skills include how you present yourself, knowing how others may interrupt your body language, knowing how to best resolve conflict, building your in-group (unconscious bias and cultural intelligence), knowing how to effectively communicate your message, and understanding a problem from everyone's perspective so you can contribute to the problem solution. 

Soft skills will give you an edge in employment as well, and in many other aspects of life.