Every year, freshmen are required to take the StrengthsQuest personality test to determine their greatest strengths. After that first year, however, nearly all mention and use of the quiz vanishes.
We The Threefold Advocate believe John Brown University should continue to use the quiz throughout students’ time in school.
StrengthsQuest has a history of benefiting its participants. According to the official website, upon finishing the quiz, JBU students will learn their “top five talent themes.” They also receive suggestions for “action items for development” and advice on how they can “use [their] talents to achieve academic, career and personal success.”
College is a time of gaining self-understanding. Students apply thinking that there’s nothing the college can offer them as great as an English major, only to quickly learn it is not for them. In the end, they may learn that they love Communication even though they are horribly shy.
By learning what they are most talented at, students can better decide how to use these talents to find a fulfilling career they may enjoy. This can be furthered by the advice Strengthsquest offers.
In addition, StrengthsQuest states that students with similar talents are more likely to be paired together during their freshman year. Through this, they are likely to make friends to last throughout their time at JBU.
Other universities continue to speak highly of the test.
Monroe Community College commends the quiz for helping individuals to “grow and develop focusing on their talents and strengths.” By working with others who have taken the quiz, students can “use their strengths in a complimentary way to encourage the establishment of strong work teams and communities, and to promote collegial relationships.”
Kansas State University refers to the assessment as a “conversation starter that is truly transforming the way students interact.” The quiz enables them to come together. In fact, in this university, the quiz is more than simply a way to learn talents. It “creates an opportunity for students to learn from one another and build community through connections and conversations.”
Why, then, does JBU abandon the quiz after a student’s first year of college? In the worst-case scenario, it is dropped after or during the first semester. The potential conversation starter and aid to students turns into a faint memory, if it remains in the memory at all.
We The Threefold Advocate believe this should come to an end. If students are required to take this quiz, do not drop it so easily. Use it to help students learn more about themselves.