Case Study
Notre Dame Administrative Professionals Program
Six months. 24 participants. A program they asked to make longer.
This engagement was delivered under RGW Ventures, now Skylight Leadership.
The Situation
A program that was not serving the people in it
Notre Dame's administrative professionals are the backbone of the university, and their previous development program was not serving them. Feedback from the group was direct: too elementary, too long, too generic. Rotating facilitators meant nobody ever learned who they were or what they needed. It felt like a workshop they had to attend, not an investment in them.
They wanted something rebuilt.
The Rebuild
Rhonda rebuilt the program around what the group said they needed
Rhonda wrote a new six month curriculum from the ground up, built on what the group told her the previous program had been missing.
- Six monthly sessions, three hours each, replacing all day programming.
- One facilitator across all six months, so trust and continuity could build.
- Branded workbooks and a digital portal holding every resource in one place.
- A professional development experience, not a training room.
- Curriculum tied to real work: creativity and adaptability, leadership mindset, teamwork and collaboration, emotional intelligence, communication, decision making and time management.
- Monthly group coaching alongside each session.
Participants came from departments across campus and, in most cases, had never met.
The Results
A cohort of 24 administrative professionals
Six monthly sessions, January through June 2025.
- Program Net Promoter Score of 94.2
- 100% facilitator recommendation in two separate sessions
- Every session that measured relevance rated the content 90% or above, with two sessions at 100%
- 81 to 91% left each session very confident they could apply what they learned
- Participants asked for the program to be longer
Net Promoter Score measures how likely people are to recommend. Scores above 70 are considered world class. Rhonda's was 95.2.
That confidence number is the one that matters. Relevance means the content landed. Confidence means they believed they could actually use it, which is the gap most training never closes.
The Pattern
What showed up across all six months
The most consistent theme across all six months had nothing to do with curriculum. Participants came from departments across campus and, in most cases, had never met. References to building community, meeting colleagues, and finding peer support appear in every single session's feedback. One participant who said plainly that she did not enjoy a session's content still recommended it, because of the colleagues she met there.
Participants repeatedly described the material as applying to their whole lives rather than only their jobs. The phrase personally and professionally, or a close variant, recurs across the back half of the program.
They also named the facilitation itself, independently and in nearly identical terms. Several described content that followed the room rather than a slide deck, and one contrasted it directly with seminars where the presenter reads from PowerPoint.
The clearest signal came at the end. Between 81 and 91 percent of respondents left each session very confident they could apply what they learned, and the highest confidence score of the entire program came from the final session. Requests to extend the program appear from session two onward.
What Participants Said
In their own words
On facilitation
Rhonda is real, honest, transparent and engaging. I love how she uses the outline of her training but caters it to the answers of her audience. She is truly a gem.
She takes the discussion where it leads, even if it deviates slightly from what she had planned, so long as the subject still aligned with the topic of the day.
I dislike seminars where a person reads from a PowerPoint the whole time. Rhonda's seminar was engaging and discussion based.
Please hire this woman as a full time ND employee.
On going beyond the session
She went the extra mile by offering side group coaching sessions for those who had specific questions or needed support.
On real change
I'm learning the skills, and applying the skills learned, and others have noticed.
I'm having to work against years of being afraid to cause waves and having doubted what gifts I bring to the table. I'm realizing that fear is the enemy.
Rhonda made a convincing argument for not undervaluing my own time and resources. I should not feel guilty for setting boundaries in order to protect my own time for work.
Rhonda teaches skills for our whole person, and the skills I've learned will be applied personally and professionally.
On community
It was wonderful building a community with this amazing cohort.
Every session has been absolutely amazing, and I learn so much from this programming. I don't want it to end.
The ROI
What the university got back
The university invested in the people who hold its daily operations together, and got back a cohort with higher leadership acumen, stronger cross departmental relationships, and the confidence to use what they learned. Participants reported setting boundaries, speaking up where they had stayed quiet, and applying skills their colleagues noticed. The program built connective tissue between departments that had none.
The clearest verdict is the simplest one: they wanted more.
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