The Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement will host its annual Leadership Conference for students to participate in workshops designed to define and refine their leadership skills on Jan. 23 from 10 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. in the RecWell basketball courts in the Don Taft University Center.
The workshops will cover diverse subjects, including interpersonal dynamics, communication, leadership styles, personality types, learning teamwork through improvisational comedy, using leadership skills through dance and how communication leads to feng shui. Students can choose workshops based on their interests.
Stephanie Schoeder, graduate assistant for Leadership and Civic Engagement and organizer of the Leadership Conference, said she hopes the conference will motivate students to make NSU better.
“Making NSU better might be helping out other students, helping out their organizations or something bigger,” she said. “Also, I want students to do that self-reflection and see who they are as a leader and grow from that.”
Ujala Ahmed, junior finance major, has attended the Leadership Conference since her freshman year. She took what she learned from the conference and applied it to Relay for Life at NSU, which raises money for the American Cancer Society.
“I was having trouble getting people involved,” she said. “But I got my members involved because I helped them connect to a cause and made it personal for them. That’s something I learned from the conference.”
Attending past conferences expanded Ahmed’s definition of leadership, as well as increasing her effectiveness as a student leader.
“Leadership isn’t just about managing people,” she said. “It’s about connecting with them, getting on their level and influencing them. If you can’t connect with someone, you can’t lead them.”
Schoeder said that leadership goes beyond organizations and is the number-one skill that employers look for in job applicants.
“You should know how to be a leader, so that you can use that to improve your employment prospects,” she said.
President Hanbury will welcome students to the event, and the keynote speaker, author Pete Mockaitis, will close the conference.
According Mockaitis’s biography on CAMPUSPEAK, an agency that represents college speakers, he wrote “The Student Leader’s Field Guide” during his time as a student at the University of Illinois. He has also been the leader of nine different student organizations. He will speak on how students can achieve higher levels of involvement in student organizations in a single year.
The Leadership Conference is only open to NSU students. Students can sign up online at orgsync.com/45785/forms/168459. The registration deadline is Jan. 15 at 5 p.m., and check-in begins on Jan. 23 at 9 a.m. at the RecWell basketball courts. Snacks will be available for breakfast, and lunch will be provided. Business casual attire is required.
For more information, contact the Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement at 954-262-7195 or slce@nova.edu.
