Student Testimonials

Leadership Colloquium Testimonials

 

I attended the National Center for Student Leadership Conference this past weekend (April 3-6, 2014) in Arlington, VA. It was a 4 day event with students from all over the United States and some foreign countries. I met some awesome people and heard some great speakers!

Thursday started out with three keynote speeches, and then evolved into a networking-like event where we found a partner that we didn’t know and asked them three questions. This was a great icebreaker for the weekend. There were many of those throughout the weekend and the presenters and speakers did a great job of making sure that we made efforts to network outside of our comfort zones. On Friday and Saturday there were more keynote speeches and then breakout sessions. I attended the breakout sessions called: “Creating and Sustaining Productive Teams”, “Authentic Leadership: Check Your Leadership Ego”, “You Can’t Lead Others Until You Lead Yourself First”, “Conflict with Civility”, “Icebreaker Toolbox”, “Creating Your Positive Digital Identity”, and “Break on Through Team Builder”. The Break on Through Team Builder was the most personally impacting session, while the Conflict with Civility was the most professionally impacting session. I have notes from some of the sessions, and slideshows from the presenters from others.

Throughout the conference, all of the speakers and presenters were very accessible. Friday night we had dinner with one of the keynote speakers, James Robilotta, who was one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard and possibly the funniest person I’ve ever met. He is a professional speaker with a ResLife background, and he’d be awesome at RA training (HINT HINT).

Going into the conference, I expected there to be more RAs attending, however we were the only group of RAs that attended the conference together. SGAs were the most represented group, and there were many community colleges that attended as well. While not what I expected, I had an awesome time and learned a lot. I would recommend this conference to anyone in a leadership role, whether that be RAs, OLs, SGA, or club leadership. The lessons and speeches given were widely applicable to all leadership roles. I want to thank Reslife for providing me with the awesome opportunity.

Sarah Rogers, ’17

 

I attended the leadership colloquium on behalf of Students Helping Honduras in order to try and better myself as a student leader.  When I first arrived at the colloquium I was impressed by how much organization and planning had gone into setting up the Great Hall and having the pamphlets and giveaway items prepared.  I was also shocked to know that there were so many speakers at the colloquium with such a broad range of topics.  Both sessions that I attended were very well thought out and it was obvious that each speaker was a leader somewhere in the UMW community and knew much about their chosen topic.  I benefitted greatly from attending this workshop, not only as a leader, but as an active member in the UMW community.

Pat Emsley, ’13

 

The 2012 Leadership Colloquium was a great experience because I was given an opportunity to work with my peers and to reflect upon my experiences as a UMW student.  The sessions offered unique perspectives of leadership from both students and faculty, and I was able to enrich my understanding of what it means to be a student leader.  All students should take advantage of educational opportunities such as the colloquium because it is important to learn how to be positive influences in corporate settings and in the UMW community.

 Kianna Davis, ‘13

 

The leadership conference gave me a chance to learn about my strengths and channel them to become a better leader in my clubs among my friends. The workshops were beneficial in that I learned what it takes to run an organization and how to deal with some of the problems that arise. The Strength Finder workshop gave me a chance to explore my hidden talents and learn how to use them in my personal life and in the workplace.

Mary-Kate McCleary, ’16