By SALVADOR GUTIERREZ, Staff Reporter ¦
The first session of the Student Leadership Institute (SLI) sponsored by the student life department and the honors and scholars program took place Aug. 31, 2018. The new series of workshops allows students to build and/or improve their leadership skills through interactive sessions.
The mission of the SLI is to build students as leaders. “We want an opportunity for students to have a better way to actually connect and build those leadership skills,” Amber Brookshire, student life director, said. The SLI is made up of 12 sessions, and students who attend at least nine sessions will receive a student leadership certificate.
Amarillo College has hosted overnight leadership retreats in previous semesters, but a quest for more options for students led to the creation of the SLI. “We have these great leadership retreats but some people can’t give up two full days,” Jill Gibson, co-coordinator of honors and scholars, said. “We wanted to make leadership training available for more students more often.”
Gibson led the first meeting and kept attendees engaged with group activities and multimedia content based on leadership and teamwork. “I hope students will learn the behaviors necessary to be a successful and effective leader,” Gibson said.
“I also hope they make new friends, meet new people and find different ways to get involved at AC.” Brookshire and Jenna Welch, student life specialist, along with other AC faculty and staff, will assist with and lead future sessions.
About 40 students from different clubs and organizations gathered around for the first session. “I think this is good for everybody,” said Jaxon Mizer, theater major and president of AC’s Delta Phi Omega chapter. “I think this will very much help me get my members together.”
Other students, such as secondary education major Lauren Tanner, said she believes these workshops will help them get better for the real world. “I’m expecting to learn how to put these tips into my daily life through classes and work,” Tanner said.
The sessions will be held from noon to 2 p.m. every other Friday during the fall and spring semesters in the Badger Corner, on the second floor of the College Union Building.
The next session will be held Sept. 14, and an overnight retreat will take place Nov. 2, at the Talon Point Retreat Center.
For more information contact student life at 806-371-5259 or visit the student life office in the Burrow.
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