Leading For Change

On Saturday, February 7, 2015, I went to the Student Leadership Conference held at Lyndon State College in Lyndonville, Vermont. The Student Leadership Conference was hosted by students at Lyndon State College to “build bridges and foster connections between students, faculty, and staff members at institutions of higher education across the state of Vermont”(LSC).

The Student Leadership Conference was designed for College students to come together and talk about environmental and social justice issues. The goals of the Student Leadership Conference were to encourage students to think outside the box and teach them how to be effective leaders in their community.

Participants in the Student Leadership Conference were encouraged to present and engage in conversations that would led them to be thoughtful, mindful and creative for the power and skills they have. The conference surely strengthen their leadership skills and enhance departments on campus as well as improve student life for all students in Vermont.

In the morning after two hours of the bus ride we, about thirty students from Champlain College, arrived at Lyndon State College and went through registration to get our name tags, schedule and some coffee. After a short overview of our schedule, the president of the State College Joe Bertolino welcomed everyone and he told us a metaphorical story about Albert Einstein.

The story begin by Albert Einstein taking a train and while on the train he loses his train ticket. The conductor of the train goes back and forth asking everyone to take out their tickets and Albert kept searching his bags for his ticket. The conductor of the train confirms Albert that he was okay without his ticket because he was a respected man. Albert said he was not worried about his ticket or the cost of it but instead he was worried that he didn’t know where he was going!.

After the president’s short story there was a keynote speaker, Jean Sienkewicz, who is a social worker and advocate in the SafeSpace program at the Pride Center of Vermont (PCVT), where she supports LGBTQ survivors of violence. Jean spoke about diversity in Vermont and specifically she focused on macro-level policies, poverty and its impact on families. She talked about LGBTQ and how our society perceive them.

After the keynote speaker, participants went through many discussions and workshops that run by students from different Colleges.  I went to the following workshops:

• Break That Ice – run by Teagan and Kelsey, Resident Assistants at Champlain College.
• Safe Sex – run by Ashley and Megan, Spectrum Alliance Secretary at Lyndon State College.
• Resume Review – run by two Lyndon professionals
• Artistic Triage (Bulletin Boredom)- run by Ian and Kevin, Area Coordinators at Castleton College.

All of these workshops were great and eye opening to everyone of us. At the end the conference and the workshops we went through has helped student leaders in giving more tools and ideas to work with to bring change towards diversity and leadership in different schools around New England.

I am very glad I had a chance to participate and experience such a wonderful conference. I certainly enjoyed meeting new intellectual people and it was a great opportunity for me to expand my network.