ELLEN KURT ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Students were encouraged to be bold this past weekend during a Beneficial Organizational Leadership Development (BOLD) workshop.
Conference Organizer Brent Dodd said Be Bold will help students to step up and become leaders within their organization.
“We realize there are over a hundred and some organizations on campus, and none of those organizations are offering any training or service. [This is] something for student organization leaders, so they can get training and the tools they need to be a leader,” Dodd said.
The conference started with Brent Matthias, former director of alumni and parents programs at Wartburg, giving a speech about staying positive and motivated.
“He has a passion for leadership and training young students,” Dodd said.
Twenty-five students signed up for the workshop, but only eight students attended. So instead of having breakout sessions, the eight students attending got to experience each session.
Director of Alumni and Parent Programing Todd Coleman led the first session, “Networking 101,” which provided tips and some of the new integrations happening through networking.
“All aspects of our lives are affected by the ability to network in finding a job [or] selecting a church, doctor or car dealer. Networking is a fundamental part of life and not enough people understand its importance,” Coleman said.
Kateea Scott, Student Life Programming Coordinator spoke about “Unscrambling Your Life.” She provided advice to students on how to balance and organize their school, social and campus life.
“As student leaders, we are all busy with a variety of different things, so this session really helped us set our priorities and realize how to better manage our time,” Nicki Anderson said.
Professor of business Julie Clarkson led the “Power in Groups” session about how understanding power dynamics can help students be more effective with their organization.
“This demonstrated different types of power leaders can have, and described what that power means and how you can use it to your advantage and disadvantage,” Dodd said.
Tim Ewest, professor of business, led the last group session, “Finding Your Leadership Edge.” He talked about students discovering their leadership strengths from their life story. Students went through a process of mapping out different characteristics of their life to find out who they really are.
“I thought that this was helpful to really narrow down my personal beliefs and what I am really willing to fight for. Tim Ewest . . . had great stories and really helped all of us reflect on our lives and leadership thus far,” Anderson said.
Anderson said the session will help her in the future.
“This was a very good experience and gave me time to reflect on my leadership, and also gave me helpful things to become a better leader, “ Anderson said.
Dodd said this will give students who want to become leaders more confidence.
“There is a visible transformation from the person that wants to be in leadership to the person who is in leadership, and I think conferences like this can help,” Dodd said.