Unleashing our Superhero Leaders
Deadra Miller, online editor
Unleashing one’s “super leader” was the theme for 2018’s Student Leadership Conference held at Founders Inn near Virginia Beach. This year revolved around figuring out our superhero identity and using it in leadership roles inside and outside of school. There were 28 different workshops that student leaders could attend taught by VCCS staff that came from all over the commonwealth with their respective colleges.
There were sessions in the wide variety of determining your superhero identity to how to keep students in the club that you are in charge of. The students that attended the conference had to choose a session for one of the four time slots. I chose the art of mastering you: a self-leadership tool, superhero personality types, constructive communication with Legos, and the S.A.L.S.A. life with the master of ceremonies was Stanley Pearson.
Salsa is an acronym for Support, Act, Learn, Strive, and Accept. All of these words tied into being a better leader with these traits helping you along the way.
With 23 colleges across 40 different campuses spanning the commonwealth, some of the colleges had to travel a day early to make it to the opening events on Friday, Nov. 15. The keynote speakers during meals were James T. Robilotta, Joshua Fredenburg, Van Wilson and Millicent St. Claire. Robilotta spoke on Friday. He was charismatic and funny in explaining his role at the conference and promoted his book Leading Imperfectly. On Saturday morning, Fredenburg spoke about similar ideas to Robilotta. St. Claire, a life coach, was the speaker on Sunday morning and helped us understand that if we love ourselves, we can be a better leader.
On Saturday night, the students split into their respective college groups for dinner. We returned to the Founders Inn for games and ice cream later that evening. Coordinator of Student Engagement and Student Life Shawn Anderson and Landon Hoffacker, a PVCC student, competed in a corn hole tournament and won against 22 other colleges. Sunday morning, all of the students and advisors met for the final meal of the conference.
This conference was enlightening in ways that were unexpected. Individuals from various backgrounds were able to learn things about each other and how to interact without bias.
