This year’s Star Summit conference will emphasize innovation and implementation of leadership skills for student organizations.
Star Summit is an annual leadership conference meant to educate, equip and inspire student leaders, said Levi Harrel, assistant director of student development.
“Not only are we educating students, but we’re actually helping them to understand how to implement those skills that they’ve learned,” Harrel said. “Everything that we do is forward-thinking and forward-doing.”
The conference emphasizes educating students on leadership and helping them set goals for their organizations. Though student organization leaders are especially encouraged to attend, the event is open to all students.
This year’s theme is “Being An Innovative Leader.” Provost Kent Buchanan will give the keynote speech, and students will then perform a “leadership innovation inventory” to assess their own skills, abilities and areas of improvement.
The event will finish with a calendar-planning exercise where students will put Post-It notes on calendars around the room with their organization’s events written on them.
The average number of students in attendance is 40-50 students, Harrel said.
At presstime, two students had registered for the event.
Isa Ramirez, dance performance junior and Panhellenic Council President, registered and said the event will benefit her desire to unite all the sororities on campus, she said.
“Something that I really want to do as Panhellenic president is really unite all the chapters on campus and really make sure that we’re all working together,” Ramirez said. “I think by learning how to be a better team player, we can learn how to work better together.”
Star Summit is a good opportunity to come in contact with perspectives different from one’s own and that one may not become familiar with otherwise, Harrel said.
“Star Summit is not only an educational opportunity, but it’s a lot of fun,” he said.
“There are very few opportunities when we get to reach across all boundaries and get to work with other leaders who have different backgrounds, different mindsets, different sets of beliefs and values and form a shared vision together, and Star Summit is very effective at doing that.”
In the past, students at Star Summit created a list of the top ten issues they saw on campus.
Last year, officials decided to switch to a program called “what you would like to see,” which involves a list of things students would like to change in their organizations and in the university in general.
“It’s the same idea, but it’s being used in a more constructive manner,” Harrel said.
He said the new program allows for more of a positive intent rather than focusing on the problems of the university.
Students will have the ability to fill out notecards explaining changes they would like to see be made.
Star Summit is from 2-5 p.m. April 6 in the Leichter Room in Henry J. Freede Wellness and Activity Center. Students who wish to attend need to RSVP by April 3, either through Harrel directly or through the Google Doc link sent out earlier in the month. Attendance is free.
More information can be found on the Star Summit page website, okcu.edu/students/leadership/star-summit.
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