This year, students participating in the Professional Leadership Program, run by the Archer Center for Student Leadership Development, were offered an opportunity to represent RPI at the U.S. Naval Academy Leadership Conference. This conference brings together military academies and schools and a select few civilian schools. This year was the first year RPI was invited to bring civilians to the conference. The group would have had difficulty making it to the conference if not for Vice Provost Gary Gabriele who arranged for their airfare to be paid for.
The Archer Center’s first plan to select the students attending the conference was to solicit applications from interested parties detailing why they should be selected. But when almost the entire class responded with good reasons, the names were drawn from a hat. Eric West, Maureen Hangac, Reza Hasseini, Michael Branford, and Mitul Kanzaria were the lucky five that were to be taken to Annapolis, Md. The group then met to discuss how they wanted to represent RPI.
According to Catherine Persoon, director of PLP, the students who went chose to make a name for RPI, and took every chance available to them to mingle and network with the others around them. They were comfortable walking up to the keynote speakers and introducing themselves. Many also asked questions comfortably about the topics that were brought up. “They did an outstanding job representing RPI,” complimented Persoon.
Persoon described the experience as inspiring to see the students use their skills in a real world situation and succeed. She said she was also excited that the conference gave her an opportunity to “meet people who have been heroes to me, such as David Campbell.” She said she also enjoyed sitting with the other faculty and discussing their leadership programs. As a result of these meetings, SUNY Maritime has come to RPI to see how our program works. As she said, all were motivated to see “the leaders of tomorrow.”
Persoon noted it was “interesting to see how the government side differed from us … their inspirations differed from ours … but yet there were some similarities.”
Kanzaria added that it was “different from our perception of leadership.” He went on to agree with Persoon that the theme, “Leadership in Balance: Mission and People,” could be applied to their lives in many ways.
Both spoke of interacting with the midshipmen, how interesting it was to observe the way the servicemen acted on-base, and how comparable to themselves the midshipmen could be while off-base. Due to the friendships that were built throughout the conference, West was given the honor of presenting a lithograph to one of the speakers, normally given by midshipmen.
The most notable speaker was Dr. Terry Paulson, who seemed to inspire both West and Kanzaria. They said that he used self-realization in his speech to help them see his point that you should know what beliefs you would not compromise on. His recommendation to have a piece of paper where you write the sayings that you live by on is one that both PLP participants said they had thought about. However, Paulson’s unique twist is that once your page is full, it can only be added to by crossing off a previous belief. Through this, West and Kanzaria have seen those beliefs that they have compromised on and how it is not as easy as it may originally sound.
RPI has been invited back to the conference for the upcoming year, and those attending will be taken from the PLP class again. For those interested in the experiences offered by this class, a résumé, cover letter, and the name of an on-campus reference can still be brought to the Archer Center by an extended deadline of March 3. In order to have this extension, this article must be mentioned when the application is turned in.
PLP was created 20 years ago to help interested students become leaders in the workplace. This semester-and-a-half long program focuses on developing both personal and career skills by studying leadership theories, ethical decision making, motivation techniques, and other tools needed to succeed. The class is also frequented by guest speakers. Participating students are hand-selected and must apply to obtain this experience, and each goes through an hour-long interview with Persoon.
