Leadership is something that has been stressed to me ever since I set foot on this campus three years ago. This past Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the Leadership Conference. For those of you who have never been to or never heard of the Archer Center’s Leadership Conference, I will take a second to bring you up to speed. Every year, the Archer Center, which is part of the Rensselaer Union, holds a conference to teach students about different aspects of leadership. This event complements the teaching that the Archer Center already does in its Professional Development classes. It also gives RPI students a chance to gain an expanded knowledge on leadership topics that they are interested in learning about. The theme to this year’s conference was “Lead from the Inside,” and was aimed at developing leaders in student groups around campus.
When it was all said and done, 105 clubs and organizations had representation at the conference. By targeting leadership, the conference fosters the success of these organizations by helping their leaders bring clubs to their full potentials on campus. In addition, by helping organizations grow, the members are gaining real world experience, which will in turn give people a leg up when in corporate America.
During the day, I participated in a two-hour-long session on public speaking. This not only gave me the chance to work on my skills in this area, but to network with members of the Rensselaer staff and other students with similar leadership outlooks. In essence, that is what the conference was all about: improving on areas of interest and branching outside of your normal group of associates to network with interesting people that one may not have otherwise come in contact with.
As my second leadership conference, I have found this event to be a very worthwhile activity to participate in. I applaud the Archer Center in what it does for the students when it comes to teaching us the ins and outs out working on a team and in a professional environment. I encourage everyone to take full advantage of the Archer Center. My advice is to be on the lookout for programs that it sponsors, and of course to remember to attend next year’s leadership conference, which I’m sure will be even better than this year’s!
