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Annual conference immerses students in leadership tactics
By Mellisa Blackburn
mblackb4@mscd.edu

Improving MetroConnect and forming a student club council were two of the ideas Metro student leaders presented during the 2007 Leadership Immersion Conference last week in Estes Park.

“Everybody goes to learn more about leadership principles,” said Justice Jackson, a Metro student and director of MetRadio.

The conference is an annual event organized by Metro Student Activities to cultivate leadership skills and bring positive change to Auraria.

This year it focused on networking and the relational leadership model, said Gretta Mincer, assistant director of student activities.

Participants spent three days in team-building exercises and attending workshops. After the students were broken up into groups of seven to 10 people, they were challenged to find a new program or service that would increase student organization networking, Mincer said.

On Jan. 11 the small groups presented their ideas to members of the presidential cabinet and other influential people to demonstrate what they had learned over the three days.

The groups came up with several ideas, including improving MetroConnect as a better place to network, involving more student organizations, having a student club orientation and forming a council of all student organizations as a support. The council could share what’s going on with common events and help plan them together, Mincer said.

Jackson’s group worked on creating an online database and network that would enable students to access clubs at Metro, without having to track down where the clubs actually meet. The network would essentially strengthen the club infrastructure at Metro, Jackson said.

“The Club Hub is cool,” Jackson said, referring to the tri-institutional student organization lounge located in the Tivoli Student Union, Room 346. “But if you don’t know where it is … so we created a model where we would be able to get out and actively promote clubs all the time.”

These final projects are not just practice, Jackson said. Specific ideas developed at the conference are often brought back to campus and implemented that same semester.

Last year Jackson and SGA student trustee Brian Glotzbach put together a 5K run for Metro students and faculty.

Jackson said that this year was calmer than last year, because last year there were a lot of upperclassmen and there was a bit more partying. This year the students had a pool party, and some participants took the opportunity to check out Estes Park at night, he said.

“It’s a good experience,” Jackson added. “I would recommend it for any student who goes here.”