The Quill/Joanna Mizak
By Matthew Dooley Staff writer
Susquehanna is offering the LeaderShape Institute’s annual and free leadership retreat at the Ladore Conference Center in January 2017.
LeaderShape is a national organization, according to Toni Niles, the interim director of leadership and engagement.
“We participate in the Institute, and the Institute is a six-day intensive leadership development training program that will allow students to not only discover the leadership skills that they have, but to understand who they are as an individual,” Niles said.
The program is as much team building as it is self-building. It puts the students through tasks and simulations to test how they work with others.
“When you are in LeaderShape you will be assigned to what they call a family cluster,” Niles said. “Then you work really closely with that team to not only develop your own skills but to help your colleagues and classmates develop their own skills. You will come out of it as a stronger unit together.”
LeaderShape gives the students the chance to open up.
“LeaderShape gave me a lot of confidence but also made me realize things about myself that were always there that I never really paid attention to,” junior Katherine Cardenas said.
As Niles noted, “[LeaderShape participants] will have a deeper understanding of who they are. They are going to develop bonds and relationships with students on campus that they normally would not have interacted with. They are going to learn how to be a catalyst for change and how to be impactful not only at [Susquehanna], but in the community.”
According to junior James Foster, “It gave me a better idea of how to lead, what are effective strategies to lead, what are the responsibilities of leadership, how do you take your dreams and make them a reality.”
Foster added: “When I came to LeaderShape, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life. LeaderShape gave me the tools that I needed, so when I found out what I wanted to do with my life, I knew how to take the steps to get myself to that point.”
A goal of LeaderShape is to unlock the leadership potential in its participants and work on what type of leader they are.
“[The LeaderShape program] is very valuable to help you understand yourself better, help you understand your learning styles, help you understand how to use the skills that you are given and the interests that you have to better people around you and better yourself as a person,” Foster said.
“If you’re thinking about doing it or even considering it, just do it [because] it’s worth it,” Cardenas said.
The LeaderShape application is on MySU. Students who want to apply should do so before Nov. 20.
