As a Leader Advancement Scholar, we have the opportunity to serve as either a member or a chair of a LEAD team. During my first two years as a member of LAS, I was just a chair but I knew I wanted a challenge when going into my junior year. When the applications went out, I applied immediately. I ended up being selected as a Co-Chair for Competition Day, the Leadership Institute’s competitive scholarship event.
As a Co-Chair, along with Anna Dean and Abbey Claes, I was now responsible to help produce and organize the Leader Advancement Scholarship’s Competition Day for the Leadership Institute. When I joined the team, I learned that there were many changes my co-chairs and the staff had in mind to better the experience for all the students involved. One of the first things we did was change the event from the first weekend of the semester to the middle of February. The reason we found this beneficial was that it allowed us more time after Christmas break to get all our ducks in order for the Competition day. It helped to spread out our schedule of things to do. This also gave our team yet another day to get everything done, which including nametags and folders for students. This proved beneficial as we made was inviting more individuals to compete, raising the number from 80 students to 100.
One of the other big changes we made to Competition Day was our venue. This happened because we had to change from Saturday to Sunday as all spaces we had used in previous years had already been reserved by other organizations on campus. We had previously used the rooms of the Leadership Institute in Powers Hall with a few rooms in the University Center. However, we had to relocate everything to the University Center except for one room still in the LI. The change really through us off at first, but as time went by it got much easier and enjoyable. It gave us much more space for everything and it was centrally located, so we were able to find the good in the new venue.
Overall, I loved my experience as a lead team co-chair and I am especially happy that I was able to play a key role in such an important event. I had the privilege of working with not only the other co-chairs but also the Lead Team members. These individuals were from the different cohorts of LAS and they helped us prepare everything for Competition Day. These same students were also volunteers on the day of the event. Working with these students was by far the best part of being a lead team co-chair. It allowed me to not only work with some of the brightest leaders on campus, but getting to work with them also allowed me a chance to learn from them. During that day, I caught myself being immensely impressed with the skills of all my fellow leaders, and I used what I learned to grow in my own leadership ability. All-in-all, this was an incredible experience that I was able to be a part of, and I look forward to see what Lead Team I will be a part of next year.
Logan James Palm 