Leadership Program plans annual student conference

Submitted by Megan Otts
Phone: 907-474-7571
10/16/07

Dozens of students will gather on campus this week for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Leadership Program’s eighth annual leadership conference. The two-day event, scheduled for Oct. 19-20, begins with a Friday evening service project and continues on Saturday with a slate of 18 workshops on leadership styles, communication, motivating members, social networking, project planning and more.

The conference is open to all UAF students. The $10 registration fee covers meals, snacks, gifts and door prizes, including a round-trip ticket on Alaska Airlines. Conference participants are also eligible to apply for a $500 Emerging Leader Scholarship.

The theme of this year’s conference is "Leadership Matters, Make Your Mark." According to Meredith Cameron, co-chair of the conference, she hopes the conference will empower students to go beyond recognizing issues in the community.

"It’s about finding your passion or your vision and realizing that if you don’t necessarily like the way things are around you"¦then you should have the tools to change all of that," she said. "This is the conference to go to if you want to find out how you can change things within your environment."

Michael Furdyk, co-founder and director of technology for the social networking organization TakingITGlobal.org, will give the keynote address. Furdyk will speak about his entrepreneurial experiences, both successes and failures.

Furdyk will fit in well with the conference’s theme, as his company promotes taking action to solve social issues said UAF Leadership Program director JJ Boggs.

"Somebody in Africa is talking to someone in Canada who is talking to somebody in Norway about the war in Iraq, about poverty, about nutritional issues, you name it," she said. "Not only are they talking about it, but they are doing something about the social issues."

Boggs emphasized that anyone can attend the conference and come away with useful leadership skills. She encouraged students who plan to attend the conference to bring a friend along. For every referral, she said, students will be entered into a drawing for a special Leadership Challenge prize.

"We definitely encourage people who have never even thought about leadership or even thought of themselves as leaders to come out and participate in the event," she said. "In addition, we want people who are already established leaders on our campus to come and expand their leadership toolbox."

Brandon Meston began attending the leadership conference in the fall of 2003 as a freshman. He worked on the conference planning committee the following year.

"It seems like every (leadership) conference I go to there are more personal leadership development opportunities," he said. "I always learn something that I didn’t know before."

He added that the conference allows him the opportunity to network with fellow leaders, both on campus and in the community.

"There will be a lot of administrators there, a lot of people from the community and a lot of other students who might be involved in similar things," he said. "There will be many groups represented there."

The conference is the flagship event of the UAF Leadership Program, which strives to cultivate effective global leaders for Alaskan communities, business, and industry. The Leadership Program hosts various leadership, civic engagement and service-oriented events throughout the year.

For more information on the conference or the UAF Leadership Program, visit www.uaf.edu/leadership or call 474-1170.