One of the major tenants of Christopher Newport University is our school’s dedication to leadership. This can be seen in the President’s Leadership Program, and the prevalence of students graduating with minors in Leadership Studies. CNU’s dedication to leadership, a budding field somewhere between a social science and a humanity, can be seen is Christopher Newport’s long-standing representation at the International Leadership Association’s (ILA) global conference. ILA is an international organization that promotes the study of leadership and its applications in the world around us. The conference alternates between happening abroad and stateside. This year, we got to go to Brussels, Belgium. The theme of this year’s conference seemed fitting: Leadership in Turbulent Times.
A major part of the ILA conferences are the undergraduate and graduate case study competitions. CNU sent three different teams to this year’s competition. One group looked at the economic crisis in Greece, another looked at public policy and how it relates to protests. My group examined the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar (also known as Burma), and the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi. The first round of the competition took place on Thursday, which was the same day that my friend and I got to the country after a ten hour flight… yay. We made it to the conference center with minimal trouble, but navigating the building itself was difficult. Once we got to the right room, we saw an impressive space filled with posters and people. There were nine undergraduate teams and three graduate teams. Various conference attendants roamed the room, and intermixed with them were the judges. There were three rounds of judging, and everyone seemed to get better as the hour and a half went along. After the first round was over, we headed back to the hotel and got some much needed rest.
The next morning, we headed back to the conference center. There were about twenty sessions happening at any give time, and there were fantastic options. Some of the sessions were facilitated by tenured professors, and others were being given by PhD candidates. The first session I went to was about women and leadership identities, and the next one was about civic duty. In between these two sessions, I found out that my team had made it to the next round- we would be competing in the finals! I attended two other sessions that day and learned invaluable things from the other attendees. I felt really well respected; I was sharing my opinion with scholars who have been studying leadership longer than I have been alive. It wa an empowering experience for me, and it assured me that I want to continue my personal journey as a leadership scholar.
The final round of the research competition took place on Saturday night. We presented in front of three judges and a room full of spectators. The rest of the CNU students and professors came to cheer us on. The two other teams came from San Diego State University and Kansas State University. It was another incredible experience, and I’m so glad that I had such a great group of girls to present with. We found out the next morning that we got second place in the undergraduate competition. It was rewarding, but I’m most thankful for this experience. If anyone has the chance to attend an academic conference, even if it isn’t abroad, I would highly recommend that they take it.