This weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the annual LEAP conference in Mansfield, MA with Suffolk University. This conference is designed to bring together the executive boards of different clubs at Suffolk, so they can plan for their upcoming school year and network with one another. There’s icebreakers, workshops, and more!
I went with Program Council, a programming board at Suffolk that plans a variety of fun events both on and off-campus for students. Next year I will be the Vice President and I’m looking forward to my new role!
To start the weekend, I and some current executive board members started our day by going to the renaming of Suffolk’s 20 Somerset building to the Leonard J. Samia Academic Center. Leonard donated $10 million dollars to the University to help provide students with scholarships. It was an honor to be able to attend the ceremony.
We then headed to our Ridgeway Gym to meet everyone going to the conference and participate in some icebreakers before we headed down to Mansfield.
Our first night included an introduction to programming as a helpful reminder on the do’s and dont’s of programming and everything we need to know to successfully plan events. We also had a team-building workshop with a speaker named Michael Miller. I got to meet so many new Suffolk students and see what their organizations do!
The night ended with some planning for next year and fun activities such as karaoke and E-Board bonding. Even though it wasn’t technically part of the conference, getting to spend time and bond with the new E-Board was one of my favorite parts!
Day 2 consisted of many workshops to help me with my new leadership role. I went to three different workshops that taught all different skills, such as how to recruit new members for our club, how to keep relationships on E-board friendly, yet professional, and how to gain trust within your E-Board. It was a great experience to be able to learn something new, and be able to take it back to my executive board, and put the skills to use!
We ended the day with some more planning for next year and I’m excited to see what’s in store for Program Council! I’m so thankful to have attended this conference, learned new skills to help me in my leadership role, and create better friendships with the people on my E-Board.