The Student Leadership Conference at McK!

By: Jasmine Gage ‘25

 

This weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Student Leadership Conference here at McKendree University with a bunch of my classmates. The event consisted of concepts that centered around the main theme of leadership and tips on what you can do to increase your leadership status.

The first speaker was Jennifer Pickerell from Career Services. Her presentation was centered on how to edit your resume to appeal more toward your potential interviews, what sets of skills hiring managers look for, a detailed handout on what leadership skills are, and what makes a leader. She also gave us a nice booklet that consists of important information on how to structure your resume, what questions to ask, helpful tips on word choice, and more. This booklet is also available at the Career Services office! If I were you, I wouldn’t miss the chance to have such a helpful tool in my back pocket.

The next presentation was presented by Dr. Jean Sampson and Donna Matanane. Their presentation was centered around the idea of a mission statement and what that means for a potential business. We learned about the idea of a mission statement and how important it is when it comes to starting up a business. We also played a mini-game to guess what an organization was based upon its mission statement. We ended up receiving more information about the core values of a mission statement such as how many core values you should choose and how to format a mission statement.

After that, the next presentation was delivered by Millard Curtis. His presentation was primarily focused on building a brand and where to begin when it comes to starting your own brand. He explained to us how we should focus on the “why” when it comes to brand building and also to try utilizing what opportunities we have at our disposal. For example, if you wanted to promote your brand on social media, it would be wise to consider social media outlets such as Tiktok or Instagram in order to reach others due to how popular these two apps have become within the last few years.

The next speakers were Shaquille O. Armstrong, Chanaya Thomas and K’taria Haynes. This presentation focused on how to plan an event and what goes into planning events. They discussed key values of an event such as the purpose of an event, the budget, the target audience, the location of the event, and more. We even had a chance to create mock-up events, plan out these steps in our groups, and present them to each other. Everyone had their own perspective of what goes into planning an event and it was pretty fun to listen to everyone’s ideas!

The last presentation of the day was from Zane Phillips, a student here at McKendree University. Zane’s presentation focused upon how we as people have the capability to do whatever we put our minds to and how we should be able to use our pressure from everyday life to push us toward our goals. I enjoyed this presentation the most due to how passionate Zane was toward his topic. Despite the amount of obstacles life has thrown in his way, it has never stopped him from achieving his goals.

The day ended with an award ceremony for the student leaders on campus. The categories were separated into three categories: Bearcat Pride, Rising Stars, and Spark Awards. Congratulations to the following: Joylene Bills, Rowan Daughtrey, Hannah Kempworth, Jordon Spence, Sydney Bires, Ben Anderson, Anna Leitner, and Zane Phillips. They were awarded, represented by fellow McKendree faculty, and celebrated for their dedication and leadership here at the university by family and friends.

Overall, the conference was very fun to attend, and I learned a lot of good tips during my time there. I can't wait to attend the next one!