Student group brings together campus leaders

A student group that exists to make other student groups better, Leadership for Change has spent the past two years trying to bolster a campus-wide discussion on leadership between student groups.

Founded by two students, Alexandra Landon ’12 and Claire Cole ’12, in January 2011, LFC was started when the then-juniors realized a wide variety of groups on campus share common difficulties such as holding members accountable and having enough participation at events.

“They wondered why there was not a common platform for groups to come together and discuss these issues in a more reflective and intentional way,” Jack Ching ’13, the current president of LFC, said.

This spark for the group led Landon and Cole to propose the idea to the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students in early 2011. Dean Thomas Dunne then made the group an ODUS-sponsored, student-led initiative.

The group also works closely with the Leadership Committee under Vice President for Campus Life Cynthia Cherrey, which was also started in 2011 to address the issue of student leadership.

LFC has piloted several programs in hopes of promoting better and more effective discussions of leadership. One of its most popular programs is the informal dinners in Campus Club where individuals discuss leadership topics like motivation, leading peers or delegation.

“Our main goal is to help people become better leaders, whatever they consider leadership to be,” Ching explained. “We hope to just serve as the connectors and facilitators between students and elicit inspiration and discussion regarding their own struggles and successes when it comes to leadership.”

Jon Ma ’15, president of the Class of 2015, has gone to several of these discussions and said he found them extremely useful.

“After going, you begin to realize how many people go with the flow regarding leadership and just go along with the initial strategy they had in place of how best to lead a group,” he said. “These conversations serve as a place to get feedback.”

Ma explained that the idea of students intentionally trying to improve their leadership abilities might be foreign and that the dinners offered him a chance to learn from other leaders.

In addition to these dinners, LFC hosts a lecture series in which it has members from the University’s Board of Trustees or other influential alumni come to speak about their leadership experiences.

LFC also collaborates with campus groups, in which an LFC member customizes a series of questions and activities to do with a particular group to facilitate its development.

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For the past two years, LFC has also held retreats to allow individuals to reflect on their leadership in the past year. Members also discuss and think about good strategies and practices to implement in the future.

Ching said that individuals involved with LFC don’t claim they are expert leaders, but rather that they all share a passion for leadership.

“We just want every student who is motivated and wants to grow as a leader — whether they have a position or title in a club or not — to feel as if they have a place to share and discuss their leadership ideas,” he said.