"Engineering Leadership" is the name that the planning committee agreed to call this week long conference to be held from January 20th to the 26th. The conference will kick off Saturday the 20th with a full day session of conferences on topics such as: personal ethics, personal leadership skills, teamwork, time management and conflict resolution. The other workshops scattered throughout the rest of the week will deal with different topics such as creativity, risk taking, sex and leadership, and culture and leadership. The conference will be limited, however to the first 100 students who sign up for it. Applications will be available at the student activities office, and through resident advisors and club presidents.
"There are people who are frustrated with themselves, because they don't know how to lead a group or become effectively involved," said Francesca Escoto, '97 and coordinator of the project, who assured that the workshops were going to focus on a variety of topics aimed to create better personal leadership skills. According to her many students come to WPI with very high grades from High School but lack the knowledge of how effective their contribution to WPI and other people around them can be.
Escoto commented that this year's conference will serve them as a reference for future conferences. "For upcoming conferences we want to reach out more people and extend the length of the conference." In the near future they plan to be able to give academic credit to students who participate in it by involving them in several pilot projects throughout the semester, moreover, the Inter fraternity council (IFC) is already considering attendance to these conference as a requisite for future IFC officers.
Regardless, this year conference's participants will receive a certificate as a proof of their leadership training. But to Escoto that's not really the most important thing that you will get out of the conference. For her, the conference will provide the participants with a life-long skill that will not only benefit them at WPI but also after graduation. According to her a good grade point average might improve your chances of getting the job you want but good leadership skills will provide you with the tools necessary to advance within the company. "Leadership truly begins when one graduates. When challenges start to arise, if you want to move up you will have to take charge or stand up to different circumstances and obstacles that you will find along the way for that you need both personal leadership skills and leadership in other aspects." Escoto remarked.
The students will not be the only ones to benefit from the conference but the whole campus will benefit in the long run. "The campus needs to do a lot of work on getting people more involved or motivating people to get involved. Motivators are leaders. People who make things happen are leaders and we need more of those." Escoto commented. She also explained that sometimes academic success depended on personal leadership skills, "becoming more focused, creating a vision, and setting your goals will greatly improve the way you work, it doesn't matter whether academically or socially."
This ambitious project for the WPI community is being organized by several organizations on campus such as SHPE, Student Activities Office, Student Life Office, IFC and SGA among others.
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