SLI Conference

November 7th 2008... yupp, thats the big day!

Its the day of the annual SLI Conference... which stands for the Siena Leadership Institute. Yeah, its kind of a big deal.

I'm actually an SLI Fellow, which means I was nominated for the position, then had to apply for it and be selected. I'm one out of about 12 other fellows who have come together for this one year commitment. We meet once a week for an hour and work on our leadership skills. In the Spring of '08, we went on a weekend retreat where we got to know each other a little better and did teambuilding excersizes. Our big project in the spring was to plan a service project. We went to the Ronald McDonald house and cooked dinner for them. Now, in the Fall of '08, our big project is the conference, which is this Friday!

All of the fellows had to come together to plan this huge event. We were each put in charge of sub-categories and for the past few months, we've been pulling it all together. In order to attend the conference, students must be nominated by Faculty and Staff. This year we had more than 450 student nominees. Of those students, almost 200 of them are planning to attend the conference.

At the conference, there will be a keynote speaker, teambuilding excercises, two sessions (of which there are multiple workshops to choose from) and a closing address given by Fr. Kevin Mullen, the president of Siena College. You also get a certificate of completion for attending the conference. I attended as both a Freshman and a Sophomore, and now I'm hosting it!

Typically, the keynote speaker is at the conference, but this year, our speaker is leaving the day of our conference because he is recieving another award. Therefore, he will be giving his keynote address the night before, Thursday. As a result, the SLI fellows and nominees are invited to hear him speak on Thursday, and then the SLI fellows, both past and present, are invited to breakfast with him on Friday morning, 7:00 am. (yeah, its pretty early) This year, our keynote speaker is Dr. Chris Howard, Vice President for Strategic and leadership Initiatives at the University of Oklahoma. If you've got a spare moment, you should look him up!

But for now, its crunch time! There's plenty to do in order to get ready for the conference! With that being said, I should probably get some work done. I've got to get work done so I can go to bed early tomorrow night, or else getting up early enough to be in business attire for 7:00 am is not going to be an easy task!

Until next time, Indira