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Minnesota State University Mankato
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Leadership U challenging students to become better leaders The program engages those in small group discussions and workshops
MARJAN HUSSEIN Staff Writer The Leadership U program at Minnesota State University, Mankato provides students with opportunities on campus and in the community to find, develop and challenge their leadership skills. Great leaders hardly set out to be leaders, but their actions inspire others to dream, learn and do more; thus, their unique qualities always tend set them aside from the pack. Leadership U is a department under the umbrella of Student Activities. Leadership U stands for leadership for the students and shares a connection with Student Activities. The department provides different leadership workshops for students on campus that inform, enlighten and engage students in order to sharpen their leadership skills in every session.
Photo courtesy of Student Activities Ashley Strom, assistant director of Student Activities and advisor for Leadership U, said she is highly pleased with the program as it takes away the monotony of listening to a presenter continuously speak on a given topic.
“The cool thing about the leadership workshops is that the facilitator leads the students by getting them to engage in various activities or exercises thereby coaxing the students in a sense to interact amongst one
another,” Strom said. The leadership workshops are based on the “Student Leadership Competencies Guidebook” by Corey Seemiller. The book essentially acts as an outline to plan each workshop and
gets students chatting about leadership concepts. “The interaction between students allows them to share their perspectives, thereby molding a sense of awareness in leadership that makes a student consider and appreciate everyone’s line of thought, which is a character of a good leader,” Strom said. The leadership workshops are scheduled every Tuesday from 5 to 6 p.m. on the second floor of the Centennial Student Union and run for the entire academic year. The peak point of the leadership program is a weekend retreat scheduled in January at Camp Omega, where students partake in the same activities they would at MNSU, but in a completely different environment. This trip is popular amongst students and aids in advertising Leadership U. The Program is run by a board which is a collection
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Guest ecologist speaker talks of the importance of watershed
STEPHANIE VOGEL Staff Writer On Monday, Sept. 18, ecologist Sarah Hobbie came to Minnesota State University, Mankato as a part of the Leonard A. Ford Lectureship. Jeff Pribyl, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Geology and coordinator for the Leonard A. Ford lectureship, explained the history and purpose of this lectureship.
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“It was established 28 years ago. The family of Leonard Ford donated money to establish a lectureship in his name and in his honor,” Pribyl said. “The goal of the lectureship is to bring a nationally or internationally known chemist or scientist to campus for a series of talks.” Although Hobbie is an ecologist, her work does relate to chemistry. “She talks about the carbon cycle, about where atoms [and] molecules go in our environment,” said Pribyl. Hobbie gave two lectures in the Ostrander Auditorium. Her first lecture was directed toward students of science and chemistry, while the
second lecture was more general and geared toward the public. The second talk was titled, “Trees, Pets, and People: a watershed approach to understanding urban water pollution.” Hobbie gave a short summary of this talk, stating, “We’ve done some analyses at the watershed scale of trying to understand where those nutrient pollutants are coming from and how they’re moving from land to our urban waterways.” Hobbie is a professor at the University of Minnesota. Although her research focuses on watersheds in Saint Paul, she explained, “I think what we are learning is
actually applicable to cities more broadly than just Saint Paul.” Hobbie stressed the importance of watershed and why it is important. “Watershed is all of the area that drains to a particular point,” she explained. “In urban systems, most of our watersheds are buried in sewers instead of draining to rivers, streams, or lakes. Our urban lands drain to storm sewers.” “The majority of input
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Dr. Sarah Hobbie Photo courtesy of the Department of Chemistry and Geology
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News Editor Alissa Thielges alissa.thielges@mnsu.edu