Brown Scholars focus on the future
Casey Mattingly
Issue date: 1/27/10 Section: News
By Casey Mattingly
A leader by definition is someone who guides in direction, course, action, or opinion; someone to go before or with to show the way. Bellarmine is host to a group of students who encompass fully these attributes. The Brown Scholars Program of Bellarmine University is a leadership based program in which students learn through acts of service. It is a place for leaders to discover their strengths and weaknesses, to develop and improve those skills, and to learn about themselves as leaders. This past weekend, the Brown Scholars traveled to Paoli, Indiana to participate in an annual leadership retreat.
The first night of the retreat was focused on team building activities. They participated in such activities as cooking a group dinner, watching movies, and playing Apples to Apples. The point of the evening was for the students to play bonding games and to get to know each other better, learning leadership through your peers and community.
The following day was more focused on learning leadership through philanthropic work. The group discussed ideas on how to aid Haiti and also help Youth Build Louisville, which is a group in Louisville that helps underprivileged at risk youth by trying to build a partnership with them.
The group also had a guest speaker, John Mark Eberhardt, Executive Director of Stewards' Staff. Eberhardt is an entrepreneur who left his six-figure earning job to start his own non-profit organization. He spoke to the students about his hardships and failures and how they were necessary in order for him to succeed. Eberhardt emphasized the importance of following your passion and not just settling for things in life. The group of Brown Scholar students really enjoyed Eberhardt's presentation and felt that he was talking to them rather than talking at them. Many saw this experience as learning to lead by being led. Eberhardt joined the students for lunch where they were able to talk with him about his life and his success, giving them the chance to bond with someone who knows all about being a leader.
Junior Angela Roby stated, "I found it enriching to be with my fellow leaders. I really liked how the speaker talked about, how in order to be a leader, you must be led. With that idea in mind, Dr. Wilbon [the group's faculty advisor] asked for ideas on how to improve the Brown Scholars program to make it bigger and better in the future."
The Brown Scholars then went on to discuss what they wanted to accomplish this semester, and brainstormed ideas on how to make their organization more visible on the Bellarmine campus. The groups lined up some great service ideas and put together their advisory board to have more structure to their goals.
The retreat was a great success for the group and gave them the opportunity to meet new Brown Scholars and to bond with each other. It was a great way to come together and be seen as a leading group on campus that people see in action.
A leader by definition is someone who guides in direction, course, action, or opinion; someone to go before or with to show the way. Bellarmine is host to a group of students who encompass fully these attributes. The Brown Scholars Program of Bellarmine University is a leadership based program in which students learn through acts of service. It is a place for leaders to discover their strengths and weaknesses, to develop and improve those skills, and to learn about themselves as leaders. This past weekend, the Brown Scholars traveled to Paoli, Indiana to participate in an annual leadership retreat.
The first night of the retreat was focused on team building activities. They participated in such activities as cooking a group dinner, watching movies, and playing Apples to Apples. The point of the evening was for the students to play bonding games and to get to know each other better, learning leadership through your peers and community.
The following day was more focused on learning leadership through philanthropic work. The group discussed ideas on how to aid Haiti and also help Youth Build Louisville, which is a group in Louisville that helps underprivileged at risk youth by trying to build a partnership with them.
The group also had a guest speaker, John Mark Eberhardt, Executive Director of Stewards' Staff. Eberhardt is an entrepreneur who left his six-figure earning job to start his own non-profit organization. He spoke to the students about his hardships and failures and how they were necessary in order for him to succeed. Eberhardt emphasized the importance of following your passion and not just settling for things in life. The group of Brown Scholar students really enjoyed Eberhardt's presentation and felt that he was talking to them rather than talking at them. Many saw this experience as learning to lead by being led. Eberhardt joined the students for lunch where they were able to talk with him about his life and his success, giving them the chance to bond with someone who knows all about being a leader.
Junior Angela Roby stated, "I found it enriching to be with my fellow leaders. I really liked how the speaker talked about, how in order to be a leader, you must be led. With that idea in mind, Dr. Wilbon [the group's faculty advisor] asked for ideas on how to improve the Brown Scholars program to make it bigger and better in the future."
The Brown Scholars then went on to discuss what they wanted to accomplish this semester, and brainstormed ideas on how to make their organization more visible on the Bellarmine campus. The groups lined up some great service ideas and put together their advisory board to have more structure to their goals.
The retreat was a great success for the group and gave them the opportunity to meet new Brown Scholars and to bond with each other. It was a great way to come together and be seen as a leading group on campus that people see in action.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
storage des moines
posted 2/24/10 @ 3:08 PM EST
Sounds like it was a great retreat
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