I attended International Student Leadership Conference which creates a diverse and supportive environment for us, college students. The workshops there really attracted me a lot. From my perspective, liberal arts colleges across the United States since the late 1800s have taught leadership concepts and importance of leadership are in their core curricula. However, there appears to be a dichotomy within the leadership education community: many academicians believe leadership schools need refurbishment; some see a need to revisit the historic, broader approach; while others see the need for greater technical expertise. While experiencing such an activity, I feel that regardless of whether utilizing the classical approach of previous years or the more modern methodology: are undergraduate students exposed sufficiently to the attributes of leadership and the responsibilities of being a leader in the world of reality? Effective leaders are inspirational, influential, visionaries, strong communicators, and trustworthy. More than just exposure, the undergraduate student must understand the responsibilities of being a leader. That’s what I appreciated that we learned at the conference.
Sincerely,
Yuncheng Liu
