Leading By Learning

Cassandra Chapel ’09 reflects on what she learned at National Jesuit Student Leadership Conference

Love, Justice, Community.

This theme, and the core Jesuit values it is based on, was the guiding force behind the 12th annual National Jesuit Student Leadership Conference held at Seattle University July 30 through Aug. 3. It was the largest NJSLC conference to date boasting attendance from 22 of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities from across the United States.

The conference included 50-minute sessions held throughout each day focusing on five leadership tracks: Community Living, Cultural Diversity, Governance, Programming, and Service & Spirituality. The conference hosted three keynote speakers who focused on leadership within their lives from ethical perspectives: Chris Lowney, author of Heroic Leadership, Rob McKenna, Washington state Attorney General, and Helene S. York, director of the Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation.

As program coordinator for Gateways Orientation, I was invited to be part of the Holy Cross delegation consisting of 12 students and three staff advisors. We traveled across the country to represent the Student Government Association, Campus Activities Board, Multicultural Peer Educators, Beverly Connection, Gateways Orientation, Residence Life and Housing, and Athletics. This conference was an opportunity to meet student leaders from other Jesuit schools, compare how different institutions and organizations function, and encourage each student leader to bring new initiatives back to their respective institutions.

The workshops at the conference covered a wide variety of topics. Each person from Holy Cross was encouraged to attend different sessions allowing for an in-depth overview of all the knowledge being shared by faculty, staff, and other student leaders. Imagine my surprise when I walked into a session titled, “Jesuit Vocation in Our Communities” hoping to discuss how my Jesuit education at Holy Cross has given me many opportunities to figure out my vocation and instead I saw all men in attendance. I quickly realized this could be a session on becoming a Jesuit. Yet, like all other sessions at the conference, the workshops were based on open dialogue and the session on Jesuit vocation soon progressed into conversation on how Jesuit schools across the country encourage students to find their vocation in life — be it as a Jesuit priest, in a volunteer corps, or through some other venue.

Other sessions I attended focused on strategies for women in leadership, thoughtful leadership, effective communication, and how to create sustainable change in an organization. All of this information allowed me to individually learn and grow as a leader, but also had me looking for ways to improve the organizations that I am involved with at Holy Cross.

Overall, I believe the student leaders from the Holy Cross delegation benefited most from the opportunity to connect and get to know one another. An important component of the conference was the time allotted for each delegation to reflect on what we had learned and how to bring that knowledge back to our colleges and universities. It was during reflection that our group discussed ways our own unique leadership positions could collaborate to improve various aspects of Holy Cross student life. One such idea is to host the National Jesuit Student Leadership Conference at Holy Cross. The conference served as a stepping-stone to establish a lasting connection between Holy Cross student leaders and encourage cooperative leadership initiatives that can impact student life at Holy Cross for the better.

Cassandra Chapel ’09 is a music major with a concentration in peace and conflict studies from Savannah, Ga.