ULP Summer Celebration Recap

The event last night was wonderful!  Despite everybody's best guesses, the rain held off until the BBQ was over.  Dr. Jordan, president of Metro State gave an inspiring welcome and shared his enthusiasm for the Urban Leadership Program.  Our graduates were recognized and thanked for all their hard work and Brad Anderson was presented with the Student Leader of the Year award.  It was great getting to know some of the new ULP members and we're all very excited to see them grow.

ULP Summer Celebration

The Leadership Team is getting ready for the annual Urban Leadership Program Summer Celebration.  The event is on Wednesday and invited guests will be welcome to enjoy an evening of food and fun.  We love to showcase our wonderful students and acknowledge their various accomplishments.  We are also very excited to welcome our newest members of the Urban Leadership Program.  It's going to be a great year and we can't wait to work with such motivated and devoted students!

The Leadership Circle - June 1st

The Leadership Circle was established in 2009 to acknowledge individuals who have provided substantial support and guidance to Metropolitan State College of Denver. The Leadership Circle will expand on June 1, 2011, when it inducts its second group of honorees which will include past members of the Metro State Alumni Association Board.

Leadership Circle Induction and Awards Ceremony
4 p.m. Exceptional Place | Extraordinary Possibilities confidential briefing
5:30 p.m. Reception
6:15 p.m. Induction and Award Ceremony
The ceremony will honor Larry D. Strutton (’71), Retired Publisher of the
Rocky Mountain News and Former Chair of the Metro State Foundation Board.
Special Recognition will be paid to outgoing Trustee and past Chair Adele Phelan, outgoing Trustee Antonio Esquibel and members of the Foundation and Alumni Association Boards whose service ends this year.

Guests will enjoy an exclusive preview of the Center for Visual Art’s summer exhibition, Reclamation.

For more information visit http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=225016004178322

Congratulations Grads and Brad!

 While we are sad to be losing a crucial member of our leadership team, it brings us great joy to see Brad graduate this weekend.  Brad will be greatly missed in the office but we know that he will be doing great things and further developing his admirable leadership skills.  Good luck, Brad! 

 Brad Anderson is a senior at Metro State majoring in English with a minor in Secondary Education. Brad is so excited to be starting his journey into the world! Brad’s immediate plans are to teach abroad in the Marshall Islands for a year. He will be leaving mid-July. After returning, Brad is currently planning to pursue a master’s degree in either social justice, education, social work, or international affairs. His passions include writing, animals, travel, and learning. Brad is currently student teaching at The Jefferson County Open School. Brad is currently directing The Laramie Project— a play about Matthew Shepard’s murder and what happened to Laramie, Wyoming after the city became the poster-city for hate-crimes. Performances are May 26th, 27th and 28th at 7:00pm with a Saturday Matinee at 2:00pm. Please email Brad at bradley.anderson.co@gmail.com for more information. As part of the play, the cast traveled to Laramie to meet with various people of the town and to further research the play. A firm believer in hands-on experiences, he has his doubts about the current state of education. High-stakes testing, he believes, is an attempt at the privatization of public education. “I’ve just seen so many bad schools, and it’s not because of the teachers, it’s because of the system,” Brad says. Teaching is the most amazing experience, no matter what you have to deal with during the day you can go home and know that you’re actually trying to change the world, being a teacher is like being on the front-lines to save people through education, and Brad can attest that education definitely saved him. In addition to student teaching, Brad is Metro’s Student Scholars Board Representative, a Program Assistant with People to People Student Leadership Programs, and is also Metro’s Urban Leadership Program Assistant. Brad is honored to be Metropolitan State College of Denver’s Campus Leader of the Year.  Before leaving for the Marshall Islands Brad will be working with People to People in New York City at Columbia University, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and in the Boston at Harvard.

Good luck, Brad!

As finals come to an end, we'd like to take a moment to acknowledge a member of our leadership team who's graduating this weekend.  He's been a delight to work with and we're sure he'll accomplish exceptional things!  Good luck and congratulations, Brad!

Brad Anderson is a senior at Metro State majoring in English with a minor in Secondary Education. Brad is so excited to be starting his journey into the world! Brad’s immediate plans are to teach abroad in the Marshall Islands for a year. He will be leaving mid-July. After returning, Brad is currently planning to pursue a master’s degree in either social justice, education, social work, or international affairs. His passions include writing, animals, travel, and learning. Brad is currently student teaching at The Jefferson County Open School. Brad is currently directing The Laramie Project— a play about Matthew Shepard’s murder and what happened to Laramie, Wyoming after the city became the poster-city for hate-crimes. Performances are May 26th, 27th and 28th at 7:00pm with a Saturday Matinee at 2:00pm. Please email Brad at bradley.anderson.co@gmail.com for more information. As part of the play, the cast traveled to Laramie to meet with various people of the town and to further research the play. A firm believer in hands-on experiences, he has his doubts about the current state of education. High-stakes testing, he believes, is an attempt at the privatization of public education. “I’ve just seen so many bad schools, and it’s not because of the teachers, it’s because of the system,” Brad says. Teaching is the most amazing experience, no matter what you have to deal with during the day you can go home and know that you’re actually trying to change the world, being a teacher is like being on the front-lines to save people through education, and Brad can attest that education definitely saved him. In addition to student teaching, Brad is Metro’s Student Scholars Board Representative, a Program Assistant with People to People Student Leadership Programs, and is also Metro’s Urban Leadership Program Assistant. Brad is honored to be Metropolitan State College of Denver’s Campus Leader of the Year.  Before leaving for the Marshall Islands Brad will be working with People to People in New York City at Columbia University, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and in the Boston at Harvard.

Student Involvement Leadership Award WINNERS

The Student Involvement Leadership Award Ceremony was a great success!  For those of you who missed it, here are the winners for the 2010-2011 school year.  Congratulations to all your hard work making our community a better place!

And the winners are...

Women in the field of science - New Student Org of the Year

ALPACA - Educational Event of the Year

African Student Union - Social Event of the Year

Metro Women in Math - Service-Oriented Event of the Year

GLSA/Feminist Alliance - Multicultural Event of the Year

Dr. Cynthia Vannuci - Student Org advisor of the year

Phil Eggers - Outstanding Member Leadership Award

Journey Through Our Heritage - Roadrunner Spirit Awards for Student Organizations

Sigma Lambda Beta - Student Organization of the Year

Leslie Valero - Outstanding Employee-Customer Service

Maria Lozano - Outstanding Student Employee Project-Educational

Alejandra Chacon - Outstanding Student Employee Project-Multicultural

Alli Tellez - Outstanding Student Employee Project-Service Community

Heather Smyth - Employee of The Year

Roadrunner Leadership Awards
Tess Halonen
Brittany Leddy
Henry Duong
Sammantha O’Brien
Alex Ramirez

Kerry Barley - Stephen M. Hay Leadership Award

Jennifer Raby - Freshman Leadership Award

Amos Espinosa - Sophomore Leadership Award

Mahdyeh Nawkhandan - Junior Leadership Award

Dominic Velarde - Senior Leadership Award

Congratulations again to all our winners and nominees!  

Go Greek!

Student Involvement Leadership Awards

At Metro State there are a number of organizations and students that are making great events happen and helping make the community here stronger. The Student Involvement Leadership Awards are a chance to recognize these students who have spent the year helping and improving the school. The Student Involvement Leadership Awards acknowledge students in the following categories:

New Student Organization of the year
Event of the Year
Educational Event of the Year
Social Event of the Year
Community Event of the Year
Multicultural Event of the Year
Outstanding Fundraising Event
Student Organization Advisor of the Year
Outstanding Student Organization Member Leadership Award
Roadrunner Spirit Awards for Student Organizations
Student Organization of the Year
Outstanding Customer Service by a Student Employee
Outstanding Student Employee Project – Educational
Outstanding Student Employee Project – Multicultural
Outstanding Student Employee Project - Service/Community
Employee of the Year

Nominations for these awards are beginning now and are open until April 12th, 2011. If you have a student in mind that has exemplified outstanding performance in one or more of these areas, nominate them now. Nominations are available online at the following link:
Nominate a Student

The Student Involvement Leadership Awards culminates in the award ceremony on April 26th, 2011 in St. Cajetans at 5:00pm. The Award ceremony features the award presentations as well a fine dinner. Mark your calendars and plan to attend this wonderful event.

Leading from Within: A Workshop with Greg Giesen - posted by Reid Palmer

The topic of leadership has a variety of perspective and ideas. There are issues involving groups, individuals, and performance. To be an effective leader as an individual there are several things that one can do to improve yourself. Many books have been written and assessments been designed to establish who you are and what your leadership style is. Greg Giesen is one such person who has
developed a program to help people develop their own leadership skills. He calls his program “Leading From Within”. 

Greg came to Metro last Wednesday night to present some ideas from his program.  Greg’s program typically runs for a three-day retreat in the mountains of Colorado, but he was happy to come and share ideas with us in the heart of Denver on the Auraria Campus. 

One of Greg’s most effective points was he wanted to establish that people are the most effective leaders not when they are trying to be “good leaders” by emulating traits or buzz words. People become effective leaders by learning in depth who they are, nurturing that knowledge into how they can be an effective leader on their own terms. Being a good leader is not a one-way solution, not everyone who is a good leader does so in the same way. This was one of Greg’s main points and that to lead from within you need to know who you are at your core.

To further the idea of people getting to know themselves Greg had the group complete and exercise in which we were asked to imagine a book we would write about ourselves. This lesson had us thinking about what traits we were good and how we might use those in the context of finding our own leadership style. We shared what we had written and this helped each one of us learn a little as well as see how others view their strengths.

The workshop was a great chance to meet with a community member who knew a lot about the subject of leadership and has ways to help others get the best out of themselves. Greg Giesen is a helpful resource on the subject of leadership and we were happy to have him on campus.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

If you haven't already seen this I strongly encourage you to view this video of Carnegie Mellon Professor,  Randy Pausch.  This is a wonderful, inspiring, touching lecture on "achieving your childhood dreams".

Motivation

It only seemed right to have this video follow the post on "Drive".

Gretta's book recomendation: "Drive"

Daniel Pink, “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”

Reviewed by Gretta Mincer

Most of us believe that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is with external rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That’ s a mistake, Daniel H. Pink says in, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, his provocative and persuasive new book. The secret to high performance and satisfaction—at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

Last month, I heard an interview with Daniel Pink on NPR’s Morning Edition and was intrigued by the concepts he discussed in the interview. Interested enough to read a book though? Not an automatic yes. You see—I haven’t read more than 5 books a YEAR since I’ve been out of school. Perhaps I got ambitious with my new year’s resolutions—I ordered the book. Here’s my preview. You all are welcome to check-out this book and several others available in our small Leadership library in Student Activities.

Why Should I Read the Book:
The book contains scientific information about what motivates people. It challenges traditional approaches and gives new ideas for motivating others. The book focuses on three themes for motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

In working on a college campus, I can see how this might play out in student organizations. Groups may be setting themselves up to fail if you build an expectation that food will be at student organization events. Food may be a small motivator for new people to be involved, but people who continue to participate in the organization may build this as an expectation. People are much more likely to remain involved if they are given autonomy, responsibility and some creativity and feel like they contribute to the team. The second half of the book contains exercises designed to grow your skills in motivating others.

http://www.danpink.com/drive

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122271669:

Women's Leadership Conference Recap

This morning starting off with a truly moving keynote speech by Pam Grier.  She's a very passionate and engaging speaker, with a touch of sass, who comes across as genuine and sincere.  She spoke about her life, and coming into fame, she talked about her book, and the many obstacles that she's overcome.  She spoke about leadership and what that looked like to her noting that "love is the most powerful leader of them all" which really set the tone for the rest of the day. 

The rest of the morning was organized around two sets of breakout sessions covering issues from career planning to what makes a woman.  One of the breakout sessions that I attended was led by Jenny Finn from Colorado Springs and focused on "inner sustainability".  This was a very unique breakout session, stirring up lots of emotions and it brought a large group of individuals much closer in a short period of time.  We were all pushed outside our comfort zones and encouraged to recognize how we felt in various scenarios. We acknowledged how we tend to conform to society's expectations of how we should act.  Jenny Finn talked about the metaphorical masks that we wear and she designed activities around taking those masks off.  We started the session by writing down one word that best describes the light inside of us on a pebble that we placed in a large metal bowl.  At the end of the session we all picked one of the stones out of the bowl and described how it was meant for us.

The conference came to an end with lunch and a final panel of female leaders in the Colorado community.  The panel was comprised of Rebecca Crummey, Canon at St. John's Cathedral in Denver; Charlene Porter, author of Bold Faced Lies; Tamra Ryan, CEO of Women's Bean Project; and Judi Diaz Bonacquisti, VP of Enrollemtn Management at MSCD.  Each woman shared their unique and exceptional life stories that brought them to where they are today.  It was a very diverse panel and it was great hearing from such accomplished women. 

While I wish I was able to see more of the other breakout sessions, I truly enjoyed meeting such incredible individuals.  Between the presenters, facilitators, and attendees, there were so many inspiring people brought together today.

Women's Leadership Conference 3/4/2011

On Friday, March 4th is the 15th Annual Women's Leadership Conference! The theme of this year’s conference is "Our History is Our Strength". The day will feature a keynote speech from Pam Grier in addition to interactive sessions and programs designed to address contemporary approaches to leadership, inclusive of a more globalized perspective as well as women’s approaches to leadership in the Western World. Participants will identify leadership within themselves, reflect on their own strengths and cultivate confidence with regards to leadership. 

The entire event will be held in the Tivoli Turnhalle on the Auraria Campus on Friday, March 4, 2011 from 8:00am-2:00pm, with Ms. Grier’s keynote address over breakfast 8:30am. Interested participants can register at www.ucdenver.edu/studentlife; select “Get Involved” and then “Leadership Programs”. The registration fee is $5.00 for students, $10.00 for faculty/staff and $15.00 for community members and includes breakfast and lunch.

Reid Palmer, Leadership Graduate Assistant

Leadership is present in many areas at Metro. There are many students who look
for opportunities to develop leadership skills as well as take initiative to be leaders
in the community. Some of the examples of leadership here on campus are: the
Urban Leadership Program, leadership conferences, and Student Government.

The Urban Leadership Program (ULP) is an opportunity for students to develop skills
within leadership. As members in the program students take one class within
leadership studies. In these classes students gain an academic understanding of
leadership. To take this understanding into practice students in ULP also complete
a service-learning project. Also students work with a member of the community
who is a leader to gain knowledge and leadership skills from them. Students in
this program leave the program with the skills and experience to be leaders in the
community after they complete their studies at Metro.

Throughout the year at Metro there are several leadership conferences to attend.
There is the Women’s Leadership, the African-American Leadership, Latino
Leadership, Fraternity and Sorority, and the Leadership Immersion Conference.
Some of these conferences are hosted by other schools on the Auraria Campus but
are open to Metro Students. One of the signature events for leadership programs
at Metro is the Leadership Immersion Conference. This event spread over three
days in Estes Park allows students to address an area on campus where leadership
is needed and explore options through the process. The conference is set around a
book within leadership that helps guide the student’s thinking and gives them ideas
to use for their project.

The Student Government Assembly offers chances for students to take advantage of
opportunity to be leaders in the campus community. As members of the assembly
students hear students concerns and present these ideas to the administrative
leadership of the college. This valuable experience allows students to practice
leadership techniques, and presents real world leadership experience for them.
These are just some of the opportunities for students to look for leadership here on
campus. There are many other chances for students to get involved with leadership
programs and to grow into leaders in the community. Stay tuned to this blog to
learn more about all things leadership that are going on here at Metro.

Fraternity and Sorority Leadership Conference

Colorado Leadership Alliance by Brad Anderson

This last weekend, on Saturday January 29^th, the Auraria campus hosted, for the second year in a row, the Colorado Leadership Alliance’s annual Leadership Summit.  The CLA, an organization that operates under The Leadership Foundation with the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, connects the eleven schools across Colorado that operate leadership programs that emphasize both academic achievement and service work. The Urban Leadership Program, Metro’s leadership program, just a year and a half old, currently has 16 members and accepts applications twice a year in November and April.

            The CLA Summit, called Finding Your Passion: New Leadership Opportunities, started off with a bang from Andrew Romanoff, the keynote speaker, and his attitudes and beliefs toward leadership.  Next, the first break out session brought five professionals to the Tivoli where they shared their own paths, interests, and passions. I attended a session by a woman named Jami Duffy. Duffy talked about her life journey after college, which included the Peace Crops, working in Summit County with immigrant workers, to now being the Executive Director of the Flobot’s non-profit organization where she works to promote positive social change through empowerment and youth engagement.

            After Duffy’s amazing presentation, I attended a workshop by college students, for college students.  The workshop, geared on social justice, included students from UNC and USAFA talking about what they are doing on their campuses and within the Coloradoan community. Unfortunately, I had to leave the workshop early to go to my interview for Student Leader of the Year. Each year every college and university in the CLA selects a Campus Leader of the Year to compete against the other ten colleges for the top prize. In the highest public room in the Tivoli, the committee of seven, who scrutinized every aspect of my resume, interviewed me.

            To round out the events of the day the CLA hosted a discussion room called the World Café where students mingled and participated in guided leadership discussions.  After, business leaders came and hosted round table discussions that helped to educate students on everything from interview tips to what steps banks are taking to educate potential homebuyers.  Following the conference was a fabulous reception in Saint Cajetan’s, and even an opportunity to make the world a better place. Some USAFA boys, who helped found an ongoing event called 16^th Street Miracles, lead a small group of students to 16^th street to pass on random acts of kindness and help make the world a better place.

Overall, the day was an immense success and truly has helped shape so many leadership students. If you’re interested in joining the Urban Leadership Program please visit Metro Student Activities website and look under the leadership link.

Welcome!

Welcome to the new Metro State Leadership blog!

This is where you will learn about upcoming events, view pictures from retreats and conferences, learn more about the exciting lives of your peers, and find new ways to get involved.  We want to showcase YOU, our leaders, and all the ways you improve the campus community.  This blog will serve to build and strengthen our leadership community, increase and facilitate student involvement, and share with everyone how amazing our volunteers and participants are!

For more information on the leadership programs on campus visit the Student Activities website.