UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The 2020 Summer Leadership Experience (SLE) was held virtually Aug. 3-5. SLE replaced the traditional Summer Leadership Conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
SLE gave Penn State students the opportunity to "choose-their-own-adventure" in the virtual format. This provided participants the flexibility to explore all the content about leadership, leadership development, and what it means to be a student leader at Penn State.
Attendees had the opportunity to choose from a variety of educational sessions; participated in Community Conversations that provide a safe space to discuss current events and other timely topics; met with peers and professional Student Affairs staff from their specific Penn State campus; and provided fun and engaging activities during the evening Connections events.
Carlos Wiley, director of the Paul Robeson Cultural Center at Penn State University Park, led the Welcome Session. Wiley provided an introduction to the experience and helped set the tone for how the rest of the experience would flow.
The delegation from Penn State Lehigh Valley included the following student leaders: Georgia Gonzalez, Olivia Howe, Alexis Matlack, Brianna Peters, Marwa El-Ashry, Megan O’Donnell, Ben Stratz, Sherina Suthakar, Sophia DiLauro and Sunny Mishra.
Pam Fleck and Patrick Cassidy represented the PSU-LV Student Affairs team during the experience and assisted the PSU-LV student leaders as they learned about various leadership topics.
Topics included different leadership styles, emotional intelligence, developing better communication skills, best practices for student leaders, advocacy training and many others.
“The Office of Student Affairs thanks our delegation of hard working and dedicated student leaders for spending three jammed-packed Zoom days attending SLE!” Cassidy said. “We look forward to them sharing all the amazing things they learned with the rest of the PSU-LV student body and campus community throughout this academic year.”
To learn more about leadership and leadership development at Penn State and Penn State Lehigh Valley contact Patrick Cassidy, coordinator of student life, at pjc60@psu.edu.