Emerging Leaders Program Graduation

Emerging Leaders is a UNC Charlotte program founded in 1980 that offers a select group of first-year, first-time UNC Charlotte students the opportunity to develop leadership skills, while making friends and having a great time. 

Back in September, Sarah applied to the Emerging Leaders program. After the application process, there were in person interviews in October and she was accepted!   

In November the group of 70 kids met twice before the end of the semester and then things started in full swing in January with an overnight retreat where they were broken up into PAL (Peer Advised Learning) groups. The PAL leaders were students that had previously completed the Emerging Leaders program. 

In addition to the retreat, there were 12 socials through out the semester where they got to get to know one another and for 4 months they had weekly workshops where they covered topics like conflict management, effective communication, goal setting, event planning, etc.  

And at the beginning of this month, each of the PAL groups had to plan and execute a service project that would benefit the community. After the projects the groups had to present the project to the rest of the Emerging Leaders.

Sarah's group had to create a project based on education.  (I don't remember the exact parameters.) They reached out to area elementary schools to see if they could read to the kids or help the teachers in some way.  They finally got things set up with a school 15 minutes from campus.  They went in and read to the kindergartners and also listened to them read as well. Then they ate lunch with them in the cafeteria.  Sarah said the kids were so cute and loved the extra attention and gave them all hugs as they were leaving.

In addition to the onsite volunteering they had to leave something with the school so each of her group members created brochures on different topics.  Sarah's brochure was on creating good study habits.  It turned out great!  (The brochures were for the older elementary kids.)

The main purpose of the project was to put into practice everything they had been learning at their different workshops throughout the semester. 

On Saturday, they had graduation from the program.  It was remote for parents but the students enjoyed a brunch and then awards and then got their diplomas.  Here are a few pictures Sarah sent me:

The whole group!

 

This is Sarah with her PAL leader, Salvatore. 

This is her PAL group.

Sarah really enjoyed this program and is so glad she applied.  She learned a lot, met a bunch of great people, and has even applied to be a PAL for next year. She also gained a lot of confidence in addition to everything she learned.  (I think she was really proud of herself after giving the project presentation to over 70 people. That's the most people she's ever spoken in front of before.) I'm really proud of my girl...she's taking every opportunity that comes her way and she's making the most out of her time in college.  (And in a few weeks she'll be home for the whole summer! Yippee!)