The 2022 ACC Leadership Symposium will host six NC State students from April 1-3 at Syracuse University in a conference where they will be working with other college students to teach them various leadership skills.
According to Colin Beamer, staff advisor for the trip and program coordinator in the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement, the overall theme of the conference this year is “breaking the barrier: creating an intersectional community, using historical context to strengthen connections amongst our diverse experiences.”
“ACC, the athletic conference, what they do is they take money from the bowl games that they generate money from, from the ACC games, and then they divide it up to different initiatives beyond just student athletics,” said Brian Mathis, associate director of student leadership and engagement.
One of these initiatives is student leadership and leadership development for various college students. Beamer said he volunteered to go on this trip as the advisor because he believes it is an opportunity for him to support an NC State program.
“We made our way around the team to see if anybody was interested, and I was definitely interested in serving as an advisor for this round and [am] very much look forward to traveling with the students for it,” Beamer said.
The NC State students participating in this year’s conference are Jake Andrichuk, Sami Atassi, Emma Grace Barnes, Kelis Johnson, Jacy Copeland and Thusna Gardiyehewa.
“They apply through a process, and then they get selected by our office staff members who help filter through that process,” Beamer said. “Sarah Fayard and I went through and did the review for the applicants, and we chose different students just based on different types of experiences they’ve had, who we thought would benefit really well from this experience.”
The conference, according to Beamer, is a leadership development workshop that gives students opportunities through various activities, to get to know each other and share what they do at each college institution.
On day one of the conference, students and advisors will participate in a button swap between students, an opening keynote with Cerri Banks, Syracuse vice president and deputy to the senior vice president, a social outing and a professional meet and greet.
“One fun thing that they’re going to do is they’re going to do a button swap between all of the institutions,” Beamer said. “So the goal is to bring a button that has your institution’s information or logo on it and you can share that with all the different members there, so everybody has a takeaway.”
For the last two days of the conference, there will be speeches, service activities, dinners, group reflections and a networking session.
Due to the pandemic, there have been shifts for the past couple of years in the way this conference is held. This year, while the conference can take place as normal, Beamer said there have still been changing protocols taking place.
“I would say from the advisory meeting that we had, one of the biggest challenges that Syracuse mentioned was trying to navigate how quickly the protocols for COVID-19 are changing and how… everybody has their own rules that they have to follow,” Beamer said. “The biggest things that have come up are just the logistics of communicating effectively about…those policy policies and protocols.”
According to Mathis, students will collaborate with others to solve problems faced by student leaders on campus.
“The student leaders from all the institutions that are coming together are really approaching it with a spirit and attitude of collaboration, combining practices and people’s experiences to find solutions to leadership challenges that people are experiencing at their own campuses,” Mathis said.
