The Office of Student Involvement and Leadership Development will host the first NIU LEAD SUMMIT on Nov. 13 and 14.

The summit will include speakers Hill Harper, author of three New York Bestsellers, and Scott Allen, the founder of the Center for Leader Development.

“The LEAD NIU SUMMIT has been the vision of Student Involvement and Leadership Development’s Director (SLID), Angie Dreessen,” said Karla Neal, the assistant director for Student Organizational Services and Leadership.

“The SLID office has worked to bring the Summit to NIU through generous donations, the hard work of a team put together to facilitate the program and careful planning since July, the Student Involvement and Leadership Development office will “present the first LEAD NIU SUMMIT to our NIU students,” Karla said.

Students were required to fill out an application that included a mandatory short essay as well as their resume.

“We believe that filling out the application is the first commitment students make to display their interest in the summit,” she said. “The items they were asked to submit with the application, like their resume and references, are resources that can benefit the students outside of the summit.”

There are many benefits for the students chosen to attend the two day Summit, Karla said.

“Participants will have the opportunity to fill out the Emotionally

Intelligent Leadership for Students: Inventory which is a qualitative and quantitative self assessment tool,” she said. “They will receive direction on how they can continue to develop the capacities that are prevalent in them and participants will also work in small networking teams which will provide for targeted discussions and focused team exercises on leadership topics.”

Student leaders who wanted to increase their leadership skills also applied for the summit.

“I applied to the NIU LEAD Summit because it will be a great opportunity to learn from regional and national experts,” said CAB President Byron Neal. “I want to align myself with my fellow leaders from around the NIU campus and maximize my leadership potential.”

The SLID office would like to make the summit an annual event; this year it was funded by donations from “the Knight family in honor of their son, a former NIU student leader, Kevin D. Knight,” Karla said. “We also received financial support from the Student Association, Campus Activities Board, Residence Hall Association, the NIU Alumni Association, as well as donated supplies from the Holmes Student Center.”

Those who facilitated the summit hope that leadership and personal skills are better developed and improved, Karla said.

“By the end of the summit, participants will gain new understandings and approaches to their own personal leadership development, along with strategies for implementing positive change in organizations they are a part of now and in the future,” she said.

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All NIU students are welcome to attend Hill Harper’s presentation.  That portion of the Summit is open to all students and does not require an application.  Tickets are free of charge and are available now in the Holmes Student Center Box Office which is opened:

-Monday-Friday: 12:30pm – 5:30pm

-Sunday 12:30pm – 7:30pm

-Tickets will be available for NIU students only from 10/25 – 10/29

-Tickets will be available for faculty and staff from 10/31-11/7

-Tickets will be available for the general public from 11/8-11/12