photo by Maddie Gehling
The Lewis J. Burger Center for Student Leadership and Public Service had a busy week, hosting Leadership Over Dinner Wednesday night and Through the Lens of Leaders last night.
Members of Leaders Instilling Knowledge through Cooperative Service (LINCS) – a capstone leadership organization – directed Leadership Over Dinner, which aimed to educated students about handling stress.
“With finals coming up and midterms, we figured talking about stress management would be nice,” senior public relations major David Jorgenson, one of the event’s leaders, said. “We thought this would be relevant and, hopefully, that people can kind of use this, and not only use it for themselves, but also hopefully share it with others.”
Senior management and leadership major Anna Jolly said the program gave her new information about stress and how to cope.
“I think it’s really great to have informative programs like this as a reminder, because, even myself sometimes, I get caught up in my mind or my activities, and I need a reminder from someone else,” Jolly said.
The event featured a TED Talk titled “How to make stress your friend” by psychologist Kelly McGonigal.
“I had never seen that TED Talk before, and I thought that was very helpful in trying to turn stress into more of a positive thing rather than always looking at it from a negative perspective,” Jolly said.
Senior health science major Margaret Thon said the program brought up an important issue for college students.
“Some people do view stress as such a negative aspect within their life, and it’s important to realize that it can help you if you have the right mindset,” Thon said.
Students then discussed leadership at Through the Lens of Leaders the following night with Dave Mingus, the mayor of East Peoria, Kevin Larkin, the vice president of Illinois Mutual Life Insurance, Kate Cundiff, member of the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council, and Rita Ali, the director of diversity at Illinois Central College.
“It doesn’t matter that you pick your passion today; it matters that you figure out who you are,” Larkin said. “Find your strengths; find how people react to you. You’ll find certain people react certain ways to different things you do, [so] experiment with that. It’s a safe place right now.”
Senior hospitality leadership major Abby Colvin said college students tend to worry about insignificant problems while on campus.
“In college, we’re worried about, ‘Oh my gosh, are we going to graduate Cum Laude or Suma Cum Laude,’” Colvin said. “[But] it’s all about what kind of a person you are … It’s just really awesome to hear the problems that we think are going to be problems aren’t actually limiting factors. They’re actually little bitty stepping stones.”
