The greek community fostered a night of leadership as they brought two speakers to campus.
Lori Hart, the senior director of Prevention Initiatives for Pi Kappa Phi National Headquarters, ran the workshop and gave the 7:30 p.m. presentation titled “YOU be YOU: A Discussion on Communication, Gender and Relationships.”
“The presentation holds a critical message that being different is not a bad thing and to embrace what makes you unique and stand out,” Vinny Dellaria, Interfraternity Council director of public relations, said. “Students [gained] further insight on the socialization and stereotypes of men and women and how we can all strive to improve our relationships with others all while being reminded to be true to ourselves. This is something that Pi Kappa Phi values tremendously as we strive to accept others for who they are.”
Hart’s presentation emphasized high self-esteem, confidence and being welcoming to others.
“Our chapter, and the men of Pi Kappa Phi, find Lori to be a huge role model as she has … done incredible things for our fraternity,” Dellaria said.
James Robilotta, a professional speaker and the author of “Leading Imperfectly,” gave the 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. presentations titled “Leading Imperfectly.” His speech addressed the acronym PEORM, which stands for Purposeful, Empower, Own, Real, Morals, regarding authentic leaders.
“The crux of the message is that we as humans can’t learn things from people who are perfect; we can only learn things from people who are imperfect,” Robilotta said. “That allows others who are coming behind us to see themselves in us and not think that they have to be this perfect person in order to achieve whatever level of success they think they need to.”
In February, members of greek life attended the Association of Fraternal Leadership Values conference in Indianapolis. Taylor Provax, Panhellenic Council vice president, said she was impressed with Robilotta’s speech and invited him to Bradley.
“Both councils chose to bring James to campus because of his authenticity, charisma and ability to engage an audience,” Provax said. “I thought he would be a terrific speaker to bring to campus for the fall semester. From this keynote, students should take away a better understanding of the value of being an authentic person and how you don’t have to be perfect to be a leader.”
Students said they learned to apply his idea of being yourself both within the greek community and beyond.
“[Robilotta’s] message is important because in greek life, we match with the people who have the same ideals as our own,” sophomore nursing major Rebecca Zaragoza said. “Often when this happens, we begin to blend in with our chapter and identify as a whole, when we should be remembering that although we are a unit, we are also unique individuals within our unit, and unique units within greek life as an entirety.”
