The purpose of the day of service is to provide students an opportunity to give back to the community in a way that benefits both parties. While students are providing painting, landscaping and beautification services to Maxwell and Central Elementary, they are also being provided tools to foster their leadership skills.
“We decided to partner with the UA L.E.A.D.S. conference this year because we believe as an office that leadership and service goes hand in hand,” said Bailey Chandler, team leader for the CSSV, who helped plan the event. “This is a big day for our office and the University as a whole because it allows us to send large amounts of students into the community and help with whatever they need.”
The conference will begin with keynote speaker, Kat Cole, president and chief operations officer of Cinnabon Inc. Attendees will be educated in the areas of leadership foundations and development, social justice advocacy and diversity awareness.
Prior to the service component, Joshua Fredenburg, president of the Circle of Change Leadership conference and author of five books, will conclude the conference, speaking on ethics and service related to effective leadership.
Attendees will spend the latter half of the day participating in service projects at elementary schools, Habitat for Humanity builds and a Boy Scout camp.
“Anytime that students and faculty can work outside the classroom is a nice additive to the norm,” said Courtney Thomas, director of Community Service for the CSSV. “This gives the students the opportunity to interact with faculty in a different environment, which in turn sometimes helps to further the relationship in the classroom.”
The UA L.E.A.D.S. conference will be held in the Ferguson Ballroom from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and participating students are required to bring a change of clothes for the service projects in the afternoon. The day is worth eight Panhellenic Points and five SLPro hours. To register for the event, visit leadership.ua.edu.
