Leadership retreat expands horizons for Lakehead student
October 23, 2013
A group of Lakehead University students recently spent a weekend learning about themselves and their leadership potential at Youth Leadership Camps Canada (YLCC), located on Lake Simcoe near Orillia.
The 3-day leadership retreat was the first time that an off-site leadership training program has been offered at the Orillia campus and is an extension of the existing leadership workshop series that takes place on campus. The retreat was open to all students on a first-come, first-served basis and was supported by the Student Affairs budget, keeping the cost to students minimal. Under the direction of Brenda Melick and the Lakehead Orillia Student Affairs team, the weekend’s activities and workshops were facilitated by YLCC staff.
Here is an account of the weekend’s activities from the perspective of one of the student participants, James McCalmont (19) of Keswick, who is a first year student in the Honours Bachelor of Commerce program.
-----------
The reason I decided to sign up for the leadership retreat at YLCC was simply for the opportunity to enhance my own personal and cooperative skills, and most importantly, my leadership skills overall. I came into the weekend not knowing what to expect since I had done little to no research on the event’s agenda. This was intentional – I thought that by knowing little about what was to occur over the weekend would help me make the most of the opportunity. Similar to going to a movie without even watching the preview, I like to live spontaneously from time to time.
The retreat has now become a significant event in my mind. It has provided me with a drive to want to help and give my time towards molding the future of the Lakehead experience, for myself and for my fellow students.
As students at a young school, we have a huge advantage; we are able to put on construction hard hats and really lay out the foundations and shape what university life will look like here at Lakehead. I think this is what the weekend has really taught me – that the student body really does have a fair amount of control over what goes on at the school.
I was especially inspired by some of the retreat leaders who were senior students and Lakehead alumni. Even listening to fellow students who were older was motivating; it was cool to see these students still engaged and participating with first-year students.
One of the most valuable experiences at the retreat was being able to listen to other people, and watch how they slowly opened up more and more as the weekend progressed. Throughout the activities, the focus seemed to alternate from strengthening the internal leader within yourself, and being a leader for those that are around you. The process was a natural confidence builder. I saw people who were seemingly shy and nervous on the Friday become outgoing and engaging on the Sunday when we left.
A highlight for me was a workshop that focused on learning about character traits and I felt that this helped me learn a lot about myself. It was almost like I had these things hiding inside myself, and when I really pushed myself, I saw myself succeeding – not only succeeding on my own – but with the others around me.
The spider web challenge (an outdoor bungee cord obstacle that participants had to maneuver through without touching the web) activity was a great example of how we learned about teamwork. You begin with a challenge you feel is so overwhelming that you feel you won’t have the slightest chance at overcoming it, and then at the end of the exercise you are feeling so proud of yourself and your team for completing the task successfully. For me, this symbolized what the leadership retreat was all about.
In my future at Lakehead, I hope to become more involved in athletics, in order to improve myself personally, and to contribute to marketing team events and activities.
The weekend at YLCC has really motivated me to become open-minded, and to try things that I maybe wouldn’t normally try; speak to people I maybe don’t know; and try to expand my horizons by being involved in what this school has to offer. I also want to motivate my friends to get involved, and make it known that taking a leadership role is probably the most rewarding thing you can do while you’re here at Lakehead.
The “spider web challenge” taught students how to work together as a team to accomplish a task.
- 30 -