On Monday, Capt. Miguel Negron of the United States Marine Corp. gave a presentation about leadership as part of the Leadership Speakers Series at Kent State, presented by the Kent State Center for Student Involvement.

Negron spoke about his 14 leadership traits and principles in his presentation, Leading the Community, Leading for Life. These traits include; justice, judgement, dependability, integrity, decisiveness, tact, initiative, enthusiasm, bearing, unselfishness, courage, knowledge, loyalty and endurance.

These are traits he practices every day as a marine.

“They keep me focused,” he said. “They’re the foundation for everything I do as a marine officer.”

He gave many tools and examples on how to become a leader throughout his speech. He said everyone has the potential to become a leader and he wanted to inspire students to take that initiative.

“What you want as a leader is for people to follow you because you inspire them,” he said.

Negron said part of being a leader is having the respect of those who follow you.

“Don’t ever demand respect,” he said. “Show respect and it will be reciprocated.”

He not only related his leadership principles to what he does as a marine, but also related it to student life as well.

Bryanna Herbold is a freshman and needed to attend a workshop for her First Year Experience class and chose to attend the one presented by Negron.

“I thought it would be fun to learn more about leadership qualities,” she said. “It taught me how to step out and be more of a leader.”

The next speaker in the series is financial guru Al Riddick on Oct. 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the Kent Student Center room 319.

To learn more about the leadership speaker series, visit https://www.kent.edu/csi/leadership-speakers-series.

Samantha Nonno is the activities reporter for The Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].