More than 200 students braved the winter weather Saturday to attend the 2014 Spring Leadership Conference at the Student Center.

An event that is annually sponsored by the Center for Student Involvement, the conference allows students to learn new and different types of leadership skills from professionals throughout the country.  This year’s theme was “Ignite the Leader Within.”

Della Marie Marshall, senior associate director for CSI, said she hoped students were able to take away how to develop many different leadership qualities from the conference.  

“Our belief with leadership and with all of our programs is we want students to step outside of their comfort zone,” Marshall said. “Don’t assume you know everything; take an opportunity to learn a new way to maybe even do the same thing.”

The conference was broken up into four different sessions.  During each session, there were a total of three to five speakers giving presentations throughout the student center.  This allowed students to pick from a variety of speakers covering different topics.

One of those speakers was Daniel Caron, a National Center for Student Leadership program facilitator and consultant who works with people to improve daily interactions for personal and professional development. Caron was also the conference’s keynote speaker.  

Caron, who has been traveling around the world for the last 17 years talking about leadership, said he learns something new from every presentation he does, especially with college students.

“The college population is one that I’ve been working with for years,” he said.  “To work at this leadership conference, I feel like I learn something new from doing this.”

Many of the students who attended the conference Saturday were Greek students representing their respective fraternity or sorority. One of those students was sophomore Noah Ickowick, who is a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi.

Ickowick said he and other Greek life members at Kent State take a lot out of leadership events such as this one.   

“We come to these events and establish ourselves as leaders and show we are here and that we care about making Kent State the best university we can through Greek life,” he said. “We can do that by coming to this and taking what we learn, not only for our fraternity but Greek life and campus life as a whole.“

Contact Drew Jones at [email protected].