Learning about leadership by Ella Branham

Each fall, the University of South Dakota’s Department of Leadership Development and Programming puts on a series of leadership seminars. 

These seminars are organized by the graduate staff in the Leadership Development and Programming department with the goal of creating a learning experience on both ends of this annual event as they must deal with challenges such as finding relevant topics and speakers. 

This series is put on to help the student body develop the skills needed to be effective leaders by both building new skills and using the ones that they already have, as it is something that many employers are looking for and thus covers a range of topics, said Laura Anderton, the Assistant Dean of Student Services. 

Fall 2021 is proving to continue this trend, with the first seminar occurring on the Thursday after Labor Day.

The first is about problem solving and conflict management, and will cover both how to solve various types of conflict and why conflict may not always be bad, and will take place on September 9th. 

On September 23rd the seminar will focus on goal setting and time management, and how setting goals is needed for proper time management. They will also be exploring the 4 p’s of time management.

The meeting on Leadership Soft Skills,will occur on October 14 and speak to how non-technical, person-to-person skills are needed for both work and personal life.

October 23rd’s seminar is about career preparation – how to build a proper resumé and conduct yourself in an interview.

November 18th’s seminar will focus on emotional intelligence and how this subset of social intelligence focuses on perceiving, understanding, and monitoring the emotions and feelings of both yourself and those around you – why that is important and how it will be used.

The final seminar is about building identity and self-esteem, focusing on learning about the facts that make every individual unique and how that can be utilized in the workforce, and is happening on December 2nd. 

Each of these seminars will happen at 3:00 PM in Room 211 at the MUC on their respective dates. 

These seminars focus on things needed in the future and the leadership department hopes to drive up attendance and is trying to take steps to do so. 

“Attendance has ranged in the past from 5 students up to more than 20, and is really dependent on the topic and the current need. We try to anticipate what students will want to learn, but try to also be flexible with the sessions to ensure we are meeting students where they are at developmentally,” Anderton said.

This year, the seminar is also offering Zoom meetings for everyone to access. 

There are a number of events that happen each year to help and engage with students, and these seminars are yet another example of that, for both those who attend and those who organize.

 “Good things are always the learning students come away with.” Anderton said.

If you are planning to attend please reach out to [email protected].