Redefining student leadership

Last Tuesday, 11 different student groups got together to share their big ideas for strengthening Dalhousie’s connection with the Halifax community.

The ingenuity and creativity displayed by the participants was amazing. Their proposed initiatives ranged from providing junior high school students with free yoga lessons to developing intergenerational mentorship programs.

This eclectic collection of projects is the product of three months worth of meetings and events held as part of the DSU’s all-new leadership development program. After two skill development workshops, hosted September 23 and November 9, and a variety of individual brainstorming and action planning sessions, last week’s event provided student groups with the opportunity to get feedback and guidance from panel of university and community representatives.

Panelists included: Alison Pickle, Manager of Training for the Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development; Craig Kennedy, General Manager of the Dalhousie Student Union; Kelly Cork of the Community Business Development Corporation; Chris Kolmyticki of Denote Communications; John Smith of Revolve Communications; and Melissa Mackay of Student Community Services.

Each student group was given 15 minutes to tap into the network and expertise of the panelists as well as get constructive criticisms on their project’s development.

That’s what the DSU’s program is all about; the idea is to go beyond just providing money to student societies by offering an added level of networking support and coaching. Each year the DSU provides over $50,000 to support its students and societies. Through the new leadership program, we’re trying to maximize the social returns of this investment.

We recognize that making sustainable change in the community requires a unique set of skills. Oftentimes these are skills which students don’t really develop through traditional academic learning – things like navigating bureaucracies, writing grant proposals and recruiting and managing volunteers.  Yet, the ability to build strong communities around a shared vision is becoming increasingly important in a world faced by daunting problems like climate change, terrorism, health epidemics and the baby boomers’ upcoming retirement. Our communities need innovative and ambitious young leaders now more than ever before.

In addition to the workshops, the DSU is giving way $2,500 to support the best of the proposed projects, as decided by the Dalhousie student body. 

This “Social Innovation Challenge” is just the first in a series of initiatives the DSU is undertaking this year to enhance student engagement. The centrepiece of the new leadership development program is a unique two-day conference, happening on January 23 and 24, where more than150 students from 10 different faculties will be coming together to craft a DSU declaration on student leadership.

Learn more about the Social Innovation Challenge and the upcoming conference by e-mailing jamie.arron@dal.ca. You can also track the development of the initiative right here by following Jamie’s new bi-weekly column.