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A spirit that is not afraid

Auburn students learn about goal setting, integrity at LeaderShape Institute

<p>Auburn Students practice a chant at LeaderShape.&nbsp;Contributed by Dawn Morgan.</p>

Auburn Students practice a chant at LeaderShape. Contributed by Dawn Morgan.

Fifty-seven Auburn students and a number of faculty and staff boarded a bus on Sunday, May 6, and headed to Berry College in Rome, Georgia, to participate in LeaderShape.

LeaderShape is an organization that holds three main leadership programs around the country – Institute, Catalyst and Resilience.

Auburn students participated in the Institute, a six-day program prompting leadership dialogue and self-reflection.

“Students come and focus on self-discovery, have an opportunity to network with other student leaders, are prompted to identify their core values and learn how to lead with integrity,” said Dawn Morgan, coordinator of student leadership programs at Auburn.

Leadership experts from across the country are trained to teach the program's curriculum.

The program covers a wide range of topics as it tries to help students deduce what they are most passionate about. The Institute, specifically, prompts students to craft their vision and then create goals to implement it, Morgan said. 

In her years with leadership and development programming, she has realized the most important aspect of any program is the call to action, and this is an area where LeaderShape excels, Morgan said. 

“You can learn for years and years,” Morgan said. “You can know all the concepts, theories and models that are out there, but if you’re not motivated or inspired to put that into action, then I think it’s kind of null and void.”

Most of that, Morgan said, tied into LeaderShape’s own vision: “A just, caring, and thriving world where all lead with integrity and a healthy disregard for the impossible.” 

In addition to the students, Auburn brought along a few faculty members to lead family clusters of students.

“A family cluster is a breakout from the larger learning community,” said Dana Gramuglia, programs advisor for Auburn’s Student Government Association. "It comprises of about 10 to 11 students.”

Gramuglia led a family cluster of 11 students, and she said her primary role as a cluster facilitator was, in fact, facilitating.  

Each time the family cluster broke out, the group had an activity or learning outcome based on what the larger learning community discussed.

“It’s being there for the students to help challenge their thinking or bring about perspectives that maybe aren’t being spoken to within the discussion,” Gramuglia said. “It’s also being a resource for them as they practice how to be a well-rounded leader.”

LeaderShape is a program driven in large part by dialogue. Rising junior and LeaderShape participant Daniel Crifasi said he enjoyed the conversations that came along with the LeaderShape curriculum. 

“Discussion is important in teaching students how to be more mindful of others and what it means to be emotionally intelligent,” Gramuglia said.

Gramuglia said conversations often came back to topics like social justice, equity inclusion and diversity.

“Students learned to listen to other people’s lived experiences, their perspectives through those lived experiences and how to see all the different areas of what it takes to be a leader,” Gramuglia said. 

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Crifasi said crafting his individual vision was his favorite part of the program.

“We made a long-term vision and then some short-term goals,” Crifasi said. “That whole process streamlined my life goals and also really inspired me.”

Crifasi said the program helped him better understand other people as well as himself.

“We learned how to effectively make friendships with other people," Crifasi said. "And to lead them how they want to be led."


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