Leap Day was quite the leap

Both the Husky Leadership Summit and the Career Intensive Boot Camp (CIBC) were happening, and I was attending both in some capacity. I spent the majority of the day at the Husky Leadership Summit, as I previously attended the CIBC last semester and was invited back for an alumni reception.

This year’s summit was different than the one I attended last year. The Summit this year was kicked off by two keynote speakers, Shavonne Shorter, assistant professor of communication studies and Albra Wheeler, of the Women’s Resource Center. Shorter talked about communication and leadership styles, teaching almost mini-lecture from one of her courses. Wheeler told her story about how she was bitten by a brown recluse spider and still lives with the pain every day. She used her life as an example to teach students that self-care is vitally important.

The rest of the day was comprised of sessions that students picked before arriving to the event. I attended one of the new sessions, a jungle themed escape room. It was fun, and the members of Quest put a lot of time and effort into constructing it. I hope they get more support in continuing to construct escape rooms for future summits.

My favorite session was the one given by members of the Forensics Team about speech and debate. They gave a very thorough and concise lecture on argumentation basics. They explained that in debate, people will judge more confident speakers to be winner, compared to more nervous speakers. Even if the speaker is the most intelligent and qualified person in the room, if they deliver an unconfident presentation, they won’t be seen as a competent speaker. I found it to be the most useful and enjoyable. Although, I didn’t agree with their argument that truth was relative and history is written by the winners.

I had to leave the summit early to attend the Alumni Reception at the Greenly Center downtown. The walk down in the freezing cold was not fun, but I’m glad I wore a heavy coat and hat. I had some spare time before the reception, and was hoping the Cats in Bloom was near Greenly. It is not, and I was sad, so I stopped at the tiny bookstore nearby before I went to the reception.

Several alumni were in the alumni room and exclaimed how beautiful the space was. One even said they wanted to have an office in the building. I felt a little out of place being the only current student (soon to be alumni), at the event. Then we were served light refreshments, and I networked with a few people. Two alumni, a recent graduate working at SEKISUI, and a criminal justice grad, gave brief presentations expressing thanks and admiration for BU and the Career Intensive Boot Camp.

I had to leave the reception early as well, because I had to hike back to Kehr Union to receive an award with the Lambda Phi Eta Communication Studies Honor Society.

Before I left, I had to borrow some more professional attire from the Career Closet for the event, as I came prepared in the casual attire the summit recommended. When I got to the awards ceremony, I realized the coat I had picked was a little too big, but it did the job. I would like to get it tailored, its quite nice. They also served us fancy food at the banquet, which was fun.

Along with the award Lambda Phi Eta received for the Year’s Outstanding Organization, David Magolis, professor of mass communications, and an outstanding student received awards for their hard work. Then the organization got some additional photos, and we were dismissed.

Then I went home after a long leap day.

— Gabriel Miller, senior communication studies major