Washington State University Cougars continue to build strong leadership skills as the Cougar Leadership Program held its 2012 Cougar Leadership Conference this weekend on the Pullman campus.
The day-long event included breakout sessions covering topics such as Ally Training 101, presented by Heidi Stanton Schnebly, director of GIESORC, “Sh*t People Say … and other diversity stuff,"presented by Alicia Saldivar, coordinator of the First Scholars Program, and other sessions covering various topics alongside a speech given by author Kevin Bracy.
Senior psychology major Nick Montanari said he found it hard to choose which of the multiple sessions to attend because he wanted to go to all of them.
“The first one that I attended was the class to career session,” Montanari said. “I had been to stuff like that before, but not recently and wanted to get some reminders as a senior."
Saldivar said she covered topics concerning cultural competency during her session.
“Within that session we watched the video that went viral'Sh*t White Girls Say to Black Girls'and we broke it down to talk about it as a tool of cultural competency,"Saldivar said."We kind of broke it down and debated whether or not it was racist and what elements were."
Cultural competency, diversity and the value of talking about YouTube and personal videos people create were other topics of discussion, Saldivar said.
The day ended with a presentation by Bracy. During Bracy’s presentation he matched personal stories with the lessons learned to help motivate students.
“Changing the world is doable,” Bracy said."Making a difference is doable, living your wildest dreams is doable. Starting your business is doable. You can do anything you put your mind and your heart to. If what you're dreaming about has been done before by a human being, then its doable for you. If what you're dreaming about hasn't been done by a human being before, then you can be the first.”
