About 200 students attended the free event, which aimed to help in the overall development of students’ personal and professional skills and to encourage them to become leaders on campus, conference co-chairwoman Lisa Stewart said.

“I’m hoping this gives them the tools to make them want to be engaged in the community and actually step out and get involved,” Stewart said.

Students already holding positions in residence hall government as well as those hoping to become mentors or apply to graduate school were in attendance, co-chairwoman Kelly Herberholz said.

“They want to figure out, ‘How can I leave my mark?’” she said. “I think being able to network with other student leaders, maybe upperclassmen or even some faculty, they can find their niche and find how they can make an impact on Michigan State University.”

After registration, students went to the Snyder Hall theater to hear from RHA President Chelsea Satkowiak and keynote speaker Denise Maybank, senior associate vice president for Student Affairs and Services. The event concluded with remarks from ASMSU Student Assembly Chairman Chris Schotten.

Throughout the day, students took part in programs put on by fellow students on topics including social media, résumé building, communication and balancing leadership with friendship.
Herberholz said it was important for students to teach these sessions.

“We really wanted to encourage people who have already developed their leadership skill set to take that a step further and share that knowledge that they’ve gained with other students,” she said. “I don’t think students necessarily are given that power enough in (the) university.”

Each attendee was able to choose a total of three sessions in which to participate from a total of 17.

With the opportunity to choose these programs, Herberholz said students were able to create a conference that best fits their individual aims.

“We wanted to give them the chance to make this conference their own and get out of it what they want to,” she said.

This year, RHA renamed and reinvented the Department of Resident Life’s Be Inspired conference to produce the Spartan Leadership Conference.

In the creation of this conference, RHA was interested in providing an event for students by students, Herberholz said.

“In other conferences, there might be a disconnect between what the faculty or what adults think that we should be getting out of a conference as opposed to what students actually want to get out of a conference,” she said. “We know what would catch our attention and what wouldn’t.”

It’s important for students to take advantage of such events held on campus, said Erica Murray, a social work freshman who attended the event.

“It does offer skills and resources that just attending class (and) regular activities couldn’t really offer,” she said.

History and geography sophomore Jacob Makowski said he hopes his attendance at the conference not only will look good on his résumé but also will help him to become a better leader.
“It definitely makes you stand out and gives you a different aspect so you can step up (to) whatever you want to do later in life,” he said.