DESTINATION: Leadership

The 3rd Annual DESTINATION: Leadership Conference is designed for students looking to begin or further develop their leadership skills. Community members, faculty, and staff, and students present valuable topics that assist students on their journey to become active leaders here at SAU, their communities, and beyond.

The conference will again be FREE to attend, and student participants are encouraged to attend in business casual attire to get a true professional conference feel. 

First-time student attendees will receive an embossed "DESTINATION: Leadership" padfolio, and returning students will receive a different gift. Participants will select from five choices in each of the three workshop sessions. Lunch is provided prior to the keynote address.

Conference Schedule

9 00 a.m. Registration
9:10 – 9:25 a.m. Opening and Energizer
9:30 – 10:20 a.m. Breakout Session 1

Networking–What is it really?
Matt Ehlman‘02, Consultant & Founding Member, The Numad Group
Connecting to individuals is critical to our work, life and society. This session will discuss how doing the opposite of networking can lead to opportunities to meet CEOs, U.S Ambassadors, Governors and Senators. We'll seek to discover what networking truly is, its purpose in your life, and talk about the tools available to be a better non-networking networker.

Interactive Teambuilding Exercise
Fred Smith, VP and Managing Partner, Spirit Partners, Inc.
Participants will take part in a teambuilding activity that addresses many organizational competencies, including team work, communication, problem solving, and leadership. To be successful, participants will need to use good communication skills, good negotiating skills, and most importantly, good upfront planning skills. It is guaranteed to be fun and valuable.

What is the value of thinking more broadly about the scope of "DIVERSITY"?
Regina Matheson, Dean of Graduate and Adult Education
An interactive session on the value of understanding "Diversity." While we tend to think narrowly about diversity and often confine it to demographics such as race/ethnicity and sex/gender, the scope is much more broad and includes religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and age. You will have an opportunity to consider a broad spectrum of understanding and learn how such knowledge impacts your worldview.

Leadership from the Ground Up: How Community Organizers Develop Leaders
Cathy Bolkcom, Alum, Progressive Action for the Common Good
What do community organizers do (besides being elected U.S. President)? We help people affected by challenging situations to get organized, trained, and comfortable with advocating for themselves and becoming leaders. We will look at how individuals can affect change by coming together and stepping up in their own communities.

River Cleanup: How one person can make a difference
Mike Coyne Logan, Living Lands and Water
Using Chad Pregracke's story (founder of Living Lands and Waters) as an example, we will explore the history and mission of Living Lands and Waters to clean America's rivers. How can you get involved and help?

10:25 – 11:55 a.m. Breakout Session 2

Global Citizenship: Being a Cultural Ambassador
Munir Sayegh '12, Fulbright Scholar
This session will begin to examine our cultural backgrounds and our responsibilities, as leaders, to develop multi-cultural relationships. Munir will be using examples from post-revolution Egypt and the
Middle East in general.

Follow the leader
Mary Schechinger, RA and former NET Ministry Member
Sometimes people with leadership qualities find themselves in situations where they are the ones being led. The temptation to take over can be overwhelming. This session will give leaders some tips on how to be good followers too.

Following your passion: One woman's journey to serve veterans
Amy Hess, Founder, Executive Director
Serving 22 years in the military has given Amy a unique perspective of the needs, concerns and issues of the service. Learn how to take something you are interested in and passionate about and make it a career.

The Value of a Graduate Degree: My journey with the Master's of Organizational Leadership
Eric Page, Sr. Associate Director of Admissions, Strategic Communications at University of Iowa
Strategic thinking. Conflict management. Project planning. Leadership. Those are just some of the skills I've picked up in the MOL program, and they have paid dividends in my career while climbing the administrative ranks from Augustana to Iowa while completing my degree.

How to serve yourself while serving others
Jen Arnold, President of MACA
Ever felt like you do so much for others and forget about yourself? You simply cannot balance "you time" and "business time"? Let's learn to make time FOR YOU as well as for others!

11:20 – 11:40 a.m.    Lunch

11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.    Keynote Speaker, Tom Higgins: "Stories and Lessons in Leadership"

12:50 – 1:40 p.m.   Breakout Session 3

Utilizing your full potential
Clyde Mayfield, Owner, Greatest Grains
This presenter contends we are all born with gifts and we need to learn how to use them to their full potential. In this session we will explore leadership, how to define it and achieve success It's not whether we can be successful, but do we utilize our God given potential?

Swimming better than a goldfish
Pauli Mayfield, Former Miss Iowa, Miss America 2011 Interview Winner , WQAD Channel 8 News Reporter
Pauli shares her road to success–a journey full of failures, adversity and struggles. The speech will encourage and inspire those in the audience to reach their full potential and learn what it means to swim better than a goldfish.

Developing Leaders Through Community Organizing
Leslie Kilgannon, QC Interfaith Executive Director
Our society is calling out for leaders to re-build our sense of community and affect positive change. This session will discuss concepts of leadership, the basics of community organizing for social change, and about how the tools and disciplines of community organizing work to develop powerful leaders.

You can have it all, a great career and family! How to achieve balance in life and work
Jan Wyfells, John Deere
In this session we will shares stories from a mother of four children (all born within 5 years) who balanced the challenges of raising a family along with a 33-year John Deere Career. Prepare for a lively and interactive discussion of how to negotiate your way through work, life and parenting, along with some tools that will help you achieve lifetime goals.

Leadership Through International Experiences: The Case of American Business Experience
Arun Pillutla, Faculty, Managerial Studies
Ours is a global world and leading in such a world requires certain skills. Dr. Pillutla will share his experiences of directing a summer program called the American Business Experience program at SAU for
international students. The presentation showcases the experiences of the students and the lessons in leadership that come from international experiences.

1:45 – 2 p.m.   Closing and Presentation of Certificates