FIUTS Leads 2018

By Frances Hsu, FIUTS Leadership Committee

On Saturday, April 7, the FIUTS Leadership Committee hosted an annual leadership conference at the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center. The goal of this event was to promote cross-cultural communication and personal leadership development among diverse student leaders. This event went very well, starting with an inspiring session leading by Alison Kilkenny and motivating workshops led by Janice Jaworski, Fahad Aldaajani, and Howard Sun. Thank you to everyone who attended the event!

This year’s theme was “Team up, Global Citizens.” Our hope was for this event to help students gain insights on leadership in a global context and encourage all people of all colors to work together. We were pleased to have Alison Kilkenny as our guest speaker. Alison is currently a Program Coordinator for the Gender Equality team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, Alison worked at FIUTS for more than five years as both Community Relations Coordinator and Manager of Education Programs. As Manager of Education Programs, she worked with students from both the UW and around the world to deliver student leadership and cross-cultural programing.

In Howard’s workshop, he brought up his personal stories and values to show his passion on cross-cultural leadership. He talked about the idea of open-mindedness and how the hardest challenges can let us realize how diverse cultures are.

In Janice’s workshop, we had an active discussion on how everyone’s leadership journey promoted change for their team. She guided participants to expand individual skills and shared her experiences as a change agent in international communities.

“All their differences are not barriers, but bridges.” Fahad talked about his crazy adventure in Saudi Arabia in his workshop. He believes light is a universal language, and digital media is a fantastic carrier that can connect different people speaking different languages.

We are inspired by this quote from Phil Lane, Jr.: "In all of our actions, we must seek to be living examples of the change we wish to see in the world, by walking the path, we make the path visible." We hope to raise the awareness of leadership among our community to make the world better.