Leadership is a hot topic in higher education as well as one of the top needs expressed by employers, and we have a great opportunity in student affairs to provide co-curricular leadership training events that can enhance a students classroom education. Each year at West Texas A&M University we host 2 student lead leadership retreats. Each retreat serves a different purpose, but both focus on leadership knowledge, skills, abilities, and application. This years retreats will look something like this:

Our first retreat will be held early fall, just a few weeks after school begins. The fall retreat is specifically geared toward incoming freshman (we can accomodate about 80 students and 20 sponsors), and returning sophomores who had become involved in various clubs and organizations the previous year as freshman. This is an off campus invitational retreat in which we invite other regional unversities to join us, which helps to defray our costs. During this weekend retreat we will focus on leadership as it pertains to participating in, and leading campus clubs and organizations. We will cover topics ranging from “Leadership as a philosophy vs Leadership as a theory,” club and organization fundraising, and campus/community outreach, among others. Also, during the retreat, the entire group of participants will be broken up into teams. Each team will complete low ropes course type activities as well as real life problem solving (we take problems that have occured within clubs and organizations, both on our campus and others, for them to solve). Each school attending is also encouraged to prepare a session or roundtable and we provide the topic well in advance. We use our five summer New Student Orientations to advertise to incoming freshman and we send out invitations to regional universities starting early summer. Another alternative way to attract students would be to send post card invitations to them as they register over the summer. The Registrar’s Office could provide that continuously updated list of names.

Our second retreat this year will be held the end of January. Where as our first retreat is only in its second year, the winter retreart has been a long standing tradition at WTAMU. However, the focus for this years retreat is shifting due to the new focus of our fall retreat. This year the winter retreat, also an off campus retreat at a ski lodge in New Mexico specifically for WTAMU students (we can accomodate about 40 students and 10 sponsors) will focus on the next step of leadership. This retreat is geared toward juniors and seniors preparing to graduate soon and enter into the workforce. The leadership training is now shifting from participating in and leading campus clubs and organizations to leading in the workplace and community. We will cover such topics as; leadership as a new supervisor, communicating in the workplace, problem solving, building relationships as the new employee, community and civic involvement, etc. Whereas in the first retreat geared for freshman the problems pertain to campus clubs and organizations, problems given to the teams for this retreat will be real world problems that new employees and supervisors might encounter as they enter into the workplace. Since this retreat is a staple at WTAMU we do not need to advertise as intensely. Usually the various clubs and organizations, as well as Greek Life fill these limited spots.

We have found that by breaking participants into groups with both a staff/faculty sponsor and a student leader works extremely well. Each group is also assigned duties over the course of these weekend retreats, i.e.; preparing meals, clean-up, etc. This also helps to defray costs. We charge $50.00 a participant (WTAMU student), which includes travel, food, materials, and retreat theme t-shirts. During the fall retreat, guest universities pay $30.00 a participant and cover their own cost of travel (usually the biggest exspense). We have also found that many times various campus clubs and organizations will sponsor their students. At times we have even found staff and faculty or departments to sponsor students if those students are student workers within those areas. So, there are lots of creative ways that students can pay for these retreats. We also find that parents are extremely interested in the fall retreat when they see the information during the summer New Student Orientations.

Planning and conducting leadership retreats can seem daunting, if not scarry. But it is amazing how student leaders, and faculty and staff love to become involved. And the dividends are awesome as we see studetns who attended our retreats assume leadership roles in clubs and organizations on campus, and even within the community. Start small if you have never held a leadership retreat, and see what can happen on your campus and within your campus clubs and organizations.