Photo Courtesy of Melissa Watkins

For Karina Harris, the Emerging Leaders Retreat is how she learned to be an effective leader, equipping her with the necessary skills to serve as the assistant director of University Student Union (USU) Productions and the president of her sorority.

“I’ve been to quite a few leadership trainings, but this is the one that I feel helped me the most and is the most comprehensive,” Harris said.

Harris attended the retreat as a freshman, taking part in the various workshops and the team-building activities offered.

“There was a lot that we did that really helped me,” she said. “There were a lot of techniques and something different for everybody.”

Now a junior, Harris said she uses some techniques that she learned at the retreat as a leader in USU Productions. She said the team-building activities have been particularly helpful in creating a cohesive team.

“They get you out of your comfort zone, so you are forced to interact with people that you probably wouldn’t interact with otherwise,” Harris said. “It helps break down the walls and break down the barriers of forming cliques.”

The Emerging Leaders Retreat is a free, two-day training seminar for Fresno State students, and is put on by the Leadership Council at Fresno State. The retreat provides students with leadership training through workshops, team-building activities, a two-hour ropes course session and presentations.

“It is an introductory leadership retreat for students that are wanting to get involved or want to learn more about leadership,” Soua Xiong, a Leadership Council member said.

The retreat has been offered once a semester for the past 10 years. This semester will have training sessions for students to learn communication skills, diversity awareness, how to make a good first impression and to understand their leadership style.

“Our hope is that we can provide the students with the skills that they need whether it be in their academic lives, in the work place or in the community,” Melissa Watkins, the director of the Leadership Council, said. “Whatever role they decide to take on as a leader, we want to make sure that we’re giving them those skills so that they can fulfill those duties.”

Watkins said that the retreat is both productive and fun, and really focuses on helping students get to know each other.

“Any person who has gone through it has had a good time and come out of it having met their expectations,” Watkins said.

The retreat is on Friday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. All material, activities and food will be provided at no cost.

“One thing we try to avoid is charging, because we feel like this should be something students should be able to have free of cost,” Watkins said.

Student leaders from organizations on campus will be present to provide attendees with information about the many leadership opportunities on campus.

“We try to bring them in from all over campus so that students can really get a wide variety of examples of what they can do next,” Kerry Jack, the USU Leadership Program advisor, said.

Watkins said the panel of student leaders is a good way for students to learn about the organizations on campus they can get involved with.

“A lot of the students are just now getting a feel for what this whole leadership thing is,” Watkins said. “We want to be sure that they have somewhere to go with that, and that they have a place they can utilize those skills.”

The retreat will also place participants in groups of five or six to work on community service projects. Students will have a month to complete their community service project, and will come back with the rest of the retreat group in March to discuss how the projects turned out.

“A lot of the focus of the Emerging Leaders Retreat is learning how to work more successfully in teams,” Jack said. “One of the functions of this group community service project is that they will be able to take these skills that they learn during the retreat and put them to use during the community service project.”

Students must apply to participate in the retreat. Applications are available in USU 306, the USU Information Center or online at www.csufresno.edu/leadership. Applications are due by 5 p.m. Feb. 19. There will be room for 45 students to attend the retreat.

“We’re looking for the students who have not had a lot of leadership experience or who are looking to broaden their horizons,” Jack said.