2008 Woodie Awards
Momentum program is college's newest attempt to address leadership at the college
By: Amy Ledig, News Editor
Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: News
Imagine a network of student leaders joining forces to work together, sharing skills and experiences to have bigger, better movements working in coordination with one another instead of competing for attention and members.
This is the vision for Momentum, a new student program that formed out of conversations held at this fall's Leadership Conference.
Timothy Den Herder-Thomas '09, who was one of the driving forces behind organizing the program, said that the conference was an "open space facilitation where students talked about what do we really need to do to build a better Macalester, very open, very diffuse."
The initial group of students invited included students who attended the Leadership Conference as well as a variety of other students Karlyn Wegmann, program coordinator for Leadership & Community Development, thought would bring something to the program, and students who had been involved with the Emerging Leaders program.
"The whole main idea is that we have so many students who have had amazing experiences and we have trouble connecting them to the campus population," Wegmann said. "The idea was to create a space where students could have skillshares if they want to, practice public speaking, maybe they want to learn how to facilitate difficult discussions."
Emerging Leaders was created in 2004 and has been a space for first years and sophomores who either are nominated or choose to apply to explore leadership. "The program offers a comfortable forum for students to recognize and develop leadership potential in themselves as well as in others," according to the program's website.
There was a fall session of the program, but Director of Campus Life Keith Edwards said the college "conflated the two this semester because of lack of interest."
Even so, participation for the program has not quite gotten off the ground. While almost 200 people enrolled in the Momentum Moodle course, the number of people coming to the sessions has not come close to approaching that number.
This is the vision for Momentum, a new student program that formed out of conversations held at this fall's Leadership Conference.
Timothy Den Herder-Thomas '09, who was one of the driving forces behind organizing the program, said that the conference was an "open space facilitation where students talked about what do we really need to do to build a better Macalester, very open, very diffuse."
The initial group of students invited included students who attended the Leadership Conference as well as a variety of other students Karlyn Wegmann, program coordinator for Leadership & Community Development, thought would bring something to the program, and students who had been involved with the Emerging Leaders program.
"The whole main idea is that we have so many students who have had amazing experiences and we have trouble connecting them to the campus population," Wegmann said. "The idea was to create a space where students could have skillshares if they want to, practice public speaking, maybe they want to learn how to facilitate difficult discussions."
Emerging Leaders was created in 2004 and has been a space for first years and sophomores who either are nominated or choose to apply to explore leadership. "The program offers a comfortable forum for students to recognize and develop leadership potential in themselves as well as in others," according to the program's website.
There was a fall session of the program, but Director of Campus Life Keith Edwards said the college "conflated the two this semester because of lack of interest."
Even so, participation for the program has not quite gotten off the ground. While almost 200 people enrolled in the Momentum Moodle course, the number of people coming to the sessions has not come close to approaching that number.
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