Students Encouraged to Get Involved with HSLC

Students Encouraged to get involved with HSLC

Students at the University of Oklahoma led the High School Leadership Conference on campus this past weekend. All but two members of the staff are students who applied through Campus Activities Council. Students applied last fall to be executive members and small group leaders.

Sophomore Cailtin Rother said members of CAC encouraged students to apply to get involved in the conference.

            “There are students from every organization on campus that apply to be at this conference… from freshmen to seniors, everyone is encouraged to get involved,” Rother said. 

            This is the 13^th year HSLC has been held at the university and gets more popular among students every year.

            “It is important to us that college students are running it because we were in their shoes only a few years ago,” Rother said. “If there were adults in charge, they wouldn’t get the same experience.”

            Two OU students are assigned to a group of 12 high school juniors. The leaders encourage students to make a positive impact in their schools and communities with team building exercises. Like Rother, many of the small group leaders went to the conference as juniors and came back to get involved.

            Brianne McGuire, a high school junior, said she was able to relate to her small group leaders because they had been at the conference before.

            “I wasn’t intimidated by group leaders because we are all around the same age,” McGuire said. “I always felt comfortable with them.”

            Brianne said she had a great experience at the conference and hopes to come to OU and be a small group leader for HSLC.

            “This conference made me excited to get involved and I hope to be a part of it when I come to OU. OU was already a top preference for me but after going to the conference I'm more eager and enthusiastic about coming here.”