The Student Services Finance Committee approved the eligibility of an organization that helps students develop leadership skills on campus, opening up the opportunity for the group to fund future programs.
The Student Leadership Program focuses on helping students with professional and leadership development. The organization puts a strong emphasis on inclusivity, integrity and student development.
One of SLP’s largest programs is the Student Consultants and Speakers Bureau. The Speakers Bureau allows student groups, as well as groups outside of the UW community, to request leadership development-based workshops.
Past workshops have focused on building communication among a team, problem-solving and professional development. This past year, SLP presented a workshop for 155 student managers working for University Housing.
Each year SLP also hosts the All Campus Leadership Conference. The event brings different student organizations together to give presentations aimed at developing students’ various leadership styles. UW-Madison students are invited to attend the conference and choose which breakout sessions appeal to them.
“Each student gets to choose which event they go to, so they can develop their leadership style as they see fit,” said Phil Proft, SLP’s Organization and Outreach Coordinator.
Another core program of SLP is the Organizational Development Consultants. ODC’s are a group of UW-Madison students, including members of SLP, who are trained to help student organizations grow and succeed. ODC’s are available to help any UW-Madison student organization with efforts such as networking or building an effective leadership structure within the organization.
In the future, SLP hopes to help UW-Madison students develop leadership and professional skills in a way that will cater to their individual needs and interaction styles.
SLP also hopes to revamp their marketing strategy in order to cater to and include more students of diverse backgrounds. Their current marketing strategy targets freshmen living in the dorms.
“When we talk about diversity and inclusivity we mean that in a very broad sense,” Proft said. “So a lot of what we talk about is that there’s tons of different leadership styles, so we really focus on including all of those in our groups.”
