STUDENT INVOLVEMENT
2004 Student Conferences
In November 2004, students from each of the six HELP affiliate campuses attended one of two student leadership conferences (Tampa, FL and San Francisco, CA). Each campus was invited to send 10 students and an Adviser. Students were selected based on their campus-based work concerning health and HIV/AIDS education issues, as well as their potential for future leadership in this area.
Before the conference, each student read the HELP publication, Leadership for a Healthy Campus, worked with the other students from their institution to prepare a group presentation on their campus-based work to date. The reading provided students with a common background and language through which to discuss their work and, subsequently, best learn from one another.
At least one faculty or staff member from each campus accompanied the student group. Their participation provided background information on the institutional supports and challenges to implementing health-based initiatives on campus and also provided a foundation for continuity of efforts to continue once the current student leaders graduate.
Over the course of the weekend, students had an opportunity to plan a hypothetical health-based campus initiative using the Leadership for a Healthy Campus matrices and method as the framework for the exercise. They also had an opportunity to provide comments and feedback on their work thus far, and brainstorm ways to perpetuate their efforts n the future.
Click here for a summary, not of the conference itself, but of some of the best thoughts of those very serious students who discussed topics related to campus heath and its meaning in their lives.