Students Attend ACC Leadership Symposium

Spencer Scruggs, Monali Haldankar, Adam Knecht and Travone Taylor were part of University of Louisville’s first visit to the ACC Student Leadership Symposium along with Pam Curtis, Office of Civic Engagement, Leadership and Service, who served as advisor on the trip.  Though UofL attended ACCSLS prior to their actual participation in the ACC, we were welcomed with open arms and our students fit in right away.

The ACCSLS has only existed as a program for seven years.  Its mission is to develop a community of ACC undergraduate students who understand the relationship between global and local issues and work to create innovative initiatives that advance students’ capacity for global leadership.  Each year the host school selects a theme for the conference around the Social Change Model.  This year’s theme was civic engagement and last year it was water.  Schools take turns hosting and there is a schedule up to 2019 already created.

Our students made meaningful connections with students from several other ACC schools as they worked in teams over the weekend to design a response to a social issue they were passionate about.  Our own, Tra Taylor’s team won the competition with a great presentation about the issue of equity.  Though only slightly distracted by a basketball game on Saturday evening our students had an overall amazing experience and will help recruit attendees for next year’s symposium at University of Miami on February 21 – 23.