The Canon Camera Company’s sponsorship of ASU's annual Fall Forward Leadership Conference ended in spring 2012, prompting a group of ASU students to start the Leadership Council and organize the event.
Anthropology sophomore Victoria Murray is one of those students. She attended the conference last year and helped plan the fourth annual event, which will be held Saturday.
“I wanted the students from last year to stay involved,” she said.
Murray said a lot of her inspiration comes from working with the council as well.
“Being a part of the council keeps sparking my interest in what I’m doing,” she said.
At this year’s conference, students will have the opportunity to attend workshops based on themes of the conference: empowering students; innovation and social change; leadership, multiculturalism and social justice; organization management and programming and event planning.
She said she never thought she would be able to plan an event as large as the conference she is planning this year. Murray said after graduating she would like to start her own consulting business.
She said working with the Leadership Council at ASU has allowed her to gain experience.
“I cannot think of a better program that would help me do that,” Murray said.
Coordinator for Student Organization Support Ben Braksick said around 300 students are registered for this year’s conference, which is on par with the past three years.
Braksick said students who attend the conference this year will learn important skills specific to their career paths.
“(Students) will gain insight into their own leadership styles, find ways they can continue to make an impact at ASU and in the community, network with other student leaders,” he said in an email.
The conference will start at 10 a.m. and go until 4 p.m. Saturday in the Arizona Ballroom at the Memorial Union.
During lunch, students will hear keynote speaker Tony D’Angelo, editor of Chicken Soup for the College Soul.
Braksick said any ASU student is eligible to attend the conference.
He said there is a $10 deposit to sign up, but students will get it back when they show up at check in.
Braksick said Undergraduate Student Government on the Tempe campus and the Dean of Students offices from all four campuses will continue to sponsor the conference.
Nutrition junior Anjali Sinha is also a part of the Leadership Council that was selected at the end of last semester.
She said the new group without Canon as a sponsor has more opportunity to do what they want to.
“(Last year) we were limited by Canon, because they wanted us to do specific things,” she said.
She said the council has eight members.
“Everyone is extremely dedicated to the group,” Sinha said. “They are definitely some of the most intelligent people I know.”
Sinha said as a part of the Leadership Council she is gaining “amazing experience” she will need in her future.
“After I’m done with school, I think being a part of this will have given me much more confidence,” she said.
Reach the reporter at hblawren@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @hannah_lawr
