More than a dozen students recently completed the new five-week workshop, “Building Leaders Through the Prioritization of Self,” hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Office of Multicultural Student Affairs. Created in response to the specific needs of underrepresented minority students at UW-Platteville, the workshop – developed and led by OMSA Advisor Samantha Lopez – takes a unique approach to leadership development as it explores the interconnected nature of self-care, mental health and leadership.
In her initial outline of the workshop, Lopez considered the traditional topics of a leadership program, such as business attire, time management and a leader’s role in the community. However, Lopez said when her supervisor challenged her to do something different, she began to re-focus on the particular needs of the students at this time.
“I did some research, and I kept coming to the common idea that you can’t pour from an empty cup. You can’t help anyone else before you help yourself,” said Lopez. After sending a survey to students, Lopez saw a number of common trends in the results. Students were reporting a loss of connections, feelings of loneliness, and a general disconnect from their peers, staff or faculty.
“After getting feedback, I realized the bigger picture here is that we need to really focus on self and how that affects every part of each community we are in,” said Lopez.
With this in mind, Lopez developed the workshop with the aim of helping students reflect inward in order to discover their leadership ability. She included a strong focus on mental health and wellbeing.
“I wanted to show students that without the ability to lead our own lives, we cannot help lead the lives of others,” said Lopez. “We have done a lot of sharing of personal narratives and tackled things such as negative self-talk and positive affirmations. A lot of students, unfortunately, are struggling with their identities and it has impacted their social and educational lives. Unfortunately, a common trend among the students is the feeling that asking for help is a burden. These workshops are focused on using the power of our voice to both ask for help and give help.”
Lymari Powe, a freshman music education major from Freeport, Illinois, said participating in the workshop gave her a greater understanding of self-care as it relates to mental health.
“The workshop helped me realize so much about how important it is to be kind to yourself,” said Powe. “Make sure you are taking care of your mental health, your body, and just do your best but not to the point where it makes you break. Sometimes I tend to not care about my mental health, because being a full-time student with a part-time job, I’m going to feel stressed. But, it’s important to at least take time for me and make sure I am okay every once in a while.”
Doralyn Williams, a senior choral music education major, from Cherry Valley, Illinois, agreed, adding that she found even more value from the workshop than she initially expected.
“My initial thoughts of the workshop was that it was going to be a cookie cutter workshop, almost like a Ted Talk, where we would leave feeling like we could change the world,” said Williams. “I was expecting to be able to breeze right through the five weeks, and be done. Boy, was I wrong! I was first interested in the workshop because I’ve always been told that I’d make a great leader or that I have leadership qualities. I didn’t believe them. I thought that attending this workshop would help spark the leader within me, and it did. I’m glad that my initial thoughts of the workshop were wrong. I’m sure that if it were another cookie cutter workshop, then I probably wouldn’t have been as invested as I was. I also do not think that I would have been ready to realize some of the things that I did, if what Sam did with the workshop wasn’t as genuine as it was. I learned that the most important thing I can do to be a great leader is to take care of myself. I can’t pour into those I’m leading if I don’t have anything to pour.”
Lopez is a graduate of UW-Platteville, having majored in criminal justice in 2015. She worked primarily in the field of corrections social work before returning to work for her alma mater last year. It is her current pursuit of her master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling, she said, that has given her a valuable perspective in working with the students.
“We really developed a sense of community in the workshop, but it also became a sense of friendship,” said Lopez. “There is always this misconception of the authoritative figure, and that – as staff – we can’t be friends with students. But, I challenged them and myself to break that barrier in order to actually meet their needs. I was 100% transparent with my own trauma and my own narrative. I could tell the difference and see the comfortability and vulnerability that opens up within them when they see that we’re human too.”
After the success of the inaugural workshop, Lopez will be offering it again for a new group of students in the fall. For more information about the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs and its programming, visit www.uwplatt.edu/department/office-multicultural-student-affairs.