As the country inaugurates a new leader next year, the UW is doing its part to develop student leaders through workshops right on campus.

The UW Leaders program is geared toward freshmen, sophomores and transfer juniors to provide them with leadership-building opportunities through instructional workshops. The program focuses on personal growth and campus involvement.

“In the past, our identity has been more service orientated,” said program director Madeleine McKenna, who has been involved since her freshman year. “Now, we envision our purpose as to give the skills necessary to train future UW leaders. Our service is to provide organizations on campus with leaders per se.”

UW Leaders began in 2000 as a way to prepare students who wanted to participate in ASUW. While many individuals still find the program helpful as a jumpstart to ASUW, the focus has now changed to prepare students for general leadership positions on campus.

In addition to broadening the emphasis of the program, another goal this year is to expand the content of the workshops. Instead of simply relating techniques such as resume building and interviewing, the workshops will provide a wider perspective of what it means to be a leader.

“Leadership classes often focus on skills,” McKenna said. “But leaders aren’t just an aggregation of those tangible skills. It comes from within. It’s not just a checklist.”

To accomplish this task, workshops were divided into categories that split the essential aspects of leadership into units. Much like sequential math classes, the information in each unit builds on one another. The first category of workshop classes emphasizes the importance of understanding oneself before entering into the units of communication, project planning and looking to the future.

Workshops are planned by UW Mentors, former UW Leaders who’ve applied to have a greater involvement in the program. They develop and plan unique workshops based off of personal interests. Topics range from styles of leadership to conflict resolution and constructive dialogue.

“I’m excited about a workshop in leading in a multicultural society,” McKenna said. “It will discuss being aware of the diverse backgrounds of people you work with and how to be sensitive to those histories.”

Once UW Leaders have been through the program, they are encouraged to exercise the skills they learned throughout the year to begin their own leadership role on or off campus.

“Starting your own project is not required,” senior program director Courtney Hampson said. “It begins with self-initiative. But everyone here is a really driven person who wants to be involved. We provide them with awareness of opportunities on campus.”

While developing leadership skills is an important part of UW Leaders and Mentors, a major component of the program is forming strong relationships between other members. Each year during winter break, the group goes on a retreat to Pack Forest — a facility maintained by the Department of Forest Resources.

“It’s a good way for newcomers to the campus to feel like they are part of a community,” Hampson said. “The group is just a fun, close knit community.”

Reach contributing writer Heather Milligan at development@dailyuw.com.