More than 30 students began their Florida State University experience a week early to hone their leadership skills and engage with the Tallahassee community.
Now in its 22nd year, FSU’s Service Leadership Seminar (SLS), hosted by the Center for Leadership & Service, aims to inspire and enable participants to create positive, sustainable change in their local, national or global communities. The seminar equips participants to discover opportunities for community engagement, develop leadership skills and self-awareness, and create an atmosphere in which students, staff and community partners can effectively collaborate.
Erin Sylvester Philpot, program director for leadership at the center, said SLS helps to orient and welcome new students to campus through the lens of engaging with the Tallahassee community.
“They discover more about who they are, how they can make Florida State work best for their interest and goals, and how they can find fulfillment through becoming leaders in the Tallahassee community,” she said.
In addition to behind-the-scenes access to student success initiatives and mentorship from peers and FSU faculty and staff, she said, participants also receive “a digestible introduction to the needs and assets of the Tallahassee community to which we hope they will feel a sense of belonging and choose to serve.”
SLS caters specifically to incoming first-year students. Participants arrive a week early to campus, where peer facilitators guide their learning about community engagement and leadership through participation in team-building activities, service projects, workshops led by campus and community partners, and connections with current campus leaders.
This year, students engaged in service on campus and beyond throughout the week, including projects with the university’s Food for Thought Pantry and Sustainable Campus, Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore and build site, and The Success Academy at Ghazvini Learning Center’s garden.
Leila Jackson, who moved to campus only days ago from Palm Coast, Florida, called the week “the perfect introduction to FSU.”
A political science major with a minor in philosophy, Jackson said her favorite part of the week was focusing on the intention behind and impact of service —”going beyond surface-level volunteering” to question the why behind service and one’s role in the community.
“I didn’t think I could do this much in the Tallahassee community, because either I’m not from here or I thought I was going to be so busy with school,” she said. “But the center just made it sound so accessible and fun to just get out and help people and do what you really care about.”
Michael Canizio, a finance major from Tampa, returned to campus for SLS after starting classes in the summer session. Canizio loved spending the week with a diverse group of students he might not have otherwise encountered and already sees himself spending time with some of his cohort as they transition to college life.
“While the services were top-tier and very transformative, I think just meeting all these people was the best part,” he said. “Speaking to all these people, it’s given me such confidence to just go up to anyone and know that you can meet anybody. These are all just amazing people…they’re in the same position as me, and it’s nice to see you’re not going through it alone.”
Both Jackson and Canizio pointed to their service at the Ghazvini Learning Center, an alternative public school in Tallahassee, as particularly meaningful because they were able to meet with students who would use the facilities they were working to improve.
“I just really value the importance of asking a question and actually seeking to understand,” Jackson said. “Just really decentering yourself in service and putting other people on the platform … because at the end of the day, service is not about you.”
Canizio also valued his time working on a Habitat for Humanity home build. Having never experienced housing insecurity, Canizio said he appreciated learning more about the issue through the organization. He said he associates home with his family and warmth and hopes he can share that feeling with another family through the work they did.
“Almost finishing the whole side of a house was really moving to me,” Canizio said. “It’s like, ‘Wow, you’re really putting in something here,’ and these people can move in even sooner now because of what we did today. Even if it’s a day or two, it might be a day or two that really matters to people.”
SLS participants closed out their experience with presentations detailing some of their service and leadership passions, along with a rough plan for how they will use what they learned during SLS to support those passions while at Florida State University and in the Tallahassee community.
Jackson, inspired by a session with community leader Christic Henry, offered an interactive project for her peers. Jackson said she resonated with Henry’s assertion that you must ask people what they want and believe in when doing community work.
“I think having a direction for why you want to do something is super important,” Jackson said. “A lot of time your why comes from other people’s needs.”
So, she gave her SLS peers an opportunity and a space to showcase what they believe in with a project on student voice, where her audience could answer the simple questions of “what? where? and why?” on notecards they clipped to twine.
Jackson said writing something down and putting it on display makes it much more approachable and solvable, something she wanted to share with the group of students she has grown to like and hopes to continue to bond with beyond the scope of SLS week.
“It’s honestly more than I could have imagined that it could be because I just didn’t know,” she said. “I didn’t know I could bond so well with people in seven days, and I’m just very excited for what’s next.”
For more about the Center for Leadership & Service, visit thecenter.fsu.edu/SLS.