On the final day of ELP, the CWU Campus Police and CWU Campus Activities came to Camp Ghormley to talk to first-years, take them through fun activities, and give them more information about resources available to them on campus. Aaron Hadaller, officer at the university police station, came to ELP for the fourth time this year.
“I believe that knowledge is power. The more knowledge they have the more power they have to keep themselves safe. I hope students take away from our presentation that sometimes being a leader means that you have to be the person that nobody wants to be.
The designated driver of a group might be the one that has to tell their friends when it’s time to leave a party,” said Hadaller.
Throughout the four days at ELP, we had visitors from ASCWU student government, Resident Hall Advisory, Outdoor Pursuits and Rentals, Recreation, Advising, Police, Activities, and various staff members. Getting the chance to know these faces of CWU allowed the first-year students to see just how many people are invested in their college experience.
“Having all these people come visit really shows the students that they have support from so many people on campus. CWU isn’t a giant school where you become just another face in the crowd. Having of these departments visit ELP shows the first year students that these people are really invested,” said senior Kristin Kensrud.
Andre Dickerson, Director of the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement, loves to provide first-year students with the ELP experience.
“It’s transformative to be able to provide this opportunity for the first year students to have the chance to develop a sense of community, build relationships with their classmates that they could become lifelong friends with, as well as create a space where we can help them gain skill set and develop leadership abilities,” said Dickerson.
Each team leader invested a great deal of time and energy in training for ELP. They wanted to make sure they were ready to provide their team with the best experience possible.
“I’ve always been the type of person that wants to be involved. I came to ELP last year as a camper, and my leader really impacted me. I wanted to be that person for someone else, so I applied to be a leader this year. I feel like I built really great relationships, so that makes me really happy,” said sophomore leader Rafael Cordova Gamez.
A lot of ELP leaders were similar to Gamez. Their transformative time at ELP as a freshman drove them to want to return this year as a leader.
“Last year I just felt like it was so monumental in helping transition into college. I wanted to help give that same feeling to students this year,” said sophomore leader Jacob Sauers.
Exciting. Transformative. Challenging. Inclusive. Real. Engaging. Raw. Exhilarating. Worth it.... These were just a few ways students described the 2018 Experience Leadership Project.
Joanne Perez, the Assistant Director of the CLCE and coordinator of ELP loves to see the impact has on students every year:
"The Experience Leadership Program is not just about helping students transition to Central, it’s about building friendships and touching lives. If at the end of the week our ELP students can say that they met a new friend or friends, or that they can connect with faculty or staff, or that they learned something new about themselves, then we did our job and met our goals for the program. But if they say that they had an amazing experience at ELP and want to come back as a leader, then we have just touched their lives. And all the sleep deprived nights are worth it!"