On February 1, 2020, Marion campus students had an opportunity to attend a Leadership Retreat in Columbus. The retreat was organized by the Marion Campus Office of Student Life.
Six of Marion campus clubs were represented by eight students, including Undergraduate Student Government, Campus Activities Board, Buckeye Food Alliance, OutLoud, Griffin Society, and Kapow! Creative Writing Club.
In total, there were 33 students representing all regional campuses.
The retreat brought together all of the regional campuses to the Ohio Union, where student leaders took assessments on their Love Language and how to be an effective leader through navigating what’s effective in each situation.
Love Languages is a test that allows the quiz taker to see how they prefer to receive love. This is scored by a ranking system of 1-12 and includes: words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch.
Once arrived, students from the same campus were advised not to sit together so everyone could meet someone new at their table. After a few ice breakers, everyone settled in to take the Love Languages test and split off into groups to talk about how this certain love language fit into their own leadership views and duties of their respective student clubs.
Marion campus student Ben Macklin, Zoology Major, said that “Love language is a concept that can help create a welcoming and positive atmosphere at a job and this retreat helped teach what love language is and how each individual can take it back to their campus and incorporate it into their workplace.”
After the session about Love Languages, students were then given $10 on a BuckID to use at vendors spanning around campus and particularly across High St. A few options included Chik-Fil-A, Raising Cane’s, BibiBop, and Apollo’s.
After roaming High Street, students came back to The Ohio Union where more information about being an intuitive leader was presented, along with conflict resolution. Students were broke into groups multiple times to test their mastery of these skills presented in the afternoon.
Brittany Kuykendall, a Natural Resource Management major, “This retreat did an amazing job at opening up the line for communication and tackled this subject wonderfully. I went in not knowing what to expect but I left with so many tools that can be applied to not only my work and school life but my social and personal life as well.”
After the training on conflict resolution, students were then able to split into groups to discuss some issues they’re having with their own student clubs to brainstorm solutions. These issues included topics such as reaching out and gaining more members and handling issues with members and advisors.
Ander Jackson, Business major, recounted that the multiple group discussions was a great way to “help fellow students come up with different ideas that they can incorporate into their clubs and organizations that they may be President or Vice President over!”
Jackson continued, as seemed to be the consensus for students that attended the leadership retreat was “a great opportunity to build leadership skills and to make connections with those attending and talking with them about there programs they are involved with!”
Curious about your own love language? Take the test and find out!