J.R. Husmillo, Student Government Association President and a senior finance major, came back from a leadership conference this summer with a vision for the future and an understanding of himself.
“It’s changed me a lot, I got to know myself more,” Husmillo said.
Last June, Husmillo, and three other ETSU students attended the third National Session of LeaderShape at Allerton Mansion, outside of Champaign, Ill. Four other students from ETSU also attended sessions last summer.
Around 60 students, Husmillo said, attended the session with him from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. for six days. Speakers, like the president of the LeaderShape Institute, Paul Pryz, along with others led discussions at the conference.
Everyone at the conference was urged to set personal goals for themselves, Husmillo said. “The purpose of LeaderShape is to develop your passion,” he said. “You get to know yourself, and from your passion you develop a vision. Your goal is to put your vision into action. We focused on what organizations we’re in but we also wanted to expand our vision so that it could work for the whole community.”
His vision will “address apathy and the importance of involvement in affairs, issues and problems of the community,” Husmillo said.
Husmillo said his plan of action to address apathy is the establishment of a training facility for volunteers. This non-profit organization would serve as a source of volunteers for all organizations in the community.
“There are a lot of people out there who want to help, but a lot of them are doing their own thing, and it’s hard. But if you have all of them [volunteers] in a pool then all of the organizations can share,” Husmillo said.
At the conference, students talked about their long-term and short-term goals. First, making contacts in the local community, and then getting others interested in their ideas. They coordinate their visions in both large groups and smaller ones, called family clusters.
Before going to the conference, Husmillo said he planned to go into the private sector. LeaderShape changed his perspective.
“After LeaderShape I realized that I really want to work for the public sector — city government or public administration,” Husmillo said.
Even though he was reluctant at first to go, Husmillo said he encourages students to attend the LeaderShape conference.
“With LeaderShape you can’t expect anything – this isn’t your typical type of leadership workshop,” he said. “It’s life changing.
“If there are students out there who are looking for this, you don’t have to be an extrovert or a social person to go. Really, everyone is a leader, they just have a way of doing their own thing.”
In the future, Husmillo said he hopes to bring the LeaderShape conference to ETSU.
For more information on the National Session of LeaderShape, log on to www.leadershape.org or contact Tricia Nguyen, director of student activities at nguyen@imail.etsu.edu.

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