Pace Pleasantville held its first Fall Leadership Conference in Kessel Student Center on Sat., Nov. 14 from 9:30 to 4 p.m. One hundred students attended this event to enhance their leadership skills and hear from experts in the field, led by Jeff Domagala, Coordinator for Leadership Initiatives, and the conference planning board.

“The biggest success of the day was getting 100 Pace University students in a room on a Saturday to enhance their leadership skills and want to be there. It tells me a lot about our students,” Domagala said. “They want to better themselves and we must provide them with those opportunities for self-awareness, self-reflection, personal development, and continuous learning.”

The keynote speaker was Joshua Fredenburg, a nationally acclaimed speaker who is an expert on leadership, diversity and healthy relationships.

“The first part of Joshua’s speech was very motivating because he got the crowd fired up at 10 a.m. He had the whole room saying key words loudly and with conviction. He made us believe that we could be leaders,” Senior Jonathan Vargas said. “Right after lunch, he was talking about diversity, but his video didn’t work. Instead, he continued on with an improvised segment really tailored to the people of Pace. Trying to touch upon how leaders need to be able to adapt and be open to multitudes of people.”

Sophomore Nelson Garcia, the Program/Presenters Co-Chair of the Leadership Planning Board, organized the sessions throughout the conference.

“I contacted all potential presenters, and communicated the specific topics, separating them into three different sections – passion, diversity and change,” Garcia said.

Despite the challenges that were faced, the leadership planning board succeeded in putting on an effective and meaningful event.

“The hardest part of the process was not having a benchmark. This was the first time we put this conference on, and although it was highly successful, it was harder to get students excited for because they did not know exactly what to expect,” Domagala said.

Domagala and the leadership conference planning board plan to have the Second Annual Fall Leadership Conference around the same time next Novemeber.

“I’d like to have all of the conference attendees go through a similar experience next year—one large team builder that they haven’t seen before. I think experiential leadership teaches us more than a workshop,” Domagala said.