Students Engage in Leadership Conference

OBU recently sent eighteen students to the 16th annual Christian Association of Student Leaders conference Jan. 22-24. Hosted at the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor, OBU students joined peer leaders from other universities to grow ideas, learn leadership qualities and exercise methods of organizational leadership.

CASL is designed to help students that are currently involved on campus, or contain the characteristics to serve in the future, grow into capable leaders. Activities included round table discussions, workshops, worship sessions and a music concert.

For OBU sophomore Kaleb Miears, the opportunity to meet with students from other universities proved to be a valuable experience.

"The setting of CASL allowed for leaders from our campus to become vulnerable and real with leaders from other campuses in order to grow together," said Miears. "We worked through problems, thought up new ideas, and continued to build relationships in order to make us more capable leaders at OBU."

OBU student attendees included Emily Brooks, Lauren Ledbetter, Abigail Hagans, Amy Munger, Molly Munger, Katie Stiles, Jessica Dickinson, Kyle Opskar, Truett Ross, Tyre Terry, Blaine Coffee, Luke Jarboe, Will Engle, Kaleb Miears, Andrew Tucker, Aj Lopez, Connelly Rader and Ben Burke.

Holly Edwards, who recently transitioned to director of student leadership and engagement, and Tim Thomsen, coordinator of club sports, sponsored the OBU group.

Edwards previously led a group to a CASL conference in 2012, making this trip her second experience.

"We have great student leaders, and I look forward to the continued ways they will lead on the OBU campus," said Edwards. "They are learning leaders who are impacting their culture and the world. I look forward to seeing how the Lord uses them to lead after they leave OBU; hopefully putting into practice some of the things they learned during their time here," said Edwards.