All participants are separated into groups with different speakers at a time but will receive the same sessions. Brett Martin, vice president of Community Impact, United Way of Kaw Valley, was the speaker who talked to students about social responsibilities to the audience.

Forty teams participate in the event this year including 13 college teams and 27 high school teams from five different states. These students arrived Feb. 29 to visit Washburn University.

The event is orientation day, before the official competition day, which creates leadership conferences for high school and college students. The organizer team of the Leadership Institute has hosted the event every year since 2011, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

The orientation day is a chance for students to add to their knowledge of leadership and get a chance to test their skills. The Leadership Institute gave awards for exemplary communication, collaboration and transformation of performance from the beginning of the simulation until the end of the simulation.

The content and topics change every year, so the students never know what’s coming, even if they are returning students. The students not only got to learn about their leadership skills and abilities, and how to work as a team, but also received extra information about the community and how to work with others.

Bella Wood, a junior integrated studies major, is the organizer of the event including orientation and competition day. Wood transitioned into this role last April, and she will continue to be in this role until next April before a new person will be in charge.

There are over 100 community volunteers, typically more than 150, who help create this event. The event itself was planned for almost a year before it actually occurred.

There were four locations during the orientation session that the host used at Washburn University’s campus in Memorial Union and Henderson Center. Participants also got tea breaks during the break time since the event happened all day.

Emma Simpson, sophomore environmental studies major, is a volunteer for the event who helps with planning and organizing it. There were more volunteers who served as judges for students and lots of different touch points throughout the day.