NSU Horizons Winter 2008 - 2009

“Our goal is to create an environment where students feel a sense of belonging, empower them to make an im- pact on campus and in our community, and facilitate their growth as leaders and individuals,” said Terry Morrow, director of the Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement. “The university provides interactive experiences that help students reflect on ethics, diversi- ty, and the value of community engagement.” For Benne Constant, a junior pre-pharmacy major, his leadership skills were tested when he sought to start a new student organization on campus. A native of Haiti who has lived in Miami since he was five years old, Constant saw the need to improve the image and leadership qualities of his fellow young minority men. “There are too many men in today’s society who don’t want to take initiative and do what is set forward for us,” said Constant. “Men need to step up to the plate on campus and in the community.” Constant’s answer to the issue was to start an NSU chapter of MALES, which stands for Men Achieving Leadership, Excellence, and Success. A fairly new national organiza- tion that has existed for just over a decade on a handful of campuses, MALES strives to improve the quality of life on campus and in the community by promoting and inspiring civility, inclusiveness, and nonviolence in personal and professional relationships. When first getting the NSU chapter off the ground, Constant needed help. Damion Martells, an area coordinator in the Office of Residential Life and Housing and a mem- ber of the MALES alumni board, provided guidance. But, Constant also enrolled in the Emerging Leaders Certificate Program offered by the Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement. “The program showed me how to get everything started,” he said. While the Emerging Leaders Certificate program helped Constant launch a new organization, it can also help students who are already campus leaders and heading established groups. Sharein El-Tour- key, a junior marine biology major, came to NSU with experience leading groups in high school and immediately became involved on campus, joining the Student Government Association and rising to president of the InterVarsity Christian Fellow- ship. She is currently working with other student leaders to create a hunger coalition at NSU to combine all the hunger-related initiatives to make them more effective. “The Emerging Leaders program helped me learn how to adapt different styles of leadership, how to lead different kinds of people,” El-Tourkey said. “Also, it helped me in dealing with conflict within the orga- nization and leading by example when re- solving conflicts.” Having completed the Emerging Leaders Certificate program, El-Tourkey is now in the Academy of Student Lead- ers at NSU, a leadership think-tank 22 horizons Vivian Martin Del Campo (left) and Renato Balducci worked with Habitat for Humanity on NSU’s“Leaders Gone Wild” spring break trip. NSU students host local nursing home residents for a night of dinner and danc- ing at the annual Senior Prom.