Students Forge Friendships, Learn Life Lessons at First-Year Leadership Summit
More than a dozen first-year students started the spring semester with a lesson in leadership.
Eighteen freshmen and seven student leaders took part in the First-Year Leadership Summit (FLS) in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. The Office of Student Engagement and Leadership and the Career Development Center have joined forces to host the summit for the past eight years.
“These students are the future leaders of DeSales and they come together to not only figure out leadership skills but they also become friends. They work together for the future. I don’t know many schools that are doing this right now, which is pretty cool.”
Student leaders run the entire event and give talks on a variety of leadership traits and character traits taken from The Golden Counsels of St. Francis de Sales. There’s also down time for breaks, journaling, and a trip to the beach. First-year student Zachary Azar ’23 signed up to learn new values and to see what the retreat was all about.
“I learned the true values of being a leader on FLS and what it means to bond with others while working as a team,” says Azar. “It is a retreat that is perfect for freshmen because it opens you up to different experiences for your college future, along with forming relationships.”
