Tau Beta Pi holds annual Young Leaders Workshop

On Feb. 19, Tau Beta Pi sponsored the 2011 Mercer University Young Leaders Workshop so that individuals could get firsthand experience and training from an expert. 

This is the first event of E-Week, a nationally recognized week devoted to engineering. Tau Beta Pi also had a dignitary invited to speak and run the workshop: Solange C. Dao, P.E., who graduated with honors from the University of Florida in 1995 in addition to being heavily involved with the community organizations and groups dedicated to service. 

Currently, Dao is the National Vice President of Tau Beta Pi, and she serves on numerous advocacy and advisory boards. Dao is a certified trainer of leadership, teamwork and communication skills. Also, she is president of her own consulting firm and has 16 years of experience doing this for site planning and utility design in Florida. She worked with individuals on giving them quick yet powerful ideas on how to be a better leader.

Mercer students of all majors were welcome to attend. They were entitled to a program that featured seminars on “Defining Leadership,” “Exploring Your Brain’s Capacity to Learn,” the “3 Keys to Motivating People,” the “Tips to Captivate Audiences and Beginner Public Speaking,” and “Exploring Influence.” They used traits and explored the benefits and drawbacks for particular traits in leadership. 

Using social media in the form of YouTube, Mercer students are getting experience that is outside the box and beneficial to their development as potential leaders in the job market. 

Junior Engineering student and Tau Beta Pi member Jared Wozny believes that since an honor society encourages academic and career success, this leadership event is a perfect example of an opportunity for students to test themselves and their problem solving abilities. 

“If people want to major in changing the world, this is the sort of event that they should be a part of,” he said. 

Many students echoed this sentiment, including freshman Josh Deremer and senior Andrew Hamilton.Seniors Matthew Ziglar and Andrew Wohlrabe worked together on the qualities of a leader assignment. They called it thought-provoking and cool, but different and not something they were fortunate enough to do as engineering students. Several students were quite nervous and challenged, but performed well as they analyzed the traits of leadership. 

Nationally, very few chapters of Tau Beta Pi are fortunate enough to host such an event, and Mercer’s chapter will be recognized nationally for it. 

When asked about why she felt it was worthwhile to be at this workshop, Dao said that while Mercer engineering students will get a terrific technical education, all the academia will not be the sole reason for success. 

“The more programs and workshops that these students attend will give them leadership training and credentials to really help them achieve excellence and success later in life,” she continued.