“That was the best thing that I have seen for students ever. My students had a blast and enjoyed the many challenges before them.” Murray Moore; Advisor to team from Topeka High School, Leader for Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas, and volunteer as a team coach.
The first annual Challenge Event® took place on April 7th and 8th, 2011.
Conference
The conference portion of the LCE© was more traditional and allowed students to analyze and discuss individual and team leadership dynamics in work-shop and break-out sessions. Examples of the conference topics included
The conference featured keynote speaker Dr. Lee Bolman, Professor and Marion Bloch/Missouri Chair in Leadership, UMKC.
On Thursday evening, student participants along with team advisors, volunteers, and community members gathered at the Capitol Plaza hotel for a dinner and program featuring keynote speaker Kay Barnes, former mayor of Kansas City.
Simulation
The 2011 LCE© Simulation theme challenged students to overcome the chaos of a campus shooting occurring at Central Kansas University the day before. Students interacted with volunteers
15 teams participated, ten of those being from high schools and six from colleges and universities. Three states were represented: Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.
High Schools
Leadership Challenge Event Champion sponsored by St. Francis HealthCare
College Division: Missouri Southern State University
High School Division (co-champions): Hayden High School and Independence High School
Joe & Jillain Williams Award for Team Communication
College Division: Benedictine College
High School Division: Washburn Rural/Shawnee Heights High School
Citizens Bank & Trust Award for Team Collaboration
College Division: Southwestern College
High School Division: Topeka High
Community Involvement
“I wanted to let you know that you all did an EXCELLENT job with your leadership competition. I am very glad that Cindy Barry got us (KTWU) involved as a sponsor. The students were great to meet and the competition was even better to watch! Great job!!!!!” - Eugene Williams; General Manager (KTWU), team sponsor.
The 2011 LCE© was truly a representation of the Heartland Visioning initiative strongly underway in Topeka and Shawnee County. The LCE© required the involvement and support of the entire community in order to produce this event.
Sponsors
Two organizations were the title sponsors for the 2011 LCE©, providing significant financial and human resources for the production of the event.
Six organizations were award sponsors
Twelve Organizations were team sponsors:
Volunteers
“I was a Type I judge and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. You would have never known it was a first time event by observing the simulation from my perspective.” – Karl Klein; volunteer as a judge
There were 143 volunteers made up of WU students, faculty and staff as well as the Topeka and Shawnee County communities.