Leadership retreat leaves impact on students

The Student Life Office took student leaders to Trinity Pines in Trinity, Texas for the student leadership retreat. The retreat, which ran from Feb. 22 – 24, provided the 19 students who attended the opportunity to form new relationships and further develop their leadership skills through team-building exercises.

The retreat was organized by Marissa Ferguson, a student associate for organizations and activities for Student Life. For Ferguson, who also served as a facilitator, the experience gave her the opportunity to give back to UHCL by using her own experience to guide the students.

“I attended a retreat as a member of the Hawk Leadership Institute during my undergraduate career,” Ferguson said. “I wanted attendees of this retreat to have the opportunity for personal leadership growth while having in-depth discussion with other students to form friendships based upon meaningful experiences.”

The retreat gave the students who attended plenty to do as they participated in various activities they engaged in throughout the weekend with the most popular one being was a scavenger hunt in which students divided into groups.

“Motivation, critical thinking, and collaboration were the key aspects of (the scavenger hunt),” Ferguson said. “Each team followed riddles to specific locations where they were required to take a group photo.”

The teams would have to take all of the photos and rush back to the lodge in order to claim victory.

“The winner was distinguished by the first group who would take all 10 selfies and be back at the lodge and our team, ‘The Untouchables,’ won,” said Waldir Cuello, a student assistant for the student life office. “I believe it was the most challenging activity because as a team we demonstrated our critical thinking skills, teamwork, physical endurance, and consistency.”

In addition to developing skills, the students developed new friendships with each other.

“My favorite part was socializing and getting to know each other’s opinions, ideas, and life stories, which led to us having new friendships being created,” Cuello said. “We now have a GroupMe chat where we will be in contact with each other and we are open to helping each other throughout our college experience.”

For the attendees, the retreat helped them grow into becoming strong and confident leaders.

“I gained many leadership traits such as being positive, motivating others, creativity, communication, and giving feedback just to mention a few,” Cuello said, specifically highlighting strong leadership skills during the scavenger hunt activity. “For the scavenger hunt as a group we needed to walk steep hills and we were exhausted near the end of the competition,” he said. “I kept motivating our team to just give it their best shot as we were near the finish line.”

For Ferguson, the success of the retreat with her facilitation was a tremendous achievement.

“I have never organized or led an event of this magnitude,” Ferguson said. “The positive feedback and conversation with attendees gave me a sense of accomplishment. I met so many incredible individuals and I am genuinely excited to watch them succeed.”