From right to left: Ashleigh Staples, Jalisa Burrell, Miesha Williams, and another student attending the NCCWSL conference. The weekend conference is filled with workshops and guest-speakers who focus on cultivating leadership among female students. The overall vibe is incredibly powerful, and Ashleigh Staples felt that “just being in the same room with the 900-plus conference attendees gives a contagious sense of empowerment.” As a junior political science student at UAB, Staples has worked with the non-profit organization Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform and held various leadership roles on campus. This was her second year attending NCCWSL. She hopes to bring the skills she learned in DC back to Alabama, where she sees the role of women leaders as crucial to social progress in the state.Miesha Williams, a first-time conference attendee, says her time at NCCWSL was a remarkable opportunity. She was happy to “meet so many amazing women from around the United States,” while expanding her knowledge of how to be a good leader for her organization Women for Political Progress here at UAB. The group aims to empower women on UAB’s campus to achieve their leadership goals. You can learn more about their work on their Facebook page.
The conference is unique because it allows students to choose from over 50 dynamic workshops in a series of four different sessions that prepare them for life after college. Jalisa Burrell gravitated towards those that aligned with her interests in Women and Entrepreneurship, Fundraising and Support, and the Benefits of Mentoring. She says these workshops were a way to meet intelligent and ambitious women who I would probably work alongside one day.”
The next NCCWSL conference will be held May 28-30, 2015, at the University of Maryland, College Park campus. Learn more about the conference on the NCCWSL website and consider applying for the summer.
Brian Rice is a senior majoring in Political Science and International Studies at UAB.
