CHICAGO – On the weekend of February 14-16, all of the officers from Indiana Theta’s Executive Board made the trip to the Carlson Leadership Academy. The retreat was hosted by facilitators from SigEp Nationals and took place at the Marriott Chicago O’Hare. The retreat featured meetings and workshops with other executive officers from their respective chapters.

Carlson Leadership Academy is a regional conference hosted by Sigma Phi Epsilon. Several cities across the United States are chosen to host the retreat, and chapters attend based on regional proximity. Chicago’s Carlson Academy served as a weekend getaway for chapters from Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Kentucky, among others.

Saturday, February 15, was the main part of the experience, featuring an all-day workshop for the officers. The attendees were split up by position and sent into breakout rooms. There, they spent most of the day conversing with facilitators and other officers who shared their respective positions. This format allowed each officer to converse with other officers in their same position.

We spoke to brothers Andrew Spirrison (Vice President of Member Development) and Korbin Lawson (Vice President of Programming) about their personal learning experiences from Carlson, and here is what they had to say:

“The thing that I learned and enjoyed the most was the opportunity to learn from other chapter members and possibly apply those concepts to our own chapter for our growth and success.” – Andrew

“The biggest takeaway I had from Carlson was the ideas I learned from other Vice Presidents, specifically on chapter involvement and improving the experience of the events we host. I used the conference as a chance to improve my knowledge of how a successful Vice President operates.” – Korbin

As many of you know, last month we touched on the topic of our own Cam McCarver being in the selection process for the Tragos Quest to Greece. Unfortunately, Cam was not one of the few selected to attend the trip this summer. “I was very honored to make it as far in the process as I did. All of the men selected above me are more than qualified to attend the trip. As the only finalist from our chapter to ever advance that far in the process, I am grateful for the opportunity to represent Trine and put the Indiana Theta chapter of SigEp on the map.” – Cam McCarver (President)

All in all, the Carlson Leadership Academy was a huge success. The E-Board is eager to apply what they learned from the academy to some of their initiatives throughout the year. It’s safe to say that IN-Theta will be making another appearance in Chicago next February.