In March, Staley School of Leadership Studies students Kyanna Volkman, Abigail Rebollar, Savannah Langley, Gracie Coon and Ivy Bogle, along with Professor Andrew Wefald, attended the tenth annual Washburn Leadership Challenge Event. 
The Leadership Challenge Event (LCE) is an annual event hosted by the Washburn University Leadership Institute in Topeka, Kansas. It simulates the real-world process of leadership through a two-day event that consists of live, interactive leadership simulations.
Upon arrival they received leadership training focused on an adaptive leadership concept. They were also provided resources to further their knowledge in the areas of mental health and working across factions.
The second day, students participated in leadership challenge simulations. This year’s theme was mental health and community responses to mental health crises. The setting of their challenge was within a local prison of a fictional town.
Students were each assigned a role in the simulation. One student was a city councilperson, one was the warden of the local prison, one was the police chief, etc. Throughout the day of the simulation the students were given tasks, some individual and some team related. As a team and as a town, they had to make decisions, allocate resources and work together to exercise leadership.
“Our students gave an excellent final presentation using concepts they have learned at the event and in our program,” said Professor Wefald. “Five amazing students came together and learned about themselves, each other and exercising leadership!”
The Staley School team proudly brought home the team collaboration award for their work together in this challenge.
We are consistently impressed by the hard work of our students and faculty, the teams we have sent to the LCE over the past years and how they have applied their leadership knowledge from their coursework to this event. Way to go!
