Leadership students present community projects

Students and faculty gathered in the Viking Union Multipurpose Room Tuesday for a Leadership Studies celebration recognizing the work of students in Leadership Studies 101 and 450 classes. The Leadership Studies 101 class was broken up into groups with Leadership Studies 450 students working as advisers to the students on their service-learning projects, according to student Dana Gutierrez.

Students worked with Bellingham Books to Prisoners, Brigadoon Service Dogs and the Whatcom County Parks and Recreation Department. They also taught children to cook, taught senior citizens to dance and worked on suicide prevention programs.

While Karen Stout pushed her students to get outside their comfort zone and reach out to their community, she said she was taken aback by the results.

"I am full of pride and admiration for my students," she said. "I don’t know what I expected. I didn’t expect how well they would work as a team."

Students got professional experience working with local organizations, but student Maria Avila says she also became closer with her group members as well.

"This really brought us together as a group," she said. "A lot of friendships were made through this."

Students, spent the duration of the event sharing their projects with their classmates.

Photo by Dylan Nelson / WWU Communications and Marketing intern
Photo by Dylan Nelson / WWU Communications and Marketing intern