The Wichita State University Emory Lindquist Honors Program is holding the first Honors Leadership Academy, a two-day leadership training program built in collaboration with the WSU Center for Community Support and Research (CCSR).

The academy will include some of the most promising WSU undergraduate students, many of whom will be entering the local workforce in a few years or are already working.

The program is built on the premise that leadership is an activity that anyone may choose to exercise at any time and is designed to challenge students to train and strengthen their leadership skills.

The program, however, is not about preparing students for an imaginary someday, said Seth Bate, CCSR community and organizational specialist. They will be challenged to consider what issues they care enough about now to do something. The instructional team models the principle that anyone can exercise leadership at any time.

The instructional team includes two CCSR staff members and two WSU students. The Honors Program will select the students who participate in the program through an application process.

The Honors Leadership Academy will be held from 9 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, March 19-20, at the CCSR office, 358 N. Main. The facilitators from CCSR are Bate; Andrew Longhofer, undergraduate fellow from the Emory Lindquist Honors Program; Teresa Strausz, CCSR community and organizational specialist; and Kaitlin Boger, intern and WSU student in the Master of Social Work program.

“We’re really jazzed about this partnership with the Honors Program,” said Bate, who adds that this will become an annual event. “We have shared these ideas about leadership all over the state, but it’s really rewarding to get them in the hands of WSU students. Who knows where the students will take the ideas from there.”