More than 200 Students will be in Topeka for the Annual Washburn Leadership Challenge Event March 6-7

     Topeka, Kan. - The Washburn University Aleshire Center for Leadership and Community Engagement (Aleshire Center) will welcome 200 high school and college students from four states March 6-7 for the 15^th annual Washburn University Leadership Challenge Event^TM (WLCE^TM). Some of these students are traveling from as far away as Virginia to join this two-day leadership competition. The WLCE is the only event of its kind in the U.S., offering students a space to practice the leadership skills they will need when navigating challenges in the real world.

     There are 40 teams participating this year – 10 college teams and 30 high school teams. Teams arrive Thursday, March 6 and will visit Washburn University, attending leadership orientation where participants will hear from a variety of Washburn and Topeka community leaders on topics related to community and civic engagement, local elections and how local government benefits citizens.

     The leadership simulation will start at 8 a.m. Friday, March 7 at the Maner Conference Center, 1717 S.W. Topeka Blvd. Students will participate in planning and strategy meetings, written tasks and individual and team leadership decisions. During this time, they will interact with volunteers role-playing as community stakeholders invested in the crisis the students are tasked with solving. Participants are observed by judges who score participants’ leadership acumen on a variety of metrics, including a group presentation defending all their decisions at the conclusion of the exercises.

     Competition concludes with an awards ceremony at 3:45 p.m. in the Emerald Room at Hotel Topeka at City Center. Award sponsors and representatives from the Aleshire Center and Washburn University will recognize champions, second and third place winners in both the high school and college divisions. The Aleshire Center will give awards for exemplary communication, collaboration and transformation of performance from the beginning of the simulation until the end of the simulation.

About the Washburn Leadership Challenge Event

     The event was founded in 2011, with 15 teams participating in the inaugural event. The WLCE has grown to include 40 teams and utilizes more than 150 volunteers from the Washburn and Topeka communities, including Washburn University faculty, staff and students.

     “The legacy of the Washburn Leadership Challenge Event is incredible. We are fortunate to have impacted over 2,000 student participants over the last 15 years and look forward to continuing to provide leadership development to our country’s future leaders for many years to come,” said Dr. Lauren Edelman, director of the Aleshire Center.

     This year marks the first WLCE to be offered under the Aleshire Center (formerly the Leadership Institute). The program’s new mission to develop leaders through high-impact community-engaged learning aligns with the Washburn Leadership Challenge Event’s goal to build leadership capacity as participating students address a variety of problems and situations where the outcome of the simulation is dependent on the leadership decisions made throughout the course of the competition.

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Editor’s Note:

(*=First Year participating)

College Participants:

- Christopher Newport University

- Creighton University*

- Fort Hays State University

- Garden City Community College

- Hampden-Sydney College

- Kansas State University

- Midland University

- University of Nebraska – Lincoln (Two teams)

- Webster University

High School Participants:

- Arkansas City High School

- Bishop Seabury Academy

- Central Heights High School

- Derby High School

- Douglass High School*

- Highland Park High School

- Holton High School*

- Hugoton High School*

- Liberty High School*

- Northeast Magnet High School

- Northern Heights High School

- Rossville High School

- Santa Fe Trail High School

- Seaman High School

- Shawnee Heights High School

- Shawnee Mission North High School*

- Shawnee Mission Northwest High School

- Silver Lake High School

- St. Marys High School (Two teams)

- Topeka High School

- Topeka West High School (Two teams)

- Washburn Rural High School

- Wellington High School (Two teams)

- Wichita Northwest High School

- Wichita South High School

- Winfield High School

- Yates Center High School