As Ajiri Uzere completed her first year as a student at the University of Miami, she reflected on how she had grown as a student, leader, and activist.
A member of the Student Government’s First-Year Leadership Council (FLC), she found herself among a small subset of students equipped with the tools necessary to take on future student leadership positions. Seeing a disconnect from fellow first-year leaders, Uzere set her sights on using her time at the University to find a solution to bring them together.
Now in her senior year, Uzere, who is finishing her term as the vice president for the Student Government and oversees the FLC, worked tirelessly from the moment she was elected to address the issue.
In her first weeks as vice president, Uzere proposed an initiative to President Julio Frenk that would connect and enhance first-year leadership experiences on campus. With the support of several student life administrators, Uzere assembled a six-page document conceptualizing the LAUNCH Summit—a program offered by the Student Government's FLC that would assess 10 different competencies to support and connect first-year leaders across student organizations through a three-day summit.
“I’ve always wanted to create something like LAUNCH; I just never had a platform or space to do it,” Uzere said.
And finally, in collaboration with the Committee on Student Organizations (COSO), FLC hosted the inaugural summit in February. While LAUNCH is not an acronym, the title was chosen because of the initiative’s goal to launch students into leadership. The conference provided first-year students with the tools they need to succeed after starting their academic and student leadership careers at the University through three key components.
Each day of the conference educated attendees on how to finance student organization events on campus, manage interpersonal and external communication as student leaders, and incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives into leadership styles that students can carry beyond college into their careers.
Patricia A. Whitely, senior vice president for student affairs, underscores the significance of supporting initiatives like the LAUNCH Summit to foster and support long-term preparation for our upcoming student leaders on campus.
“LAUNCH extends learning beyond the classroom to offer students a well-rounded educational environment by providing them with life skills for success in their future career opportunities and beyond,” she said.
“We have a lot of leadership programs that exist to support students while they’re here,” Uzere highlighted. “We wanted to take it a step further and make sure that part of the weekends included advice that applies to their time as student leaders at the University and how they can translate that to their next steps in life.”
First-year student leaders from various organizations were nominated by their peers and invited to participate in the summit. The students met on Sundays over three weekends, where they were presented with resources, attended informational seminars, and participated in team-building exercises to hone their leadership skills. Using the information they were provided, the students were then tasked with proposing a theoretical on-campus initiative. By the final day, each group delivered a thorough proposal for its idea.
Angela Fajardo, a sophomore studying political science, Spanish, and business law, is among the FLC project coordinators who worked alongside Uzere to bring LAUNCH to life. The team of coordinators also included Vama Shah, Sarah Mohammed, Josh Abel, and Roy Carrillo Zamora. Fajardo, who served as the logistics chair for the LAUNCH Summit, oversaw and organized the itinerary for the three weekends.
“We wanted to create an itinerary of speakers and information sessions that introduced these resources to students who were already showing interest in leadership on campus, so they left with the tools they need to become real changemakers on campus and accomplish their projects and initiatives,” Fajardo said.
Zoe Mutombo, a first-year student studying nursing, attended LAUNCH as a representative from the African Student Union. Mutombo worked on an initiative that would promote diversity and mental wellness in housing assignments for first-year students. Attending LAUNCH, Mutombo added, opened her eyes to more leadership opportunities on campus.
“I learned so much about all these resources that I essentially didn’t know existed for students on campus,” Mutombo noted. “Now I have all this valuable information that I feel my fellow first-year peers don’t know about. I’m looking forward to teaching them and using it to my advantage when applying for future leadership positions.”
Uzere is proud of the work Mutombo and the other students who attended the inaugural LAUNCH Summit completed. Reflecting on what she created, Uzere is humbled by the opportunity to use her role to bolster future leaders on campus.
“During my first year, my mentor’s belief in my ability to do anything transformed the way that I saw myself,” Uzere said. “Knowing that I can have that impact on someone else is a feeling I can’t describe. I’m just so grateful to have been able to do that in this space.”
